Short Film News (SFN) - Ten new documentaries at the rough cut stage have been selected to participate in IFP's prestigious Independent Filmmaker Lab taking place this week.

The Labs are free mentorship program for low-budget first feature films which have shot all or a substantial amount of footage for their features but have not completed post-production. The goal of the program is to connect mentors with projects before they are submitted to festivals.

20 projects (10 documentaries and 10 narratives) are selected for a year-long fellowship which includes: one-on-one mentorship; workshops that assist filmmakers with technical, creative and strategic advice needed to complete their films; meetings with potential buyers and festival programmers; and inclusion in a Lab Showcase presentation in September during IFP's Independent Film Week.

67 documentaries and narratives have participated in the Labs since their inception in 2005. Of these, 57% have been completed and premiered at major US and international festivals where many have won awards.

The 2009 documentary projects are: Miao Wang's Beijing Taxi; Laure Sullivan, Terry Jones and Paul Wilson's Casino Nation; Julia Haslett's An Interview With Simone Weil; Luisa Dantas' Land Of Opportunity; Greg King's Our House, Jonathan S Lee's Paul Goodman Changed My Life; Marie Helene Carleton's The Road To Nasiriyah; Treva Wurmfeld's Texas Heart; Anna Farrell's Twelve Ways To Sunday; and Rebecca Richman Cohen's War Don Don.

The Labs are being hosted by Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, NY.