The Sundance Film Festival has teamed up with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the leading organizations effecting change in global health and global poverty, to support filmmakers and develop short films on issues related to global poverty and health.  Five short films made with production grants from the Sundance Institute launched the project during the just-finished Sundance Film Festival.  A contest to decide next year’s crop of films has launched through a global open call for three-to-eight-minute submissions.  The five selected winners will debut their films at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

Keri Putnam, the Executive Director of the Sundance Institute made the following statement about the project:

“With the support of  the Gates Foundation, we are proud to launch this short film challenge and support  filmmakers around the world in telling stories that inform and engage audiences  in ways that are as innovative and imaginative as the solutions people are  putting into action every day. ”

Some of the 2014 films (which will become available throughout the year for viewing online via varied digital media platforms):

After My Garden Grows, (Director: Megan Mylan), India  / Documentary

A young girl in rural India tills a small plot of land to feed her family and  plant seeds of independence and financial freedom in her male dominated  community.

Kombit, (Directors:  Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman), Haiti  / Documentary

Haiti’s internally displaced people start a micro-garden movement to combat  post-earthquake hunger and despair.

Vezo, (Director: Tod Lending), Madagascar  / Documentary

A 9-year-old girl tells a tale about how her family and village came back from  near starvation after their fishing village adopted sustainable fishing  practices.

More information on the contest is available at tongal.com/sundance, and in the Sundance Institute’s contest press release.