Eleven feature-length documentaries covering subjectsas diverse as women prisoners in Yemen to the aftermath of the Rwandan genocidewill receive a total of $395,000 in the first round of grants awarded by theSundance Institute Documentary Fund for 2004.

The fund was set up in 2002 as a result of a gift by theOpen Society Institute to support documentaries that focus on human rights andcivil liberties issues.

Two rounds of grants are awarded each year to recipientschosen by a panel of human rights experts and film professionals.

The panel considers projects in three categories - work inprogress, development (research stage) and supplemental, which means projectsthat have already received a development grant and meet the criteria for workin progress.

The recipients are:

WORKIN PROGRESS GRANTS

Anne Aghion

In Rwanda, We Say 'The Family That Does Not Speak Dies'(US/France)

The follow-up to Gacaca, Living Together Again In Rwanda'follows the release and re-integration of a prisoner into his hillside community.

ShanthaBloemen and JoMarie Fecci

Western Sahara, Africa's Last Colony(US)

The film follows a group of loosely connected Sahrawisnomads who forge a strong sense of nationhood for their itinerant people.

Julie Mallozzi

Monkey Dance (US)

Three Cambodian-American teens in the US try to navigate thelandscape of urban adolescence and relate to their parents' nightmarishmemories of the Khmer Rouge.

Patrice O' Neill

The Fire Next Time(US)

Set in Montana's Flathead Valley, this story reflects uponthe role of media in perpetuating intolerance, the high stakes in the battleover growth and environment and the threat of politically motivated violence.

Jed Riffe

Waiting To Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine And The Law(US)

Riffe focuses on the experiences of patients, activists, lawenforcement officials and politicians involved in the struggle overlegalisation of cannabis for medical use.

Susan Stern

The Self-Made Man (US)

The Self Made Man explores the philosophical andpsychological issues behind the assisted suicide debate.

PamelaYates

Passage Through Fear(US)

Peru's war against terrorism is highlighted in thisdisturbing study.


DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

Fibi Kraus

Marry Me Out (Italy)

A Yemeni woman's bid to secure the freedom and safety ofwomen in prison who are detained without trial and banished by their families.


SUPPLEMENTAL GRANTS

Simone Bitton

The Wall (Israel/France)

A study of the construction of the Israeli government'scontroversial security fence ringing Palestinian settlements.

KhaloMatabane

Story Of A Beautiful Country(South Africa)

Chronicles the journey of a young black film-maker in searchof his "new country" of South Africa. His story is told through talkradio and explored through a road movie.

Jonathan Stack

War Without End (US)

Follows the strife in Liberia during the last months ofCharles Taylor's regime and the American role in the conflict.