DOC NYC PRO FALL 2022 will take place from Thursday, November 10 through Thursday, November 17 at Cinepolis Chelsea. The activities are designed to empower filmmakers at different stages of their careers. At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we are proud to see current grantee Rebeca Huntt and AlumNest filmmakers sharing their expertise throughout the week.
Chicken & Egg Pictures will be represented in the DOC NYC 2022 line up. The festival will run in-person from Wednesday, November 9 to Thursday, November 17 and online through Sunday, November 27. Take a look at the current Nest-supported films and projects from the AlumNest below that are screening and get your tickets with this link.
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will take place from Wednesday, November 9 through Sunday, November 20. We are proud to see five Nest-supported films and seven AlumNest films in the line-up, and a retrospective dedicated to AlumNest filmmaker Laura Poitras. Multiple supported projects are also participating in the IDFA Forum from Saturday, November 12 to Wednesday, November 16. IDFA is home to the second and last Chicken & Egg Award program retreat of the year, where 2022 Award recipients will be taking meetings about their films, which are currently in development and production. Check out the Nest-supported films screening at IDFA including:
Nest-supported and Academy Award®-winning director Laura Poitras was named Guest of Honor at IDFA. She will be honored in the Retrospective and the Top 10 programs. The retrospective includes all seven films directed by Poitras from 2003 to today, and the Top 10 program includes Laura’s curation of ten films key to the human condition.
Gumbo Coalition dir. & prod. Barbara Kopple prods. Ray Nowosielski, Williams Cole, David Cassidy
IDFA Forum
The IDFA Forum gathers some of the strongest documentary projects currently being developed and produced globally, and presents them in a five-day program of public presentations and one-on-one meetings.
Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to co-host the IDFA Forum Lunch.
Check out the list of Nest-supported projects below:
Between 2011 and 2013, tubas were stolen from high schools across Southern California. The Tuba Thieves begins with one of the heists, but it is not a mystery about the thefts. Nyke, a Deaf drummer and Geovanny, a hearing marching band student, play fictionalized versions of their lives within a Los Angeles soundscape: helicopters hover, highway tunnels absorb radio signals, and working-class neighborhoods are overwhelmed by the cacophony of highways and airplane flight paths. Finally, three historical ‘silent’ concerts are re-enacted. By the end of the film, as the last tubas are stolen, portraits of Nyke and Geovanny emerge from all the noise.
To the left, Yvonne Welbon, and to the right Tereza Simikova.
Senior Creative Consultant Yvonne Welbon and International Program Consultant Tereza Simikova will coordinate the Chicken & Egg Award retreat, organize meetings with filmmakers, and attend the IDFA Forum Lunch.
The 18th edition of Camden International Film Festival will take place in person in Maine this Thursday, September 15 through Sunday, September 18, and online through Sunday, September 25 for audiences across North America. Chicken & Egg Pictures is egg-cited to participate in the market, and we are also excited to see screenings of two 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab films, All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars and Polaris, as well as two AlumNest films at the festival.
prods. Mirjam Gelhorn, David Herdies, Michael Krotkiewski
Still from All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars
The 2011 Japan tsunami triggers this staggering essay about loss that connects human and environmental trauma using astonishing juxtapositions. Humans breathe out and the oceans breathe in, so that we are constantly breathing together and becoming our planet. If we admit that our human experiences of pain and the Earth’s are just different versions of the same destruction, will recovery come, be it in ripples or waves?*
After overcoming her painful childhood in France, 36-year-old Hayat has managed to become an expert skipper in the Arctic. Her biggest passion is to navigate in between icebergs and spot whales. While she experiences this pureness, her 28-year-old sister Leila tries to integrate into society after coming out of jail in France. Their life went by independently until a year ago when Leila fell pregnant. Polaris explores the inner battle that we all have to undertake to find a balance between the light and the darkness and how the beauty of nature can help us.
Left to right: Program Manager Sabine Fayoux-Cantillo and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova
Program Manager Sabine Fayoux Cantillo and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will attend the festival. They will be taking meetings and watching lots of films!
Meet the newest member of our team: Development Manager Allison Villegas Roman.
As Development Manager at Chicken & Egg Pictures, Allison supports the organization’s ongoing fundraising efforts. Prior to joining, Allison worked across multiple academic research centers, government agencies, and nonprofits with the goal of centering and leveraging the impact of mission-driven work. She joins us from Acumen, where she focused on creating collaborative processes to analyze in-house data to gather insights and to further drive Acumen’s larger strategic initiatives. Allison holds a BA in Anthropology, Environmental Studies, and Human Rights from Hunter College and an MA in Climate and Society from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Science.
“I am honored to join an organization that not only elevates such catalytic stories that might have gone untold but fosters a space in which filmmakers are able to transcend what they thought was even possible.”
We are excited to welcome an egg-stra special new team member in our Nest.
Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to see two Nest-supported and eight AlumNest films in The Gotham Week Project Market. This year’s lineup includes 60 documentary features that will be presented in-person at Brooklyn Navy Yard, and virtually. The Gotham Week will take place from Saturday, September 17 through Friday, September 23. The Gotham Week Project Market hosts one-on-one industry meetings dedicated to elevating the work of independent artists and facilitating relationships with distributors, financiers, production companies, festival programmers, sales/talent agents, and other potential collaborators. Take a look at the Nest-supported projects below:
A family hangs in limbo, caring for their comatose son. Hope and denial blur as seasons circle in this meditation on love and letting go. Storming was a participant of the 2019 Nest Knight Fellowship.
Chicken & Egg Pictures sends massive congratulations to the eight Nest-supported films that received a nomination for the 43rd Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards. The honors will be presented live in two ceremonies, with Documentary Categories taking place on Thursday, September 29, 2022, at 7:30 pm EDT.
“Through our mission to advance gender equity in the documentary film industry, Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to support women and nonbinary filmmakers whose work expands our collective consciousness. We congratulate all Nest-supported filmmakers for their tremendous achievements, and for crafting stories that advance social change.” -Jenni Wolfson, Executive Director of Chicken & Egg Pictures.
Check out each nomination below and celebrate the filmmakers and their teams with us:
VR still from The Changing Same: An American Pilgrimage via Creative Capital
Nominated for:
Outstanding Interactive Media: Innovation
The Changing Same: An American Pilgrimage was supported through the 2017 Impact and Innovation Grant
From the AlumNest
In the Same Breath dir. Nanfu Wang prods. Jialing Zhang, Carolyn Hepburn, Sara Rodriguez, Julie Goldman, and Christopher Clements Nominated for: Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary, Best Documentary
Through Our Eyes: Apart dirs. Geeta Gandbhir, Rudy Valdez prods. Beth Miranda Botshon, Jessica Devaney, Lisa Diamond, Anya Rous Nominated for: Best Short Documentary
Meet the newest member of our team: Associate Director of Communications Nina Rodgers.
As Associate Director of Communications, Nina shapes the voice of Chicken & Egg Pictures. She leads the communications team through strategic communications planning, brand-building, and public relations. She increases the visibility of the organization to advance its mission.
Prior to joining Chicken & Egg, Nina was the Assistant Director of Communications at The New York Women’s Foundation, where she worked on impact campaigns for the film The Assistant and produced original content with a focus on gender and racial justice. She has worked on communications strategy for documentary films including Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool and Vick.
Nina believes in the power of storytelling for social impact. Her live journalism experience includes moderating events with thought leaders such as Wade Davis, Taraji P. Henson, Sybrina Fulton, Lesley MsSpadden, Benjamin Crump, and Mara Brock Akil. She has a BA in Broadcast & Digital Journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and a MA in Communication Education from Columbia University.
“I’ve been an admirer of Chicken & Egg Pictures’ work for many years, so it feels like a full circle moment being part of the team now,” Nina reflects. “We support women and nonbinary filmmakers whose stories have the power to change the world–and I believe our story as an organization can also catalyze change. I’m excited to tackle new projects that will advance gender equity in the film industry, and introduce more people to the powerhouse that is Chicken & Egg Pictures.”
We are excited to welcome an egg-stra special new team member in our Nest.
From left to right: Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh, Jessica Kingdon, Cristina Ibarra, Jialing Zhang, Brett Story, and Jenni Wolfson.
Chicken & Egg Pictures is egg-cited and proud to share some big news: our dearest Executive Director Jenni Wolfson, 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab recipients Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh (Writing With Fire), 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab recipient Jessica Kingdon (Ascension), 2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipients Cristina Ibarra and Jialing Zhang, and 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Brett Story have been invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
We also want to congratulate Bob Moore (producer of Project: Hatched 2021 grantee Dope Is Death) and Nathan Truesdell (producer of 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab recipient Ascension) for their invitations!
The Class of 2022 is 44% women, 37% percent underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 50% hail from outside of the United States.
At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we are egg-cited to see Nest-supported and two AlumNest films in POV’s, television’s longest-running showcase for independent nonfiction films, 35th season lineup. Please mark your calendars with their television premiere dates below.
Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and won a Special Jury Award for Excellence in Vérité Filmmakingat Sundance 2022.
From the AlumNest
The Mole Agent dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi prod. Marcela Santibanez Available through July
President dir. Camilla Nielsson prods. Signe Byrge Sørensen, Joslyn Barnes POV premiere: Monday, August 8, 2022
Delikado Writer and Executive Producer 2018 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Laura Nix, dir. Karl Malakunas, prods. Michael Collins, Marty Syjuco, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala POV premiere: Monday, September 26, 2022
An egg-stra special shout out to our Co-Founder & Senior Creative Consultant Judith Helfand, whose film Love & Stuff, produced by our Co-Founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello and AlumNest filmmaker Hilla Medalia, will have its POV premiere on Monday, September 5, 2022.
Nest-supported and Academy Award®-winning director 
