Announcing Nekisa Cooper as our Board President!
Chicken & Egg Pictures announced today via Realscreen that Nekisa Cooper will succeed Julie Parker Benello as President of its Board of Directors. Nekisa, who joined the Board of Directors in 2021 and has served as Vice President since January 2023, will assume the new role as of January 1, 2024.
Julie co-founded Chicken & Egg Pictures with Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand in 2005. She served as the first Board President, a role she has held since the Board of Directors was established in 2016, and will continue as a member of the Board.
Nekisa is a creative producer and content executive who has dedicated her career to elevating under-recognized voices. Her producing credits include two Chicken & Egg Pictures supported films, the feature film Pariah, which is part of the Criterion Collection and the American National Film Registry, and the Sundance Channel documentary Eventual Salvation. She was most recently Vice President of Content at MasterClass, the number one e-learning brand. Under her leadership, the industry-disrupting library was built from a concept to over 175 MasterClasses featuring diverse figures as Hillary Clinton, Mira Nair, Spike Lee, Roxane Gay, Massimo Bottura, Stephen Curry, and Shonda Rhimes.
In addition to co-founding Chicken & Egg Pictures, Julie is the founder of Secret Sauce Media. She produced Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s Academy Award® winning feature documentary American Factory and Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s Emmy® Award winning Athlete A. Most recently, she produced longtime collaborator Judith Helfand’s Love & Stuff as well as Sarah Jones’ feature debut Sell Buy Date.
Jenni Wolfson, CEO of Chicken & Egg Pictures said:
“We are thrilled to welcome Nekisa Cooper as the new President of the Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Board of Directors. And we are immensely grateful to Julie Parker Benello–a force in the documentary field and a champion of women and non-binary filmmakers–for her exemplary leadership serving as Board President. Julie’s generosity and commitment to the organization is evidenced by her continuing role as Board Director.”
She continued:
“Nekisa has a long relationship with the organization. First as a grantee, then, the first-ever recipient of the Chicken & Egg Pictures Creative Producing Award in 2012, and as a board member over the past two years. Her expertise in storytelling, producing, documentary film, management, and strategic thinking will be tremendously valuable to the organization. I am honored to be expanding our collaboration with Nekisa in this next chapter of the organization.”
Nekisa Cooper said:
“I’m honored to deepen my service to the Chicken & Egg Pictures mission, staff, board, and our filmmakers. Meeting Julie, Judith, and Wendy during my early career was critical because it was incredibly challenging for an outsider, particularly a lesbian woman of color, to create impactful work and build a sustainable career. Being a board member over the past two years has brought my journey full circle and given me the valuable opportunity to witness their transformational outcomes and radically thoughtful ways of working. I’m thrilled to build upon Julie’s leadership and to support Chicken & Egg in fostering a more gender-inclusive industry.”
Julie Parker Benello said:
“I’m delighted to pass the baton as Board President of Chicken & Egg Pictures to Nekisa, whom I have long admired as a creative producer with her business background and acumen, strategic mind, and depth of character. I am excited to see where the organization goes next under Nekisa’s board leadership, particularly as we broaden our work to serve greater numbers of filmmakers. Nekisa is the right person for the job at this juncture in Chicken & Egg’s history. I look forward to continuing to serve alongside her and my fellow board members of the organization I co-founded and love dearly.”
Chicken & Egg Pictures Executive Director Jenni Wolfson Joins BAFTA
We are proud to announce that our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson has become a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).
Jenni has joined a leading global arts charity that amplifies and celebrates excellence across the screen industries and drives positive change through the power of film, games, and television. Her membership will play an integral role in upholding BAFTA’s commitment to supporting the growth of creative talent by fostering an inclusive and accessible industry for all, as BAFTA’s activities continue to expand across North America.
Congratulations, Jenni!
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.
Congratulations to Executive Director Jenni Wolfson on her Sabbatical!
We are proud to announce that our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson will be going on a well-deserved sabbatical this summer. After eight years as Executive Director of Chicken & Egg Pictures, Jenni is our longest serving staff member, and she will be out on sabbatical from June 24 to September 24, 2021!
Jenni’s short-term absence will be a time for her to rest and re-collect after leading our organization during the many crises of 2020 and 2021, to connect with family and friends…. and to take a break from chicken and egg puns!🐤
Her absence will also offer us the chance to strengthen our leadership across the organization. In her place, leadership will be in the hands of our new Senior Management Team: Program Director Lucila Moctezuma, Director of Operations and Innovation Sarah Anderson, and Director of External Relations Cindy Choung.
Additionally, the Senior Management Team will be supported by our Co-Founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello; our Board Executive Committee, consisting of Julie, Marjan Safinia, and Susan Margolin; and the rest of our Board of Directors.
Eight Chicken & Egg Pictures grantees to screen at the 2015 DOC NYC film festival
Eight Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported films will be screening at this year’s edition of DOC NYC, of which Chicken & Egg Pictures is a proud supporter. The festival will run November 12-19 in New York City; a full festival lineup and schedule is available here.
Insiders Conference: Show Me the Money: Executive Director Jenni Wolfson moderates a panel on the Anatomy of Funding, joined by producer Patricia Benabe (The Hand That Feeds) and filmmakers Dawn Porter (Gideon’s Army), and Jen Brea (Canary In A Coal Mine). Monday, November 16 at 10:30am at Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea. Full schedule here.
The Babushkas of Chernobyl (Anne Bogart & Holly Morris)
Wednesday, 11/18 at 9:15PM (IFC Center)
Thursday, 11/19 at 3:15PM (IFC Center)
Dreamcatcher (Kim Longinotto)
Friday, 11/13 at 7PM (IFC Center)
Thursday, 11/19 at 5PM (Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea)
From This Day Forward (Sharon Shattuck)
Saturday, 11/14 at 9PM (Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea)
Gayby Baby (Maya Newell)
Wednesday, 11/18 at 7:15PM (IFC Center)
A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers (Geeta Gandbhir & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy)
Saturday, 11/14 at 4:30PM (Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea)
Monday, 11/16 at 5:15PM (Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea)
No Más Bebés (Renee Tajima-Peña)
Saturday, 11/14 at 4:30PM (IFC Center)
Speed Sisters (Amber Fares)
Saturday, 11/14 at 2PM (SVA Theatre)
Tocando la Luz (Jennifer Redfearn)
Sunday, 11/15 at 4:45PM (Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea)
Wednesday, 11/18 at 10:15AM (IFC Center)