TheSundance Institute Documentary Fund has announced its second round of grantsfor 2004, with 11 feature-length documentaries from more than 400 submissionsset to receive a total of $435,000.

Thefund was established at the Sundance Institute in 2002 by a grant from the OpenSociety Institute, principally to support US and international pictures thatfocus on human rights and civil liberties issues.

'Theseprojects were selected from among the strongest field of submissions we've everreceived,' Diane Weyermann, director of Sundance Institute'sDocumentary Film Programme, said in a statement.

'Thisis an exciting time for risky, political non-fiction film. Audiences and distribution opportunities for documentary films areincreasing, and the marketplace is looking for new and interestingstories.'

TheSundance Institute Documentary Fund considers projects in threecategories- Work In Progress, Development, and Supplemental.

The 11 Sundance Documentary Fund grant recipients are:

WORK IN PROGRESS GRANTS

Al Otro Lado (ToThe Other Side) byNatalia Almada (US)

Mexicandrug traffickers make the illegal border crossing from the drug capital ofSinaloa into the US.

Improvisation by Raed Andoni (Palestine)

APalestinian family divided in its political views is united by a passion forOud and Arab classical music.

Why WeFightby Eugene Jarecki (US)

Exploresthe anatomy of the American war machine and moves beyond how the Iraq war was wagedto the deeper question of why.

RefugeeDreamsby Anne Makepeace (US)

Ayear in the lives of two extended Somali Bantu families as they leave a legacyof oppression in Africa to face new challenges in America.

SentencedHome byNicole Newnham and David Grabias (US)

Threeyoung Cambodian American offenders from Seattle are deported to a South-EastAsian homeland they barely know.

LandMines: A Love Story by Dennis O'Rourke, (Australia)

Storiesof Afghans whose lives and relationships have been defined by land mines.

Hasan'sWar byLeslie Woodhead (UK)

Oneman's quest to bring the authors of the Srebenica genocide to justice.

SentencedTo Marriage by Anat Zuria (Israel)

Traces thestory of three women who fight for their right to divorce in Israel, wherethere are no civil marriages and where all marriages and divorces take placeunder the auspices of the Jewish Rabbinical court.

DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

After by RenataGritskova (Belarus)

A follow-upto Prison Camp in which Gritskova re-examines the lives of the freed prisonersin Belarus.

Musharraf'sDestinyby Sabiha Sumar (Pakistan)

Exploresthe challenges facing Pakistan's President Musharraf and his attempts tomodernise the country in a post-9/11 world.

SUPPLEMENTALGRANTS

TheImmortalby Mercedes Moncada (Nicaragua/Spain)

Moncadainvestigates post-civil war Nicaragua and its current environment of religiousmanipulation, male chauvinism and poverty.