Abby Sun

Director of Artist Programs, International Documentary Association, USA


Abby Sun is the Director of Artist Programs at the International Documentary Association, where she oversees artist development programs, the Getting Real biennial industry conference, and Documentary magazine and digital publication. Most recently, Abby was the Curator of the DocYard, a biweekly screening series at the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square. As a graduate researcher in the MIT Open Documentary Lab, she edited Immerse from 2020-2022. Through her work, Abby considers the power dynamics in the documentary form’s inherent smudging of reality, with a particular interest in the media infrastructures and cultural artifacts of moving image exhibition.

Abby has bylines in Film Comment, Filmmaker Magazine, Film Quarterly, Notebook Magazine, Hyperallergic, and other publications. She has served on festival juries for Hot Docs, Dokufest, Cleveland, Palm Springs, New Orleans, and CAAMfest, as well as nominating committees for the Gotham Awards and Cinema Eye. Abby has reviewed artist and project applications for Brown Girls Doc Mafia, National Endowment for the Arts, SFFILM, LEF Foundation, Sundance Catalyst, IDFA Forum, Princess Grace Foundation, and spoken on and facilitated panels at TIFF, NYFF, Locarno, and other film festivals. Her latest short film, “Cuba Scalds His Hand” (co-directed with Daniel Garber), premiered at Maryland Film Festival in 2019. Her hometown is Columbia, Missouri, US.

Company: International Documentary Association

Profile
The International Documentary Association (IDA) supports the vital work of documentary storytellers and champions a thriving and inclusive documentary culture. We are dedicated to the vision of a world where documentary creators flourish. Through our work, we connect audiences with the best of the form, provide resources, create community, and defend the rights and freedoms of documentary artists, activists and journalists around the globe. We do this work because we believe that documentaries enrich and deepen our culture, fostering a more informed and connected world. In service of our mission, IDA provides production and development grants directly to documentary filmmakers and helps them fundraise for their project through our Fiscal Sponsorship Program. Our year-round programming includes conversations with seasoned filmmakers and industry leaders, as well as educational seminars for documentarians of all experience levels to grow professionally by enhancing their knowledge of the craft and business of nonfiction filmmaking. Annually, we produce the IDA Documentary Awards, celebrating the best nonfiction projects of the year, as well as the IDA Documentary Screening Series, bringing both films and the creators to industry insiders and film enthusiasts. Our biennial conference, Getting Real, is the only peer-to-peer gathering of its kind in North America. Quarterly, we publish the Documentary magazine, serving the documentary community with engaging, pragmatic and provocative coverage of the documentary field in print and online, and linking the local and international communities of nonfiction makers. As an advocate for documentary artists, activists and journalists, IDA issues statements, calls to action and op-eds, and coordinates with other organizations, networks and individuals, depending on the issues being addressed.

website:https://www.documentary.org/