Hope your summer’s going well. Amidst cuts to US public media funding, and so much other devastation in the world, I continue to be inspired by the independent film community - and feel glad to be part of it. 

I’m writing with a few exciting updates, starting with some big news:

I’ve been selected as a Sundance Producers Lab Fellow!

I am so honored to be part of the Sundance Documentary Producers Lab, with Emilia Mello’s forthcoming film, UNTITLED SCIENCE PROJECT, alongside four other incredible documentary producers and their brilliant projects.

Being part of this lab has been a dream of mine for many years now. I am very excited about attending the lab in Wyoming this coming week, and the fellowship year ahead as an opportunity to learn and grow as a producer, and develop new ways to support this film and all of my projects. I am also eager to build community with the other producers, and wonderful advisors, in the program.

Earlier this spring, we pitched the film at CPH:DOX, and I’m looking forward to all the continued work to come.

HUMBOLDT USA at Sheffield DocFest MeetMarket

We got to meet with so many fantastic people that we’re looking forward to collaborating with as we prepare to bring the film out into the world.

The film traces the ecological legacy of queer 19th-century naturalist Alexander von Humboldt through present-day American landscapes and everyday people reckoning with their disappearing environments.

At a time when international headlines are filled with portrayals of a deeply polarized America, and attacks on science and the environment, it feels all the more urgent to share this nuanced, reflective portrait of the country and its people with the world.

BLISS.JPG keeps traveling, from Uruguay to Bushwick

It’s been awesome to see the continued life of my short experimental nonfiction film, BLISS.JPG, co-directed with Emily Apter, and to share the film with so many people around the world.

In May, the film was part of an incredible immersive exhibition of desktop documentaries in the Czech Republic at Academia Film Olomouc. This is the second year in a row the film screened at AFO, and I’m so grateful to them for spotlighting the film.

And this past week, BLISS.JPG screened in Piriápolis, Uruguay as part an environmental film series organized by Mientras Tanto Cine and the South American Institute for Resilience and Sustainability Studies alongside a number of brilliant Latin American films. The film also screened in a program of experimental short films at Life World in Brooklyn, NY as part of a Palestine fundraiser organized by Gabi Rudin.

It was really affirming to sit in a dark room with a large audience and see the film screen in dialogue with so many great films!

If you haven’t had a chance to see BLISS.JPG, you can watch online via DAFilms.

More soon,
Elijah Stevens