Doc Nest 2023

On June 6, 2023, Chicken & Egg Pictures hosted Doc Nest, an invitation-only, one-day event at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice in New York. Doc Nest aimed to connect industry leaders, investors and donors with filmmakers, and to highlight a dozen Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported films from around the world in various stages from development to post-production. It brought together twelve filmmaking teams from nine countries along with 87 industry leaders, donors and investors. 

The films highlighted in this convening touched upon issues related to criminal justice, gun violence in the US, threats to democracy, the war in Ukraine, gender parity, ecological justice, racial equity, and more. The highlighted films included a range of styles and artistic approaches from archival to vérité and investigative to personal, covering a range of perspectives, backgrounds and experiences. 

This intimate gathering forged relationships and provided potential supporters an inside look into projects seeking investments. The goals of the event were two-fold: 1) To provide filmmakers with more access to industry support and to raise funds for projects; and 2) To ignite honest conversations about the challenges and barriers in navigating relationships between funders and filmmakers in creating impactful documentary films. 

This all-day event formerly known as Next Gen Egg has evolved over time and was designed to deconstruct the inherent hierarchy underlining typical pitch events. This year, filmmakers were given a platform to discuss their films through moderated discussions around three themes–artistic approach, access and impact–inviting potential supporters into their process and to foster new partnerships. We paired two film projects in each discussion, inviting open conversation between filmmakers about the challenges and opportunities they face in the filmmaking process. 

Chicken & Egg Pictures provided a total of $60,000 to the twelve projects that were presented at Doc Nest. As of October 2023, the funding committed by other donors and investors who attended Doc Nest amounts to nearly $1 million across the dozen projects highlighted at the event. 

We want to thank the Clif Family Foundation for generously sponsoring Doc Nest and the Ford Foundation Just Films for being our host.

Celebrating Executive Director Jenni Wolfson and Nest-supported Filmmakers Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Memberships

Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh, Jessica Kingdon, Cristina Ibarra, Jialing Zhang, Jenni Wolfson
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.

Congratulations to the Class of 2022!

Nest-supported and AlumNest Films in POV’s 35th Season Line-up

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.

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

dir. & prod. Ann Kaneko

prod. Jin Yoo-Kim

Still from Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust
Still from Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

POV premiere: Monday, July 18, 2022 

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust was a Project: Hatched 2021 grantee.


An Act of Worship

dir. Nausheen Dadabhoy

prods. Heba Elorbany, Kristi Jacobson, Sofian Khan

An Act of Worship Nausheen Dadabhoy Diversity Fellows Initiative 2018 Accelerator Lab 2019
Still from An Act of Worship

POV premiere: Monday, October 17, 2022 

An Act of Worship participated in the 2018 Diversity Fellows Initiative and was a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.


Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Mila Aung-Thwin, Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann

Still from Midwives
Still from Midwives

POV premiere: Monday, November 21, 2022

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and won a Special Jury Award for Excellence in Vérité Filmmaking at 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.


Check out the full line-up with this link.

The Nest at the New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival

The 33rd edition of the New York Human Rights Watch Film Festival will feature two Nest-supported films! The festival will run from Friday, May 20 to Thursday, May 26 with both in-person and online screenings.

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

Still from Midwives

A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide. 

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


The Janes

dirs.  Tia Lessin, Emma Pildes

prods. Emma Pildes, Daniel Arcana, Jessica Levin

A photograph of 5 women wearing swimsuits and shades, in a sunny day in the'70s.
Still from The Janes

The Janes is the story of an underground network of women in Chicago in the ‘60s and early ‘70s who provided safe, affordable, illegal abortions. 

The Janes is a Project: Hatched 2022 grantee. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


From the AlumNest

  • Delikado 
    Writer and Executive Producer 2018 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Laura Nix, dir. Karl Malakunas, prods. Marty Syjuco, Michael Collins, Kara Magsanoc-Alikpala

Check out the full line-up with this link

The Nest at 2022 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

We are egg-static to see eight supported films, and seven AlumNest films in the 29th Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival line-up. This edition will take place in-cinemas in Toronto and will stream across Canada from Thursday, April 28 to Sunday, May 8.  

The festival stated that 49% of the official selections were directed by women, maintaining its commitment to a roughly 50-50 gender split.

World Premiere

Silent Beauty

dir. & prod. Jasmin Lopez

Silent Beauty Jasmin Mara López
Still from Silent Beauty

A personal documentary that follows Director Jasmin López as she works to heal from child sexual abuse she endured at the hands of her grandfather, Gilberto, a Baptist minister, almost thirty years ago. In the process of sharing her own trauma with her large family, she learns that generations of children in her family were victims of the same abuse. Told from the director’s perspective, Silent Beauty is a film about confronting and accepting difficult truths while finding beauty in the process. 

Silent Beauty is a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its World Premiere in the Persister section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


Alis

dirs.& prods.  Clare Weiskopf, Nicolas van Hemelryck

prods. Radu Stancu, Alexandra Galvis

A young woman is on her knees, with her hands on top of them, her eyes are closed and behind here there are shelfs
Still from Alis

In a Colombian shelter for teenage girls, filmmakers ask a group of young women to close their eyes and imagine the life story of a fictional classmate named Alis. As reality prevails and fiction fades, the innocent game becomes a descent into hell, where their luminous faces guide the audience to the depths of the dark world they once inhabited, only to emerge with new skin. How to imagine a different life, break the cycle of violence, and embrace a brighter future? 

Alis
is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist and is part of Made In Chile: A spotlight on docs from Chile

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

(previously titled Stories From Debris)

dir. Jennifer Rainsford

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?* 

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the World Showcase section.

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


Boycott

dir & prod. Julia Bacha

prod. Suhad Babaa, Daniel J. Chalfen

Still from Boycott

When a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona and a speech therapist in Texas are told to choose between their jobs and their political beliefs, they launch legal battles that expose an attack on freedom of speech in 33 states in America.

Boycott was supported through Julia Bacha’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award, and is a Hot Docs Special Presentation.  

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


Eskape

dir. Neary Adeline Hay

prods. Jasmin Basic

Still from Eskape

The survival story of a mother and her daughter, the filmmaker, through the desperate flight from a crumbling Cambodia after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime. Faced with the silence brought by trauma and time, the longing to understand her mother today resonates in an abysmal echo, while reviving the memories as a political refugee in Europe.

Eskape is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its North American premiere in the Hidden Stories section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

Still from Midwives

A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide. 

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its Canadian premiere as a HotDocs Special Presentation

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


Mija

dir. & prod. Isabel Castro

prod. Tabs Breese, Yesenia Tlahuel

Close up to the face of Doris singing
Still from Mija

With Doris’ voice as our guide, Mija uses VHS archive, verité footage, and camcorder vlogging to tell the story of two young women’s coming-of-age journeys as they look for success and belonging. The film is an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children. 

Mija is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Artscapes section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


Once Upon a Time in Uganda

dir. Cathryne Czubek, co-dir. Hugo Perez

prods. Gigi Dement, Cathryne Czubek, Matt Porwoll, Hugo Perez, Kyaligamba Ark Martin

2017 Accelerator Lab Cathryne Czubek Hugo Perez Lights Camera Uganda
Still from Once Upon a Time in Uganda

Against all odds, former bricklayer and teacher Isaac Nabwana has turned his small home in the slums of Uganda’s capital city into the Wakaliwood action movie studio. After 10 years and 40+ films, Wakaliwood has become an overnight international media sensation, inspiring others around the world to follow in his footsteps. When New York film nerd Alan Hofmanis shows up on his doorstep one day, everything is bound to change. 

Once Upon a Time in Uganda is a 2017 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Nightvision section. 

Get your tickets + more info with this link.


From the AlumNest

 


Check out the full line-up with this link.  

*Language courtesy of Hot Docs.

The Nest at the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards

Nominations for the 82nd Annual Peabody Awards were announced on Wednesday, April 13. The Peabody Awards recognize compelling and meaningful storytelling in electronic media and aim to honor stories that matter. The winners will be announced from Monday, June 6 through Thursday, June 9 in a multi-day virtual celebration on the official Peabody Award social media platforms. See below the Nest-supported films and AlumNest films that were nominated.

Congratulations and the best of luck!

Simple As Water

dir. & prod. Megan Mylan

prod. Robin Hessman

Simple As Water still
Still from Simple As Water

Storm Lake

dirs. Beth Levison & Jerry Risius

prod. Beth Levison

Still from Storm Lake

9to5: The Story of a Movement

dirs. & prods. Julia Reichert &  Steven Bognar

Still from 9to5: The Story of a Movement

This film was supported through Julia Reichert’s Chicken & Egg Award year.


A Thousand Cuts

dir. & prod. Ramona S. Diaz

prod. Leah Marino

Production still from A Thousand Cuts, directed by Ramona Diaz

From the AlumNest

  • High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
    2016 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Yoruba Richen directed the Episode 4: Freedom. 
  • In the Same Breath
    dir.
    Nanfu Wang
    prods. Jialing Zhang, Carolyn Hepburn, Sara Rodriguez, Julie Goldman, and Christopher Clements


Check out the full nominee list with this link.

Nest-supported films at San Francisco International Film Festival!

We are egg-cited to see three Nest-supported filmmakers, and two AlumNest filmmakers participating at the 65th San Francisco Film Festival, taking place from Thursday, April 22 through Sunday May 1, with a full in-person lineup.

Mija

dir. & prod. Isabel Castro

prod. Tabs Breese, Yesenia Tlahuel

Close up to the face of Doris singing
Still from Mija

With Doris’ voice as our guide, Mija uses VHS archive, verité footage, and camcorder vlogging to tell the story of two young women’s coming-of-age journeys as they look for success and belonging. The film is an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children. 

Mija
is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the McBaine Documentary Feature Competition.


Black Mothers Love & Resist

dir. & prod. Débora Souza Silva

prod. David Felix Sutcliffe

Still from Black Mothers Love & Resist

Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, come together and build a network of community-led support, mutual aid, and healing in this trenchant documentary. 

Black Mothers Love & Resist
is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Documentaries: USA section.


Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

Still from Midwives

A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide. 

Midwives
is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Documentaries: USA section.


From the AlumNest

  • The Janes
    dirs. Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes
    prods. Emma Pildes, Daniel Arcana, Jessica Levin

  • TikTok, Boom.
    dir. & prod. Shalini Kantayya
    prods. Ross M. Dinerstein, Danni Mynard

A special shout out to our Co-Founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello, producer of Sell/Buy/Date (dir. & prod. Sarah Jones, prods. David Goldblum, Julie Parker Benello), screening in the Documentaries: USA section.


Check out the full line-up with this link.

Brett Story and Stephanie Wang-Breal selected for Original Voices Fellowship!

At Chicken & Egg Pictures we are sending massive congratulations to Chicken & Egg Award recipients Brett Story and Stephanie Wang-Breal on being selected for an NBCU Academy Original Voices Fellowship. The fellowship is directed towards documentarians who identify as–or showcase stories highlighting social issues affecting–women, LGBTQ+, communities of color and people with disabilities. 

The selected fellows will receive a $60,000 grant and a one-year artist development fellowship designed to help each filmmaker with the completion of their films; access to archival research and production resources as well as NBC News Studios executives and journalists; attend the 67th Flaherty Film Seminar, Continents of Drifting Clouds, programmed by Almudena Escobar López and Sky Hopinka; and will also participate in Collective Lens: An Impact Roadmap, a robust impact strategy workshop, led by Peace is Loud, to equip filmmakers with the tools to run their own impact campaigns, advancing transformative peace and social justice through storytelling. 

Congratulations! 🥳

This is a headshot of Brett Story, a white woman with freckles and long brown hair and bangs. She is sitting at a table against a white wall, wearing a black turtleneck and jeans.2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Brett Story  

Untitled Labor Union Documentary
dirs. Brett Story and Stephen Maing
prods. Samantha Curley and Mars Verrone, 

From the perspective of a single Amazon fulfillment center, this documentary is an intimate portrait of current and former Amazon workers taking on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies in the fight to unionize.

2019 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Stephanie Wang-Breal

Florence From Ohio
dir. Stephanie Wang-Breal
prod. Carrie Weprin & Mynette Louie

Florence from Ohio is a real-life, genre-twisting film about Florence Wang and her second-generation daughter, Stephanie Wang-Breal. Told through the lens of Florence’s St. John Knit power suits and 1980s local TV cooking show, mother and daughter collectively reimagine and grapple with their generational ideas of motherhood, feminism, racism, and assimilation. 


Check out the full list of recipients with this link.

Kirsten Johnson is the Special Guest of Visions du Réel!

We are egg-cited to see Nest-supported filmmakers participating at Visions du Réel (International Film Festival Nyon, Switzerland): 2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Kirsten Johnson, who is the Special Guest, and 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars (previously titled Stories from Debris), which is having its world premiere. The in-person festival will take place in the city of Nyon from Thursday, April 7 to Sunday, April 17, and online from Monday, April 11 through Monday, April 18.

Kirsten Johnson

Special Guest of Visions du Réel

Kirsten Jacobson 2017 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award
Kirsten Johnson

2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Kirsten Johnson will give a masterclass in partnership with Le Temps, and her work as director as well as a selection of films to which she contributed will be featured in a retrospective. Plus, the posters and visual identity of the festival were taken from Kirsten’s body of work. 

  • Masterclass
    Thursday, April 14  

  • Cameraperson (Nest-supported)
    dir. & prod. Kirsten Johnson, prod. Marilyn Ness
    Get your tickets with this link

  • Bintou in Paris
    dirs. Kirsten Johnson & Julia Pimsleur, prod. Julia Pimsleur  

  • Deadline
    dirs. Kirsten Johnson & Katy Chevigny, prods. Katy Chevigny & Dallas Brennan 

  • The Above
    dir. & prod. Kirsten Johnson, prod. Marilyn Ness  

  • Dick Johnson is Dead (Nest-supported)
    dir. Kirsten Johnson, prods. Katy Chevigny & Marilyn Ness  

  • Derrida
    *Cinematography by Kirsten Johnson
    dirs. Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering Kofman, prod. Amy Ziering Kofman

 

 

 


All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

(previously titled Stories From Debris)

dir. Jennifer Rainsford

prods. Mirjam Gelhorn, David Herdies, Michael Krotkiewski

Still from All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars

On March 11, 2011, a tsunami devastated the coasts of Japan, claiming thousands of lives. Today, the scars of this tragedy remain visible. Yet in spite of this, people, plants and animals alike continue to exist. Through striking images shot on land and in the sea, Jennifer Rainsford’s film celebrates human resilience and the endless beauty of our planet.* 

All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is having its world premiere in the International Feature Film Competition . 

Get your tickets with this link

Check out the trailer with this link.


Take a look at the full line-up with this link
*Text courtesy of Cineuropa.

Celebrating Alison O’Daniel’s Guggenheim Fellowship!

At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we congratulate 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Alison O’Daniel on her 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship. Alison is a filmmaker and visual artist, and Assistant Professor of Film at California College of the Arts. She is currently working on her first feature film The Tuba Thieves
Huge congratulations, Alison. We are so proud of you!

Alison O’Daniel