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Lead with Love. That’s what the little red button reads on Michelle Satter’s lap. The Sundance Institute director wears it every day in honor of her son Michael Latt, who was killed in his home in Los Angeles on Monday, November 27, 2023. He had founded Lead with Love, an organization that worked to support “influential women and artists of color.” Among the talents and organizations he worked with were Barry Jenkins, Common, Ryan Coogler, Netflix, Sundance Film Festival, the DGA, Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY, and UCLA.
After his death, his two grieving parents passed on their loss by establishing the Michael Latt Legacy Fund. Satter and her husband David Latt, a travel writer, channeled their grief into raising money to support up-and-coming filmmakers. They have achieved a lot in the last two years. Next up: a kickoff fundraiser on Oct. 4 at the Los Angeles Underground Museum.
Their work arises from the terrible tragedy that every parent fears. “And we had it happen,” said Latt. “But we were looking to be positive. We wanted to preserve Michael’s work, and we needed a reason. For us, this is good news. He takes grief and uses it to motivate us.”
First, they contacted organizations and individuals that Michael worked for. “He was our starter,” Latt said. “It’s not a world we were particularly familiar with. Michelle knows her corner of it, which is film and television, but Michael went far into areas we didn’t know. When we set this up, we thought, ‘if we get $30 or $40,000, we’ll be lucky. And then we discovered the depth and range of Michael’s relationships, and indeed Michelle’s relationships, and the outpouring was huge. People wanted to help.”
Their other son, Franklin Latt, an agent at CAA, helped garner early support from Michelle Kydd Lee of the CAA Foundation. The Legacy Fund received donations for $25, $100, $50,000, and one artist gave them $100,000. “People loved Michael, and they wanted to be there to support us in the future,” Satter said. “In that first year we raised $350,000 from about 600 people.”
Entering its third year, the Grant Adviser Fund (DAF), in league with the Liberty Hill Foundation, has expanded beyond Michael Latt’s connections, including the Marketing Impact Grant. “We supported our third artist this year, a filmmaker who I hope will get into the [Sundance] “The last films we supported through this grant premiered at Sundance,” said Satter.
As part of Satter’s ongoing work at the Sundance Institute’s screenwriting and directing labs, she will be involved in mentoring artists over time. “We’ve had incredible support through Panavision,” Satter said. “It’s not just a single person. It’s a relationship, a community and a connection. That’s both visible and visible. So the offer is: once we’re connected, you can keep coming back.”
There is too much to help Latt and Satter cope. “A cause makes me happy,” Satter said. “One hundred artists are supported through this program.” So far, they have raised enough funding to continue giving for another five or six years.
Among the groups that the fund supports is one that represents men and women who have just got out of prison. They support artist Jarrett Harper, who made a short film “I Got My Brother” about foster youth that was shown at SXSW. Michael had met him on a prison tour with Common and they stayed in touch. “Michael was instrumental in getting him out of jail,” Latt said. “And so Jarrett was taken by surprise when he heard about Michael’s death. He has been connected to us in a good way. And we are helping him by using the donation money.”
The loss of their house in the Palisades in January 2025 was another blow. They got out right before the flames and stayed at their friend Dean Parisot’s ADU until they found a house in the Brentwood Hills. The other big losses in the past year were the deaths of Sundance founder Robert Redford and Satter’s mother. She was 102.
While Satter has Sundance to distract him, Latt writes a memoir. “Creativity is part of everyone,” Satter said. “We can all make a difference, we can all impact the world, and storytelling is a force for justice, community and healing. Right now community is more important than ever – bringing people together.”
