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Nest-supported Films at the Milwaukee Film Festival
Nest-supported filmmakers are taking flight at the Milwaukee Film Festival, which is celebrating ten years of bringing their community together through film.
On Her Shoulders, directed by Alexandria Bombach (2018 SXSW LUNA/Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient)
Screened Tuesday, October 23 at 7:00 PM. Will screen again Friday, October 26 at 3:00 PM at the Avalon Theater. Tickets here.
This empowering documentary presents 23-year-old Nadia Murad, a Yazidi genocide survivor determined to tell the world her story. Determined advocate and reluctant celebrity, she becomes the voice of her people and their best hope to spur the world to action.
The Feeling of Being Watched, directed by Assia Boundaoui (2016 Accelerator Lab grantee)
Wednesday, October 24 at 6:00 PM at the Times Cinema. Thursday, October 25 at 8:45 PM at the Jan Serr Studio Cinema. Tuesday, October 30 at 9:00 PM at Fox Bay Cinema Grill. Tickets here.
In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where director Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. While investigating their experiences, Assia uncovers hundreds of pages of declassified FBI documents that prove her hometown was the subject of one of the largest counterterrorism investigations ever conducted in the U.S. before 9/11—code-named “Operation Vulgar Betrayal.” With unprecedented access, The Feeling of Being Watched weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance. Assia struggles to disrupt the government secrecy shrouding what happened to her neighborhood in the 90’s and probes why her community feels like they’re still being watched today. In the process, she confronts long-hidden truths about the FBI’s relationship to her community. The Feeling of Being Watched follows Assia as she pieces together this secret FBI operation, while grappling with the effects of a lifetime of surveillance on herself and her family.
Blowin Up’, directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal
Saturday, October 27 at 3:45 at the Jan Serr Studio Cinema. Tickets here.
Blowin’ Up looks at sex work, prostitution, and human trafficking through the lens of New York State’s criminal justice system. The film captures the growing pains of our nation’s first human trafficking intervention court in Queens, New York, and how we define trafficking and prostitution from many different perspectives: the criminal justice system, the social welfare system, and, most importantly, the women and girls who are at the center of it all.
United Skates , directed by Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown (2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative Grantee)
Screening Friday, October 26 at 1:00 PM at the Jan Serr Studio Cinema and Tuesday, October 30 at 4:00 PM at the Times Cinema. Tickets here.
When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture–-one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world’s greatest musical talent.
The Unafraid*, directed by Heather Courtney and Anayansi Prado (2017 Chicken & Egg Pictures mentee)
Screened Tuesday, October 23 at 12:30 PM and will screen Tuesday, October 30 at 6:45 PM at the Times Cinema. Tickets here.
High School seniors Alejandro, Silvia, and Aldo, like most of their friends, are eager to go to college and pursue their education. However, their home state of Georgia not only bans them from attending the top five public universities, but also deems them ineligible for in-state tuition at public colleges due to their immigration status as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. In response, these three ambitious and dream-filled students divert their passions towards the fight for education in the undocumented community. As President Donald Trump’s campaign rhetoric against immigrants gains momentum, and amid constant threat of losing their DACA status and being deported, The Unafraid follows these inspirational members of the generation of “undocumented, unapologetic and unafraid” young people who are determined to overcome and dismantle oppressive policies and mindsets.
*Chicken & Egg Pictures did not support The Unafraid but supported director Anayansi Prado’s film, Children in No Man’s Land.
United Skates and Changing Same at the Smithsonian African American Film Festival
The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture kicked off its inaugural African American Film Festival on Wednesday, October 24 and runs to Saturday, October 27 with screenings and events happening at the museum, the Freer|Sackler Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The first of its kind, #AAFest will be a multi-day cinematic experience which celebrates African American culture through both nonfiction and narrative film. Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to have supported two films at the inaugural festival.
The Changing Same, directed by Impact & Innovation Initiative grantees Michèle Stephenson (also a 2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient) and Joe Brewster, is screening in competition on Friday, October 26 at 12:45 PM at the Oprah Winfrey Theater in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“In the Florida Panhandle lies the provincial town of Marianna, Florida, where one native resident runs a particular marathon in hopes of lifting the veil of racial terror caused by the town’s buried history.”*
Chicken & Egg Pictures is supporting the immersive, room-scale virtual reality experience based on their short film. In Changing Same: The Untitled Racial Justice Project, the participant travels through time and space to witness the connected historical experiences of racial terror in America.
United Skates, directed by Tina Brown and Dyana Winkler (2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative) is also is screening in competition on Friday, October 26 at 4:15PM in the museum’s Oprah Winfrey Theater.
When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture—one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world’s greatest musical talent.
The Juried Competition Film Awards is Saturday, October 27 at 10:30 AM. Congratulations to Michèle and Joe and Tina and Diana! See you in DC.
*Synopsis courtesy of the Smithsonian African American Film Festival wesbite.
The Nest in the Inaugural DOC NYC 40 Under 40
The DOC NYC Film Festival recently released their inaugural 40 Under 40 List, sponsored by Topic Studios, honoring documentary talents under the age of 40. Of the 40 artists selected, over half are women. Congratulations to all on this honor!
Assia Boundaoui, director of The Feeling of Being Watched (2016 Accelerator Lab and recipient of The Whickers Chicken & Egg Pictures Award)
Lyric R. Cabral, director of (T)ERROR and The Rashomon Effect (2017 Accelerator Lab)
Nausheen Dadabhoy, director of An Act of Worship (2018 Diversity Fellows Initiative)
Jessica Devaney, co-director of Love the Sinner (2016 Impact and Innovation Initiative), and producer of the Nest-supported films Always in Season, The Feeling of Being Watched, Roll Red Roll, and Speed Sisters.
Sabaah Folayan, director of Whose Streets? (2016 Accelerator Lab). Whose Streets? premiered on PBS on July 30.
Lana Wilson, director of The Departure and After Tiller
Farihah Zaman, co-director of Remote Area Medical
And congratulations to our other Nest friends!
- Erin Casper, editor of Roll Red Roll (dir. Nancy Schwartzman)
- Mariam Dwedar, camera operator for On Her Shoulders (dir. Alexandria Bombach, 2018 SXSW LUNA/Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient)
- Danielle Vega, co-producer of Cameraperson (dir. Kirsten Johnson, 2017 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award)
Check out more DOC NYC news from the Nest.
The F Word Series Nominated for Gotham Award
The Independent Filmmaker Project announced the nominees for the 28th Annual IFP Gotham Awards. The Gotham Awards celebrate independent films and film projects and have a record of providing early recognition ahead of the upcoming national awards season.
At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we were so proud to see Nest-supported filmmaker and Impact & Innovation Initiative participant Nico Opper nominated for the “Breakthrough Series – Short Form” Award for their series The F Word.
Season one of The F Word: A Foster to Adoption Story revealed the story of one queer couple adopting from foster care in Oakland, CA. Season two (2018 Impact & Innovation Initiative) continues their story while amplifying other voices in the foster care world: birth families, foster youth, adoptees, adoptive parents of color, and social entrepreneurs working to repair a broken system.
Chicken & Egg Pictures also previously Nico’s feature documentary Visitor’s Day, which recently had its broadcast premiere on World Channel on PBS.
The Gotham Awards will be held at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, November 26. In the meantime, season one of The F Word is available to stream online. Congratulations Nico and good luck!
Chicken & Egg Pictures Co-Founder Judith Helfand’s World Premiere at DOC NYC!
In addition to the Nest-supported projects and filmmakers at DOC NYC, we are egg-static to announce our Co-Founder and Senior Creative Consultant Judith Helfand’s Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, will have its world premiere at the festival.
In addition to co-founding the Nest, Judith has directed several award-winning films including the The Uprising of ’34 (co-directed with esteemed veteran George Stoney), her groundbreaking personal film A Healthy Baby Girl, its Sundance award-winning sequel Blue Vinyl, followed by Everything’s Cool (both co-directed with Daniel B. Gold). She has taught the art of documentary film at New York University, New School, and was the Filmmaker-in-Residence at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies in 2007 and 2009. As much an educator and field-builder as she is a filmmaker, Judith co-founded Working Films and sits on the boards of Great Small Works and The Lower East Side Girls Club.
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, directed by Judith A. Helfand
Sunday, November 11 at 1:30 p.m. at SVA Theater
Wednesday, November 14 at 2:45 p.m. at IFC Center
In July 1995, Chicago was hit by a record heat wave that claimed the lives of 739 residents, primarily among the elderly, African Americans and those living in poverty. Using this tragedy as a jumping-off point, but referencing other extreme weather catastrophes like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, Cooked provocatively reframes the politics of disaster to encompass extreme inequity, arguing that economically disadvantaged communities should be preventatively treated as disasters taking place in slow motion.*
* Synopsis courtesy of DOC NYC
Congratulations, Judith, and see you at DOC NYC!
Nest-supported Films to See at DOC NYC
The DOC NYC Film Festival recently released their full 2018 line-up, schedule, and some exciting news: of the sixteen features screening in competition, women directed or co-directed eight of them. We’re egg-static to see DOC NYC follow in the footsteps of a number of film festivals which have recently pledged gender parity in programming, like Camden International Film Festival which achieved gender parity in selections across every category just last month.
DOC NYC runs from Thursday, November 8 to Thursday, November 15 at the IFC Center, SVA Theatre, and Cinépolis Chelsea, with three Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported films and one supported filmmaker on the line-up.
On Her Shoulders (2018 SXSW LUNA / Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient), directed by Alexandria Bombach. Saturday, November 10 at 10:00 AM and Sunday, November 11 at 9:55 PM at the Cinépolis Chelsea.
This empowering documentary presents 23-year-old Nadia Murad, a Yazidi genocide survivor determined to tell the world her story. Determined advocate and reluctant celebrity, she becomes the voice of her people and their best hope to spur the world to action.
On Her Shoulders was also listed as a top award contender for the documentary feature category on the DOC NYC shortlist.
Grit, directed by Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander. Sunday, November 11 at 5:15 PM at the Cinépolis Chelsea and Thursday, November 15 at 12:45 PM at IFC Center.
Grit is the story of a huge, toxic mudflow in Indonesia widely believed to be caused by shoddy drilling practices. The mud volcano has been erupting violently for the past eight years, burying 17 villages and permanently displacing 60,000 people. Grit follows ordinary Indonesians seeking justice for this disaster during a national election where one presidential candidate has promised restitution — and the other has not.
Tre Maison Dasan (2016 Accelerator Lab Grantee), directed by Denali Tiller. Sunday, November 11 at 7:45 PM and Monday, November 12 at 2:30 PM at the Cinépolis Chelsea.
Tre Maison Dasan is a story that explores parental incarceration through the eyes of three boys—Tre, Maison, and Dasan. Following their interweaving trajectories through boyhood marked by the criminal justice system, and told directly through the child’s perspective, the film unveils the challenges of growing up and what it means to become a man in America.
Take Back The Harbor, directed by Kristi Jacobson (2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient) and Roger Ross Williams. Sunday, November 11 at 10:00 AM at the SVA Theatre.
“On Governor’s Island, an ambitious program works to restore once-bountiful oysters and the environmental benefits they bring to New York Harbor. Take Back the Harbor highlights students at a remarkable public high school where environmental stewardship is part of the curriculum.”*
Take Back The Harbor was also listed as a top award contender for the documentary short category on the DOC NYC shortlist.
*Synopsis courtesy of Discovery/Motto Pictures. Chicken & Egg Pictures did not directly support Take Back The Harbor but supported director Kristi Jacobson through the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award program.
And don’t forget to see Nest-supported filmmakers at the DOC NYC PRO conference occurring in conjunction with screenings. See you at DOC NYC!
Dark Money and United Skates Make the IDA Shortlist
Dark Money and United Skates are two of the 31 shortlisted films for the International Documentary Association’s award for top feature of 2018.
We are so proud to have supported these films and wish the filmmakers behind them the best of luck.
Dark Money, directed by Kimberly Reed
A century ago, corrupt money swamped Montana’s legislature, but Montanans rose up to prohibit corporate campaign contributions. Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision —which allows unlimited, anonymous money to pour into elections nationwide—Montana is once again fighting to preserve open and honest elections. Following an investigative reporter through a political thriller, Dark Money exposes one of the greatest threats to American democracy.
Dark Money screened at the AFI Docs Film Festival last summer, had its broadcast premiere on POV on PBS, and recently received a Doc Society / Threshold Impact Funding grant.
United Skates, directed by Tina Brown and Dyana Winkler (2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative)
When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture—one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world’s greatest musical talent.
United Skates won the 2018 Tribeca Audience Award in April, was recently acquired by HBO, and will screen at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival on October 26.
The 34th annual IDA Awards will take place Saturday, December 8 at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles.
Taking Flight at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival
Nest-supported filmmakers are taking flight at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the oldest all-documentary festival in North America. Its 27th year will kick off on Friday, October 19 and run to Saturday, October 27 in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Here are the Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported films, filmmakers, and friends to see in Hot Springs.
Blowin’ Up, directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal
Monday, October 22 at 10:00AM, Cinema One.
Blowin’ Up looks at sex work, prostitution, and human trafficking through the lens of New York State’s criminal justice system. The film captures the growing pains of our nation’s first human trafficking intervention court in Queens, New York, and how we define trafficking and prostitution from many different perspectives: the criminal justice system, the social welfare system, and, most importantly, the women and girls who are at the center of it all.
The Devil We Know, directed by Stephanie Soechtig
Wednesday, October 24 at 10:00 AM, Cinema Two.
Unraveling one of the biggest environmental scandals of our time, a group of citizens in West Virginia take on a powerful corporation after they discover it has knowingly been dumping a toxic chemical—now found in the blood of 99.7% of Americans—into the drinking water supply.
Roll Red Roll, directed by Nancy Schwartzman
Saturday, October 20 at 2:30 PM, Cinema Two.
In small-town Ohio, at a pre-season football party, a horrible incident took place. What transpired would garner national attention and result in the sentencing of two key offenders. As amateur crime blogger Alex Goddard uncovers disturbing evidence on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, documenting the assault of a teenage girl by members of the beloved high school football team, questions linger around the collusion of teen and adult bystanders. Roll Red Roll explores the complex motivations of both perpetrators and bystanders in this story, to unearth the attitudes at the core of their behavior.
United Skates, directed by Dyana Winkler & Tina Brown (2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative)
Friday, October 26 at 7:00 PM, Cinema One.
When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture–-one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world’s greatest musical talent.
The Changing Same, directed by 2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster*
Monday, October 22 at 5:00 PM, Cinema One.
“On October 26, 1934, Claude Neal was brutally lynched by a group of white men who stormed the county jail in Brewton Alabama where Neal was being held after being accused of the murder of a 20 year-old white woman, Lola Cannady. Every October 26, Lamar Wilson, a native of Marianna, Florida who now teaches English at the University of Alabama Birmingham, comes home to run a very particular marathon to commemorate the lynching of Claude Neal. Lamar retraces the route Claude Neal took on that fateful night where he ended up hanged on the courthouse grounds.”**
This Is Home, directed by Chicken & Egg Board of Directors member Alexandra Shiva
Tuesday, October 23 at 1:00 PM, Cinema One.
“A stirring, empathetic documentary chronicling the travails of four Syrian refugee families as they arrive in Baltimore with just eight months’ time allowed to find jobs, learn English, and adapt to life in the U.S. when the sudden 2017 travel ban imposed by the Trump administration further complicates their situation.”***
*Chicken & Egg Pictures did not support The Changing Same directly but supported director Michèle Stephenson during her Breakthrough year, as well as Michèle and Joe’s VR project Changing Same: The Untitled Racial Justice Project, currently in production.
**Synopsis courtesy of Rada Film Group.
***Synopsis courtesy of Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival.
Congratulations to all and see you in Arkansas!
Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported Filmmakers are DOC NYC Pros
DOC NYC, the largest nonfiction film festival in the US, is just around the corner, and they released the line-up for their eight-day DOC NYC PRO conference which will take place in conjunction with film screenings and from November 8-15. Each day includes a keynote address, followed by panels with filmmakers and industry professionals on a selection of themes . Here’s a line-up of Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported filmmakers and Nest-friends to hear from at DOC NYC PRO.
Thursday, November 8
Morning Manifesto: Dawn Porter (2017 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award Recipient) gives the opening speech of the DOC NYC PRO conference, discussing her “thoughts on the current state of documentary filmmaking.”
Who Owns The Story: Nanfu Wang (2018 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient) speaks on a panel exploring “the issues of complicated filmmaker/subject relationships and storytelling ownership”.
Dig Deep: Doc Storytelling: Nancy Schwartzman (Roll Red Roll) speaks on “providing specific, in-depth and enlightening studies for emerging documentary filmmakers”.
Friday, November 9
Getting Personal: Alexandria Bombach, 2018 SXSW LUNA / Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient and director of DOC NYC Short Listed film On Her Shoulders, discusses films “that rely on a strong bond between director and subject with filmmakers”.
Case Study: Bobby Kennedy For President: Nest-supported Dawn Porter speaks on her acclaimed Netflix doc series.
Saturday, November 10
Morning Manifesto: Our Nest-friend and President and CEO of Fork Films Abigail Disney speaks on “what stories are the most important to tell”.
Storytelling in a Post-Truth World: Rabab Haj Yahya, editor of 2018 Accelerator Lab grantee The Feeling of Being Watched shares her thoughts about ensuring a story is truthful.
Grab Your Audience’s Attention: Editor of 2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative grantee United Skates, Katharine Garrison speaks on a panel about ” bringing an audience into your film’s world”.
Sunday, November 11
Tight Spots, Dynamic Shots: Erik Shirai, cinematographer of Nest-supported Blowin’ Up speaks on a panel about cinematography in docs.
Monday, November 12
Case Study With Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster: Directors of the Impact & Innovation Initiative project Changing Same: The Untitled Racial Justice Project Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson (also a 2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient) discuss crafting exemplary short films.
Tuesday, November 13
Access is Everything: Kimberly Reed (Dark Money) and others discuss building trust with documentary subjects.
Wednesday, November 14
Dissecting Development With Impact Partners: Our friends at Impact Partners present a panel about establishing development funding for documentaries.
Way More Than B-Roll: 2017 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient Penny Lane discusses how archival footage creates a deeper meaning in documentaries.
Thursday, November 15
Morning Manifesto: Yoruba Richen (2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient) and director of The New Black shares her thoughts on getting films made.
Synopses of panels courtesy of the DOC NYC website.
See you at the DOC NYC PRO conference!
Nest-supported Projects Receive Doc Society/Threshold Grants
Doc Society recently announced their 2018 Threshold Grantees, in partnership with the Threshold Foundation’s High Impact Documentary Films (HIDF) Funding Circle. We’re proud to say that two Doc Society / Threshold grantees were supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures as part of our 2018 programs year. Dark Money, directed by Kimberly Reed and Roll Red Roll, directed by Nancy Shwartzman will receive grants to ensure that their films have a comprehensive outreach campaign to catalyze social change.
Dark Money, directed by Kimberly Reed
A century ago, corrupt money swamped Montana’s legislature, but Montanans rose up to prohibit corporate campaign contributions. Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision —which allows unlimited, anonymous money to pour into elections nationwide—Montana is once again fighting to preserve open and honest elections. Following an investigative reporter through a political thriller, Dark Money exposes one of the greatest threats to American democracy.
Roll Red Roll, directed by Nancy Shwartzman
In small-town Ohio, at a pre-season football party, a horrible incident took place. What transpired would garner national attention and result in the sentencing of two key offenders. As amateur crime blogger Alex Goddard uncovers disturbing evidence on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter, documenting the assault of a teenage girl by members of the beloved high school football team, questions linger around the collusion of teen and adult bystanders. Roll Red Roll explores the complex motivations of both perpetrators and bystanders in this story, to unearth the attitudes at the core of their behavior.
Read more about the new Doc Society / Threshold grantees in the Doc Society newsletter.