Over a Dozen Films Screening at Hot Docs Film Festival!
The 30th anniversary edition of Hot Docs will take place across Toronto from Thursday, April 27 to Sunday, May 7. We are egg-static to announce that 13 Nest-supported films are part of the lineup and there are also two AlumNest films featured. Hot Docs is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference, and market, and embodies a deep commitment to gender parity, with 53% female directors in this year’s official selection, according to Variety.
We are sending special congratulations to the 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee Razing Liberty Square on their World Premiere. See below for more details.
- 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Against the Tide | Canadian Premiere | dir. Sarvnik Kaur | prod. Koval Bhatia
- 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist – Eat Bitter | Canadian Premiere | dirs. Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy | prod. Mathieu Faure
- 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Tatiana Huezo’s – The Echo | North American Premiere | dir. & prod. Tatiana Huezo | prod. Dalia Reyes
- 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory | Canadian Premiere | dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi | prods. Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue
- 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Milisuthando | Canadian Premiere | dir. Milisuthando Bongela | prod. Marion Isaacs
- 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Grantee Mila Turajlić’s Non-Aligned: Scenes From the Labudović Reels | North American Premiere | dir. & prod. Mila Turajlić | prod. Carine Chichkowsky
- 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Polaris | Canadian Premiere | dir. Ainara Vera | prods. Clara Vuillermoz, Emile Hertling Peronard
- 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Tonje Hessen Schei’s Praying for Armageddon | North American Premiere | dir. Tonje Hessen Schei | co-dir. Michael Rowley | prods Torstein Parelius, Ingrid G. Aune Falch, Christian Aune Falch
- 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee Razing Liberty Square | World Premiere | dir. & prod. Katja Esson | prods. Ann Bennett, Corinna Sager, Ronald Baez
- 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Jialing Zhang’s Total Trust | North American Premiere | dir. & prod. Jialing Zhang | prods. Knut Jager, Michael Grotenhoff, Saskia Kress
Special Presentations in the Big Ideas Section
The 2023 Special Presentations program features high-profile subjects, award-winning films and filmmakers, and masterful perspectives on current events and pressing issues. There are 24 films set to screen in this program. Two Nest-supported films are being featured in the Big Ideas section.
Is there Anybody Out There?
dir. Ella Glendining
prod. Janine Marmot
2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Is There Anybody Out There? is having its Canadian premiere.
Get your tickets here.
It’s Only Life After All
dir. & prod. Alexandria Bombach
prods. Kathlyn Horan, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous
It’s Only Life After All was supported through Alexandria Bombach’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its Canadian premiere.
Get your tickets here.
Hot Docs Forum
The Hot Docs Forum, one of the festivals’ flagship industry events, is where filmmakers are able to pitch to international decision makers. This year, they’ve chosen 19 Forum projects representing 16 countries and 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are BIPOC.
Intercepted
dir. Oksana Karpovych
prods. Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego, Darya Bassel
Intercepted is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee.
From the AlumNest
- We Will Not Fade Away
dir. Alisa Kovalenko
prods. Valery Kalmykov, Oleksiy Kobelev
- Confessions of a Good Samaritan
dir. Penny Lane
prod. Gabriel Sedgwick
Meet our Team at Hot Docs
Representing Chicken & Egg Pictures, our Program Director Kiyoko McCrae will be in attendance at Hot Docs. While in Toronto shell be attending the Hot Docs Forum, Deal Maker meetings, and attending the Work in Progress program.
Post written by Spring Intern Tess Caldwell
Four Nest-supported films at True/False Film Fest 2023
Chicken & Egg Pictures is egg-cited to see four Nest-supported and two AlumNest films in the lineup of the 20th edition of True/False Film Fest, which takes place from Thursday, March 2 to Sunday, March 5 in Columbia, Missouri.
Hummingbirds
dirs. Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras
co-dirs. & prods. Jillian Schlesinger, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodriguez-Falco
prods. Leslie Benavides, Rivkah Beth Medow
Hummingbirds is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist.
Get your tickets here.
How to Have an American Baby
dir. and prod. Leslie Tai
prod. Jillian Schultz
How to Have an American Baby was supported through the 2017 Diversity Fellows Initiative (past program).
Get your tickets here.
Joonam
dir. Sierra Urich
prod. Keith Wilson
Joonam is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.
Get your tickets here.
Milisuthando
dir. Milisuthando Bongela
prod. Marion Isaacs
Milisuthando is a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.
Get your tickets here.
From the AlumNest
- Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
dirs. & prods. Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster
U.S. Documentary Competition
- The Feeling of Being Close to You
dir. & prod. Ash Goh Hua
Part of the Short Films program
Check out the full lineup with this link.
Eight Nest-supported World Premieres at 2023 Sundance Film Festival
We are egg-static that eight Nest-supported films will have their World premieres at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
The 2023 Sundance slate is made up of 28% first-time filmmakers. Chicken & Egg Pictures is committed to supporting filmmakers through the lifecycle of their films; we’re proud that five of the documentary films premiering at Sundance are grantees of our flagship program (Egg)celerator Lab, designed for first or second-time filmmakers.
See you in Utah!
Against the Tide
dir. & prod. Sarvnik Kaur
prods. Koval Bhatia
2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Against the Tide is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Available in person and online
Premiering on Friday, January 20
Get your tickets
It’s Only Life After All
dir. & prod. Alexandria Bombach
prods. Kathlyn Horan, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous
It’s Only Life After All was supported through Alexandria Bombach’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its world premiere in the Premiere section.
Available in person
Premiering on Thursday, January 19
Get your tickets
Is There Anybody Out There?
dir. Ella Glendining
prod. Janine Marmot
2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Is There Anybody Out There? is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Available in person and online
Premiering on Sunday, January 22
Get your tickets
Joonam
dir. Sierra Urich
prod. Keith Wilson
2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Joonam is having its world premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition.
Available in person and online
Premiering on Saturday, January 21
Get your tickets here
Milisuthando
dir. Milisuthando Bongela
prod. Marion Isaacs
2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Milisuthando is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Available in person and online
Premiering on Saturday, January 21
Get your tickets
Plan C
dir. & prod. Tracy Droz Tragos
Plan C is supported through the Critical Issues Fund and it is having its world premiere in the Premiere section.
Available in person
Premiering on Monday, January 23
Get your tickets
The Eternal Memory
dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi
prods. Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue
The Eternal Memory was supported through Maite Alberdi’s 2020 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its world premiere in the World Cinema Documentary Competition.
Available in person and online
Premiering on Saturday, January 21
Get your tickets
The Tuba Thieves
dir. Alison O’Daniel
2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee The Tuba Thieves is having its world premiere in the Next section.
Available in person and online
Premiering on Sunday, January 22
Get your tickets
From the AlumNest
- Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
dirs. & prods. Michele Stephenson, Joe Brewster
U.S. Documentary Competition - Kim’s Video
dirs. & prods. David Redmon, Ashley Sabin
prods. Deborah Smith, Dale Smith, Francesco Galavotti, Rebecca Tabasky
Next section (Opening night) - King Coal
dir. & prod. Elaine McMillion Sheldon
prods. Shane Boris, Diane Becker, Peggy Drexler
Next section - Murder in Big Horn
dirs. Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin
prods. Razelle Benally, Matthew Galkin, Ivan Macdonald, Ivy Macdonald - Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
dir. Lana Wilson
prods. Christine O’Malley, Jack Turner
Premiere section - Victim/Suspect
dir. & prod. Nancy Schwartzman
prods. Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Alice Henty, Rachel de Leon, Amanda Pike
Update:
Meet our Team at Sundance Film Festival
Our new Program Director Kiyoko McCrae will be in attendance along with Jenni Wolfson, CEO, and Rebecca Celli, Associate Director of Development.
The Whickers Announces 2019 Recipient: Congratulations Milisuthando!
The Whickers recently announced the recipient of the 2019 The Whickers/Chicken & Egg Pictures Award—congratulations to Milisuthando Bongela and the Milisuthando (working title) team!
Named for pioneering British broadcaster Alan Whicker, The Whickers is dedicated to supporting emerging voices in the field of documentary. The award, focused on supporting one (Egg)celerator participant per program year, was conceived to ensure that more women enter the nonfiction filmmaking pipeline. Previous recipients of this award include The Surrender of Waymond Hall, directed by Jane Greenberg ; The Feeling of Being Watched, directed by Assia Boundaoui; and A Cops and Robbers Story, directed by Ilinca Calugareanu.
It’s 1992 and Milisuthando is enjoying her sheltered childhood in “The Republic of the Transkei”, a dodgy ethnic homeland where, even though apartheid is raging 100 km away, she has no idea of the impending racial calamity beyond her hometown. When Transkei is suddenly dissolved at the end of apartheid, 8-year-old Milisuthando becomes a member of the first generation of black kids to attend “Whites Only” schools in South Africa. Through her probing, often naive journey with a cast of contrary characters, we revisit the old interiors of the “New South Africa”, exploring how racial prejudice and interracial bonding played out in the everyday. And why today, South Africa seems to be making a U-turn towards its ugly racial past.
Milisuthando Bongela is an award-winning writer, editor, and cultural worker with experience in the media, publishing, fashion, art, and film industries in South Africa. Over the last 12 years, her written and cultural work has explored the post-apartheid condition, concerned with the intimate manifestations of race and racism in the everyday and shared intimate spaces. She is currently directing her first feature length documentary on race, love and growing up in the new South Africa.
“When I first read about The Whickers in 2015, I remember wishing my film was good enough to qualify for what looked like amazing grant and opportunity. It was vindicating four years later, to have an opportunity to send some material through to The Whickers through Chicken & Egg. But nobody could have prepared me for the moment when Valerie (Kleeman, founder and chair), Jane (Ray, Artistic Director) and Jane (Mote, Editorial Consultant) came to meet my producer and I to tell us we had been awarded a Whickers grant. On one hand, it’s great that our film is receiving this grant so that we can continue working, but in the greater scheme, this is facilitating the urgent and important process of liberating other perspectives on the human condition, in this case, an African perspective.” — Milusthando Bongela
Thank you The Whickers for your generous support of women and gender nonconforming media makers. Read their announcement here.