About Windrider Forum
The Windrider Film Forum debuted in January 2005 in Park City, UT, at the Sundance Film Festival. Windrider is an immersive educational experiment and an ongoing conversation between filmmakers and film lovers. We gather at the nexus of faith, art and culture diving into all three with a sense of expectation and wonder. We have structured the experience to participate in Sundance on Sundance’s own terms. Our “classroom” is the Sundance Film Festival; the content of our “course” are the films we see; our “professors” are the filmmakers who participate in a conversation with us.
The Windrider partners in Park City include Fuller Theological Seminary in Colorado, Biola University, Taylor University, Angelus Student Film Award Winners, Priddy Brothers, the Peter Glenville Foundation, and we are all graciously hosted by the Mountain Vineyard Church of Park City. In January 2008 about 80 people attended the Windrider Forum course at Sundance. Since then, we have become the single largest ticket purchasing block of attendees at the Sundance Film Festival.
2006 WINDRIDER FORUM @ COLORADO SPRINGS
After successfully navigating the film festival environment for a couple of years we wondered if it would be possible to transplant the Windrider experience to Anywhere, USA. So, in the summer of 2006 we brought the Windrider Forum to Colorado Springs with the theme, “Conversations at the Intersection of Faith and Film”. Known as a city that takes its religious faith very seriously, Colorado Springs is also known as a city that is divided over issues of religious faith.
The Windrider Forum brings together filmmakers and film lovers for the purpose of conversation. There are few places in our society where we can deal with faith, culture and politics (all at the same time). In 2006 six films and nine filmmakers invited us to join them in this inaugural exploration in partnership with Fuller Theological Seminary, the Summer Arts Festival and Shove Chapel at Colorado College, the Angelus Student Film Award Winners, and Priddy Brothers.
2008 WINDRIDER FORUM @ COLORADO SPRINGS
Building on the success of the past two years, the 3rd Windrider Forum @ Colorado Springs will be held July 24-26 at Colorado College.
Our three feature length films this year are all award-winning documentaries. American Teen, took home the Best Directing Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. This film is an entertaining and proving look at adolescent culture through the lives of five Indiana teens during their senior year in high school. Our post-film discussion will include a panel with five local teens who just completed their senior year in high school. They Killed Sister Dorothy, selected as the Best Documentary at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival, is a provocative look at the life of a Catholic nun from Dayton, Ohio, Dorothy Stang, who is killed under suspicious circumstances in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. Our Q&A session following that film will include the Director, Daniel Junge, a Colorado College grad, and David Stang, Dorothy's brother who lives in Palmer Lake. Finally, our Saturday evening film will be The Third Wave, which was selected for a Special Presidential Jury Screening at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. This film follows the journey of four unlikely individuals who collaborate together on the volunteer relief efforts for a small town in Sri Lanka following the devastation of the 2004 Tsunami. The Director, Producer and Editor of this inspiring film will join us afterwards for a Q&A session.
On Saturday afternoon we will screen four short films from promising young filmmakers and the winning documentary from the 2008 Breckenridge Film Festival, The Big Question. These films remind us that social change happens at the most basic level in families and our interpersonal relationships. All of the filmmakers for these films will be present to discuss their work.
So, we hope you can join us this year as we focus on the challenging theme of Filmmaking for Social Change. We welcome your voice in the conversation. We are confident you will find the films provocative and inspiring and will leave the event changed.
Our three feature length films this year are all award-winning documentaries. American Teen, took home the Best Directing Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. This film is an entertaining and proving look at adolescent culture through the lives of five Indiana teens during their senior year in high school. Our post-film discussion will include a panel with five local teens who just completed their senior year in high school. They Killed Sister Dorothy, selected as the Best Documentary at the 2008 SXSW Film Festival, is a provocative look at the life of a Catholic nun from Dayton, Ohio, Dorothy Stang, who is killed under suspicious circumstances in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil. Our Q&A session following that film will include the Director, Daniel Junge, a Colorado College grad, and David Stang, Dorothy's brother who lives in Palmer Lake. Finally, our Saturday evening film will be The Third Wave, which was selected for a Special Presidential Jury Screening at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. This film follows the journey of four unlikely individuals who collaborate together on the volunteer relief efforts for a small town in Sri Lanka following the devastation of the 2004 Tsunami. The Director, Producer and Editor of this inspiring film will join us afterwards for a Q&A session.
On Saturday afternoon we will screen four short films from promising young filmmakers and the winning documentary from the 2008 Breckenridge Film Festival, The Big Question. These films remind us that social change happens at the most basic level in families and our interpersonal relationships. All of the filmmakers for these films will be present to discuss their work.
So, we hope you can join us this year as we focus on the challenging theme of Filmmaking for Social Change. We welcome your voice in the conversation. We are confident you will find the films provocative and inspiring and will leave the event changed.
PLEASE CALL FULLER SEMINARY: 719-385-0085
Or EMAIL: fullerco@fuller.edu
In 2007, we added two new partners. Our opening evening film, The Devil Came on Horseback (a disturbing yet inspiring documentary about the genocide in Darfur) was co-sponsored with the Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival (celebrating their 20th anniversary in 2007). And, we received a generous grant this year from the Peter Glenville Foundation to help underwrite the cost of this event.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.windridercolorado.com
