Nest News: July 20–26

“I kicked the hornet nest,” [Geeta] Gandbhir told IndieWire. “Yeah, but the hornet nest has definitely been growing on sort of the front porch of the white establishment for an extremely long time. … They have been working around this system, which is ultimately a white supremacist, anti-black system, forever. You have folks who have been managing to make incredible work despite the lack of access, which speaks to the resilience, bravery, and strength of the community. But we’re at a point where we can no longer tolerate this sort of white-dominant culture constantly appropriating our stories. That’s what this outcry is about.” — HBO’s Tiger Woods Series by Two White Directors Is a Flashpoint for ‘Decolonizing’ Docs from Indiewire

This Friday, July 22, Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Geeta Ghandbir and Chicken & Egg Pictures Board Member Marjan Safinia, along with other women documentary filmmakers of color, were featured in an Indiewire article by Tambay Obenson, where they addressed their questions for the filmmakers behind the new Tiger Woods documentary for HBO and their vision for a more equitable nonfiction film industry.

Supported Filmmakers Flock to BlackStar Film Festival

BlackStar Film Festival is “a celebration of the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and of global communities of color, showcasing films by Black, Brown and Indigenous people from around the world.” Announced this week, screening at the digital fest this August are Nest grantees: Landfall, directed by Cecilia Aldarondo; Coded Bias, directed by Shalini Kantayya;  Through The Night, directed by Loira Limbal;  Down a Dark Stairwell, directed by Ursula Liang; and Stateless, directed by Michèle Stephenson. 

In addition, BlackStar has a comprehensive slate of panels, special events, and other feature and short documentaries. View the whole schedule, beginning Wednesday, August 19 here.

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