Four Supported Films at Full Frame Documentary Festival
We were proud to see Light of the Setting Sun have its world premiere at Full Frame Documentary Festival. There were also three supported films and three alumni filmmakers in this years’ lineup. This edition marked the festival’s return to in-person activities and took place in Durham, North Carolina from April 3 to 6.
We would like to highlight the world premiere of Julia’s Stepping Stones, directed by our beloved Julia Reichert and her partner and longtime co-director Steven Bognar during the final months of Julia’s life.
Light of the Setting Sun
dir. & prod. Vicky Du
prod. Danielle Varga
Light of the Setting Sun was a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist and had its World Premiere.
A Photographic Memory
dir. & prod. Rachel Elizabeth Seed
prods. Sigrid Dyekjær, Beth Levison, Matt Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Danielle Varga
A Photographic Memory was a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.
Look Into My Eyes
dir. & prod. Lana Wilson
prod. Kyle Martin
Look Into My Eyes was supported through Lana Wilson’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award.
Union
dir. & prods. Brett Story, Stephen Maing
prod. Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, Martin Dicicco
Still from Union
Union was supported through Brett Story’s 2023 Chicken & Egg Award.
From the AlumNest
- Growing Up Female
dirs. & prods. Julia Reichert, Jim Klein
- Julia’s Stepping Stones
dirs. Julia Reichert, Steve Bognar
prod. Steve Bognar
- Luther: Never Too Much
dir. Dawn Porter
prods. Trish D. Chetty, Ged Doherty, Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner, Leah Smith
- Power
dir. & prod. Yance Ford
prods. Netsanet Negussie, Sweta Vohra, Jess Devaney
Supported Filmmakers at CPH:DOX 2024!
The 21st edition of CPH:DOX took place from Wednesday, March 13 to Sunday, March 24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. We are proud to see that 4 supported films and 13 supported filmmakers were part of the lineup and that many of our supported filmmakers also participated in the CPH:CONFERENCE and CPH: FORUM. Some of our team was also there to participate in person to support our filmmakers. See below for more details.
- 2023 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Lisa Jackson’s Wilfred Buck | World Premiere | Dox:Award & BIPOC sections | dir. & prod. Lisa Jackson | prod. Alicia Smith, Lauren Grant
- 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Brett Story’s Union | International Premiere | F:act Award & Nine to Five sections | dirs. Brett Story, Stephen Maing | prods. Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone
- 2019 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Lana Wilson’s Look Into My Eyes | International Premiere | Special Premieres & Stranger Than Fiction sections | dir. Lana Wilson | prod. Kyle Martin
- 2022 Critical Issues Fund Grantee Intercepted | Urgent Matters & Battlefields sections | dir. Oksana Karpovych | prods. Rocío B. Fuentes, Giacomo Nudi
From the AlumNest
- And So It Begins
dir. & prod. Ramona Diaz - Bottlemen
dir. & prod. Nemanja Vojinovic
prod. Marija Stojnic - La Base | International Premiere
dir. Vadim Dumesh
prod. Quentin Laurent
- Night of Nights | World Premiere
dir. Truman
prod. Violet Feng - Marching in the Dark | World Premiere
dir. Kinshuk Surjan
prods. Evelien De Graef, Hanne Phlypo, Digna Sinke, Arya Rothe - Phantoms of the Sierra Madre | World Premiere
dir. & prod. Håvard Bustnes
prod. Christian Aune Falch, Bird Runningwater - Power | International Premiere
dir. & prod. Yance Ford
prods. Netsanet Negussie, Sweta Vohra, Jess Devaney - Silent Trees | World Premiere
dir. & prod. Agnieszka Zwiefka
prods. Heino Deckert, Sigrid Dyekjaer, Zofia Kujawska - Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story | European Premiere
dirs. Peter Ettedgui & Ian Bonhôte
prods. Lizzie Gillett, Ian Bonhôte, Robert Ford - The Black Garden | World Premiere
dir. Alexis Pazoumian
prod. Clara Vuillermoz - The Bones | World Premiere
dir. Jeremy Xido
prod. Ina Fichman - The Stimming Pool | World Premiere
dirs. The Neurocultures Collective, Benjamin Brown, Georgia Bradburn, Sam Chown-Ahern, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker, Steven Eastwood
prod. Chloe White, Steven Eastwood - Your Fat Friend
dir. & prod. Jeanie Finlay
prod. Suzanne Alizart
CPH: FORUM
At CPH:FORUM, top producers and highly acknowledged directors from all over the world take the stage to pitch 30 carefully selected projects of documentary features and series in the intersection of nonfiction, fiction, visual art, journalism, and science. Seven films from our community of filmmakers were presented.
2023 Research & Development Grant recipient Cinderella Unbound, UK/RO
dir. & prod Ilinca Calugareanu | prod. Anamaria Antoci
Freedom (WT), DK
dir. Camilla Nielsson | prod. Signe Byrge Sørensen
In Praise of Invasive Species, CA
dir. Mila Aung-Thwin | prod. Bob Moore
Powwow People, US
dir. Sky Hopinka (2018 Art of Nonfiction fellow) | prod. John Cardellino
The Dirty Dream, IN
dirs. & prods. Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh
The Listeners, UK/US/FR
dir. & prod. Lindsey Dryden | prod. Samantha Steele
Victor, US
dir. Stephani Victor | prods. Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Matt Radecki
CPH: CONFERENCE
A 4-day industry event offering a range of inspiring talks with visionary thinkers, investigating current themes in documentary filmmaking, and creating an interactive and hands-on platform for exchange with other professionals of our documentary community. The theme this year was Re:Building Narratives – Accessibility And Equity In Documentary. Our filmmakers were well represented across the different activities from Tuesday, March 19 to Friday, March 22.
SOCIETY: STORIES OF OUR LIFETIMES
Tuesday, March 19
With Lizzie Gillett and Sigrid Dyekjær, producers of supported film Merkel, as keynote speakers for the Viva Independent Feature Docs section. Clara Vuillermoz, producer of 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Polaris was a speaker in the A Conflict of Interest or an Interest in Conflict? section. Lindsey Dryden, supported through the QUEER FUTURES program, also participated in the LGBTQIA panel. Curated by 2023 Development grant recipient Derren Lawford.
FILM:MAKERS IN DIALOGUE
Wednesday, March 20
With 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Brett Story, Stephen Maing, producer of supported film Union, and Yance Ford, director of supported film Strong Island.
SCIENCE: WAYS OF KNOWING AND SEEING
Thursday, March 21
With 2023 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Lisa Jackson as a keynote speaker in the Stars: Indigenous Ways of Knowing section, and Mila Aung-Thwin, producer of 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab participant Midwives, as a speaker in the Action: Legacies of science, cinematic justice section.
2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Margreth Olin is also considered an expert at the conference.
Meet our Team at CPH:DOX
Our Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes and Program Director Kiyoko McCrae attended and took 1:1 meetings with filmmakers.
We are proud to congratulate a longtime collaborator and advisor in our labs, Carla Gutierrez, for the international premiere of her new documentary, Frida.
Post written by Communications Assistant Tess Caldwell
Nest-supported Films in The Gotham Week Project Market
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:
Life + Life
dir & prod. Contessa Gayles
prods. Richie Reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe
An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.
Life + Life is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.
Storming
dir. Katrina Sorrentino
prod. Tiffany Fisher-Love
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.
From the AlumNest
- #NunsToo
dir. Lorena Luciano, prod. Filippo Piscopo - Give it a Shot
dir. & prod. Vaishali Sinha, prod. Hemang Chheda - In Plain Sight
prod. Farihah Zaman, dir. PJ Raval - Life After
prods. Jessica Devaney, Colleen Cassingham, dir. Reid Davenport - Meanwhile
dir. & prod. Catherine Gund, prod. Erika Dilday - Prisoner X
dirs. Hilla Medalia, Amos Roberts, prod.Hilla Medalia & Gal Greenspan - Thoughts & Prayers
dir. & prod. Jessica Dimmock, Zackary Canepari - To Use a Mountain
Executive produced by 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Brett Story, Maida Lynn, dir. Casey Carter, prod. Colleen Cassingham
The Gotham Week Conference
- The Politics of Filmmaking in the US
Wednesday, September 21 at 2:30 pm ET
With Project: Hatched 2022 finalist The Janes’ directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.
Cost: $25
Meet Our Team
Our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will be taking meetings at The Gotham Week.
Check out the full list of projects participating 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! 🥳
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.
Announcing our 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipients!
Announced via Women & Hollywood today, Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to introduce the seventh cohort of our Chicken & Egg Award, which supports six advanced-career women and gender nonconforming filmmakers with unrestricted funding. The directors will receive a $50,000 grant, and for the first time ever two directors will receive a $15,000 finalist grant.
“The Chicken & Egg Award makes bold investments in the personal and professional wellbeing of visionary women and gender nonconforming documentary makers. Over the past seven years, we have given unrestricted cash grants totaling $1.9 million US dollars to 38 change-making directors,” said Program Director Lucila Moctezuma. “Because filmmakers—especially those affected by roadblocks tied to their gender, race, class, and location—deserve financial freedom while they create new projects.”
Please click on the Recipients’ names for more information on each filmmaker and give these visionary directors a warm welcome to the Nest!
2022 CHICKEN & EGG AWARD RECIPIENTS
Petra Costa is a Brazilian documentary filmmaker whose work lives on the borderlines of the personal and political. She directed The Edge of Democracy (2019), which was nominated for the Academy Award® for Documentary Feature in 2020; Undertow Eyes (2009); Elena (2012); and Olmo and the Seagull (2015). Petra is associate producer of Barbara Paz’s Babenco (2019), producer of Moara Passoni’s Ecstasy (2020), and EP of Rebeca Huntt’s BEBA (2021).
Dr. Bev Palesa Ditsie (Hon) is a radical gender nonconforming lesbian activist and award winning filmmaker, disruptor and change agent who was instrumental in bringing LGBTIQA+ rights into focus in the late 80’s and 90’s in South Africa and the world. She is also a reality TV director whose credits include Big Brother Africa, Survivor South Africa, and Project Runway South Africa. Among her film credits are Simon & I, A Family Affair, and The Commission. Lesbians Free Everyone (2020), their latest work filmed during lockdown, takes the viewer along their journey as the first African Lesbian to address the UN at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995.
Anayansi Prado is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose work has focused on issues of undocumented immigration, indigenous rights, and race identity. Her feature films have aired nationally on PBS including The Unafraid (2018), Paraiso for Sale (2010), and Maid in America (2005). Anayansi is a Rockefeller Media Fellow and a Creative Capital Artist; her work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Chicken & Egg Pictures, amongst others.
Brett Story is an award-winning filmmaker and writer based out of Toronto. She is the director of the critically acclaimed feature documentaries The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) and The Hottest August (2019), both of which have screened around the world. Brett has held fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Sundance Institute, and she was named one of Variety’s 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch 2019.
Margreth Olin is a director and producer with a large cinema audience in Norway. She has made 13 films, which have received critical acclaim, participated at numerous festivals abroad, and won several Norwegian and international awards. Margreth has managed to catalyze important dialogues with the topics her films shed light on. She has personally received 26 honorary awards for her commitment and focus on human rights. Her credits include My Body (Tribeca 2002), EFA-nominated Raw Youth (2004), The Angel (TIFF 2010), Nowhere Home (IDFA 2012), Cathedrals of Culture (Berlinale 2013), Self Portrait (DOC NYC 2020).
Tracy Heather Strain, a two-time Peabody Award-winning and Emmy-nominated filmmaker, explores stories about the ways diverse peoples have experienced life in the US. She won an NAACP Image Award for Motion Picture Directing for Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, which premiered at TIFF and made its television debut on American Masters. She is presently developing Survival Floating, a hybrid documentary investigating African-descended peoples’ relationships with swimming.
2022 CHICKEN & EGG AWARD FINALIST DEVELOPMENT GRANT RECIPIENTS
Ditsi Carolino studied filmmaking at the National Film & Television School in the UK on a Chevening Scholarship. Her past projects include Life on the Tracks, about a couple who live by the railway slums (IDFA World Premiere, BBC Storyville Broadcast); and Bunso: The Youngest, about three imprisoned boys from 11–13, which was used by child rights advocates to pass the juvenile justice law. Ditsi is a member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Sonia Kennebeck is an award-winning director and producer and has released three critically-acclaimed independent feature films: National Bird (Berlinale Special 2016), Enemies of the State (TIFF 2020), and United States vs. Reality Winner (SXSW 2021). She received the Adrienne Shelly Excellence in Filmmaking Award and Ridenhour Documentary Film Prize. She is a first-generation college graduate who was born in Malaysia, raised in Germany, and lives in the US.
Read the Women & Hollywood article about the 2022 Chicken & Egg Award.