'' Dinosaur 13 '' is a 2014 American documentary film directed and produced by Todd Douglas Miller . The film premiered in competition category of '' U.S. Documentary Competition program '' at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 16 , 2014 . After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival , CNN Films and Lionsgate acquired distribution rights of the film , leading to broadcast on CNN , theatrical release , and DVD packaging . In 2015 '' Dinosaur 13 '' won the Emmy for Outstanding Science and Technology Programming at the 36th Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards . The film depicts events that began in 1990 , when American paleontologist Sue Hendrickson working with Pete Larson and his Black Hills Institute of Geological Research team discovered the largest and most complete '' Tyrannosaurus rex '' skeleton ever found ( nicknamed " Sue " ) while digging in the badlands near Faith , South Dakota . The skeleton was seized from the institute by the federal government , followed by a 10-year-long battle with the FBI , the National Park Service , the Bureau of Indian Affairs , and Maurice Williams , the landowner on whose property the bones were discovered . Pete Larson also spent 18 months in prison , on unrelated charges of international money laundering and trading fossils on the black market
2014 Sundance Film Festival
2014 Sundance Film Festival
Dinosaur 13