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.

Julia Reichert was an Oscar® and Emmy®-winning independent documentary filmmaker, activist, professor, mentor, and champion of emerging filmmakers and the working class based in Ohio. Her evolutionary work focused on class, gender, health, and race in the lives of Americans.

In 2016, Julia was the recipient of our inaugural Chicken & Egg Award and embodied what a recipient of the honor should be: collaborative, generous, and committed to the communities she was part of. Prior to that, Julia was also an early recipient of a Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Celebration Grant that honored trailblazing, risk-taking, veteran women filmmakers. She was awarded the Career Achievement Award at the 2018 International Documentary Awards for her incredible contributions to documentary filmmaking. In 2019, a retrospective of her work, Julia Reichert: 50 Years in Film, organized by the Wexner Center for the Arts, premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and traveled to a dozen cities across the United States.

Julia became a filmmaker compelled to build a movement of intersectional feminism, where all women from all races and classes would feel welcomed. Her first film, Growing Up Female, was the first feature documentary of the modern Women’s Movement and was selected in 2011 for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Long before digital screenings, she traveled with a 16 mm projector across the US, using the film as an organizing tool. Julia was also closely involved in the local activism of the places she visited with her films. In 1971, frustrated with the lack of distribution options for films by and about women, she co-founded New Day Films, the democratically run documentary film distribution cooperative. Fifty-one years later, New Day Films is going strong and now has over 140 active members. 

“It really could be from anywhere, that people put on a uniform, punch a clock, trying to make their families have a better life,” she said. “Working people have it harder and harder these days, and we believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.” 

–Julia Reichert during her Academy Award® acceptance speech for Best Documentary Feature

Her films Union Maids and Seeing Red were nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature, as was The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant. Her film A Lion in the House (an ITVS co-production), about kids fighting cancer, premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and won a Primetime Emmy® for Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking. Julia’s film American Factory 美国工厂, a film she worked on during her Chicken & Egg Award year, won the US Documentary Directing Award at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, the Best Documentary Spirit Award, the Best Documentary Gotham Award, the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction awards at the Cinema Eye Honors, and the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature. It was the first film released by Higher Ground Productions, the production company created by Michelle & Barack Obama. 

Julia’s film 9to5: The Story of a Movement, which she also worked on during her Chicken & Egg Award year, was an official selection of SXSW, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, AFI DOCS Film Festival, and DOC NYC. The film tells the story of secretaries rising up and organizing to fight for their rights and was nominated for a Peabody Award.  

She is the author of Doing It Yourself, the first book on self-distribution in independent film, and was an Advisory Board member of IFP. Julia co-wrote and directed the feature film Emma and Elvis. Over the decades, she mentored hundreds of emerging filmmakers. Julia taught for 28 years at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

She lived a life dedicated to highlighting the experiences of the working class and celebrating and pushing forward the careers of new, talented filmmakers. As we grieve her loss, we are comforted by knowing that her legacy lives on through her body of documentary films and the powerful impact she had on the documentary community. We will continue to honor her by supporting emerging filmmakers that, like her, are building a world shaped by the power of documentary films.  

Rest in power, Julia.

Projects from eight Nest-supported filmmakers will be participating at the MeetMarket, Sheffield DocFest’s pitching forum. The market will take place in-person for the first time since 2019 from Monday, June 27 through Tuesday, June 28 and will move online in the days following the festival.

Alis

dirs. & prods. Clare Weiskopf, Nicolas van Hemelryck

prods. Alexandra Galvis, Radu Stancu

Alis is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist, and the winner of the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. 

Get your tickets with this link.

BEBA

dir. & prod. Rebeca Huntt

prod. Sofia Geld

BEBA is a Project: Hatched 2022 grantee. 

Get your tickets with this link.

Electric Malady

dir. Marie Lidén

prod. Aimara Reques, Lorna Jane Ferguson

Electric Malady is a 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Get your tickets with this link.

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

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

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and Special Jury Award winner at Sundance 2022. 

Get your tickets with this link.

From the AlumNest

• The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo
  dir. Ilinca Calugareanu, prod. Mara Adina
  World Premiere in the International Short Competition 
  
  
• The Great Abandonment
  dirs. & prods. Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya

MeetMarket

Eat Bitter

dirs. Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy

prod. Mathieu Faure

Eat Bitter is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist.

Hummingbirds

dirs. Silvia Castaños, Estefanía Contreras

prods. Jillian Schlesinger, Leslie Benavides, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin

Hummingbirds is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist.

Life + Life

dir. & prod. Contessa Gayles

Life + Life is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Matryoshka

dir. & prod. Maricarmen Merino

prods. Paulina Villegas, Karla Bukantz

Matryoshka is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee. 

The Wife Of

dir. & prod. Volia Chajkouskaya

prods.  Ivo Felt, Christian Popp, Marius Markevicius

The Wife Of is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

AlumNest projects at the MeetMarket

• #NunsToo Documentary
  dir. Lorena Luciano, prod. Filippo Piscopo
  
  
• DALTON’S DREAM
  dirs. Kim Longinotto, Franky Murray Brown, prod. Lorine Plagnol
  
  
• The Gender Project (working title)
  dir. & prod. Kimberly Reed, prods. Louise Rosen, Robin Honan

Meet Our Team at Sheffield DocFest

Our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will be representing Chicken & Egg Pictures at the MeetMarket.

Check out the full line-up with this link and the complete list of MeetMarket projects with this link.

Kirsten Johnson

Special Guest of Visions du Réel

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

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.

Daughter of a Lost Bird

dir. & prod. Brooke Pepion Swaney

prods. Kendra Mylnechuk Potter, Jeri Rafter

A Native adoptee reconnects with her birth family and her Lummi heritage—confronting her identity. Her singular story represents many affected by the Indian Child Welfare Act and Indian Adoption Project in the US. 

Get your tickets to watch in-person or online with this link.

Boycott

dir & prod. Julia Bacha

prod. Suhad Babaa, Daniel J. Chalfen

Boycotts have long been a tool used by Americans rallying for social and political change, from civil rights leaders to anti-apartheid activists. But in recent years, 33 US states have introduced anti-boycott legislation or executive orders designed to penalize individuals and companies who choose to boycott Israel due to its human rights record. Boycott looks at the cases of a news publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech therapist in Texas whose careers are threatened by the harsh measures of these new laws. A legal thriller with “accidental plaintiffs” at the center, the film is a bracing look at the far-reaching implications of anti-boycott legislation and an inspiring tale of everyday Americans standing up to protect our rights in an age of shifting politics and threats to freedom of speech.

Boycott was supported through Julia Bacha’s Chicken & Egg Award.

Get your tickets to watch in-person or online with this link.

From the AlumNest

A Decent Home
dir. & prod. Sara Terry
prods. Alysa Nahmias, Sara Archambault, Gretchen Landau  

A Decent Home addresses urgent issues of class and economic (im)mobility through the lives of mobile home park residents who can’t afford housing anywhere else.

Get your tickets to watch in-person or online with this link. 

Meet Our Team at Big Sky Film Festival

Filmmaker Engagement Manager Jaad Asante will be attending the festival from Wednesday, February 23 to Saturday, February 26. If you are there, catch up with her! 

Take a look at the full line-up with this link.

Last week, Director Tabitha Jackson and Director of Programming Kim Yutani, announced this edition’s details. Yutani and Jackson shared important statistics about women filmmakers in their program selection: 

“Of the submissions to Sundance this year, only 28 percent were from women. Yet among all the features selected, 52 percent were directed by women. When asked whether the programmers decided to boost women auteurs over men, they steered around the question, saying they are always looking to promote female filmmakers. Jackson added: “The slightly depressing fact is that the figure of 28 percent submissions from women has remained pretty static across the years. It is a figure that we would wish to see higher because of what it indicates about the state of the industry. It’s surprising that so few are submitting.”

Sundance Film Festival Unveils 2022 Lineup That Reflects ‘Age of Reckoning’, Nicole Sperling

Learn more about Mija, Midwives, and AlumNest films below:

Mija

dir. Isabel Castro

prod. Tabs Breese, Isabel Castro, Yesenia Tlahuel

Selected as part of the Next category
Premiering on Friday, January 21 
Get your tickets

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. 

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

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

Selected as part of the World Cinema Documentary Competition 
Premiering on Monday, January 24 
Get your tickets

Hla and Nyo Nyo are two midwives that work side by side in a makeshift medical clinic in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya (a Muslim minority community) are persecuted and denied basic rights. Filmed over three tumultuous years, their remarkable relationship reveals both tensions and the hope inherent in their common cause.

From the AlumNest

AlumNest filmmakers are soaring into Sundance’s program in the U.S. Documentary Competition to the World Cinema Documentary Competition:

• Descendant, directed by Margaret Brown, prods. Essie Chambers, Kyle Martin
• The Janes, directed by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, prods. Emma Pildes, Daniel Arcana, Jessica Levin
• TikTok, Boom., directed by Shalini Kantayya, prods. Ross M. Dinerstein. Shalini Kantayya, Danni Mynard
• To The End, directed by Rachel Lears, prod. Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
• The Martha Mitchell Effect, produced by Beth Levison, Judith Mizrachy, dirs. Anne Alvergue, Debra McClutchy 

A special shoutout to 2018 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Natalia Almada, whose 2002 short documentary film All Water Has a Perfect Memory,  will screen online as part of the “From the Collection” program, a line-up of 40 short films selected to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Sundance Institute. Ticket sales start Friday, December, 17.

Here at Chicken & Egg Pictures, we are sending egg-stra special congratulations to the Nest-supported films that received a nomination: Writing With Fire, Ascension, Simple As Water, Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust, and from the AlumNest: In the Same Breath and Witness. Massive congratulations to the Nest-supported filmmakers that received a 2021 Awards Honorees: Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh (Writing With Fire) and Cecilia Aldarondo (Landfall). 

The awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 5, 2022 at Paramount Studios, Los Angeles; tickets will be accessible to the public in January 2022. Take a look at the nominees and honorees:

Writing With Fire

dirs. & prods. Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh

Nominated for Best Feature

Ascension

dir. & prod. Jessica Kingdon 

prods. Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell

Nominated for Best Cinematography
Cinematographers: Jessica Kingdon and Nathan Truesdell

Simple As Water

dir. & prod. Megan Mylan

prod.  Robin Hessman

Nominated for Best Editing
Editors: Purcell Carson and Megan Mylan

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

dir. & prod. Ann Kaneko

prod. Jin Yoo-Kim

Nominated for Best Music Score
Composers: Lori Goldston, Steve Fisk and Alexander Miranda

2021 Awards Honorees

2018 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Writing With Fire directors & producers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh will receive the Courage Under Fire Award. 

Project: Hatched 2020 grantee Landfall director Cecilia Aldarondo will receive the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.

From the AlumNest

In the Same Breath, directed & produced by 2018 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Nanfu Wang, produced by 2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Jialing Zhang, Carolyn Hepburn, Sara Rodriguez, Julie Goldman, and Christopher Clements, was nominated for Best Feature. Witness, produced by Nest-supported filmmaker Amber Fares, Lisa Camillo, Saad Zuberi, Emile Guertin and Reem Haddad, was nominated for Best Short Series. 

Post by Communications Intern Mariana Sanson

Chicken & Egg Pictures proudly announced via Women & Hollywood seven new grantees of our 2021 Project: Hatched program. Both short- and feature-length projects will participate. Each project receives $20,000 toward film completion and impact campaigns and filmmaking teams participate in a six-month program with tailored mentorship and goal-setting.

“From water rights to reproductive health, the subjects of Chicken & Egg Pictures’ newest grantees are ones that come up constantly in our cultural and political conversations. These seven films push past the headlines to reveal intimate character studies that investigate how social issues impact everyday lives,” said Program Director Lucila Moctezuma. “For the first time in our Project: Hatched program, two short films were selected alongside features. Not only can shorts act as critical stepping stones to help emerging filmmakers build careers, but they also have strong potential to create impact and engage broader audiences.” 

Please click the granted films titles for more information on each project, and give these passionate and committed women and gender nonconforming directors a warm welcome to the Nest!

And So I Stayed

Directors & producers: Natalie Pattillo, Daniel A. Nelson (SINGAPORE/UNITED STATES)

And So I Stayed is a documentary about survivors of domestic violence who are unjustly incarcerated for killing their abusers in self-defense.

Daughter of a Lost Bird

Director & producer: Brooke Pepion Swaney (UNITED STATES) 
Producers: Jeri Rafter, Kendra Mylnechuk Potter

A Native adoptee reconnects with her birth family and her Lummi heritage—confronting her identity. Her singular story represents many affected by the Indian Child Welfare Act and Indian Adoption Project in the US.

Manzanar, Diverted: When Water Becomes Dust

Director & producer: Ann Kaneko (UNITED STATES)
Producer: Jin Yoo-Kim 

This film poetically weaves together memories of Payahuunadü, “the land of flowing water,” where Native Americans, Japanese-Americans, and environmentalists defend land and water from Los Angeles.

I’m Free Now, You Are Free 

Director: Ash Goh Hua (SINGAPORE) 
Producer: Arielle Knight

I’m Free Now, You Are Free is a short documentary about the reunion and repair between Mike Africa Jr. and his mother Debbie Africa—a formerly incarcerated political prisoner of the MOVE 9.

On The Divide

Directors: Maya Cueva, Leah Galant (UNITED STATES) 
Producers: Melanie Miller, Diane Becker, Amanda Spain, Elizabeth Woodward

On The Divide follows the story of three Latinx people living in McAllen, Texas who, despite their views, are connected by the most unexpected of places: the last abortion clinic on the US/Mexico border. As threats to the clinic and their personal safety mount, these three are forced to make decisions they never could have imagined.

Change The Name

Director & producer: Cai Thomas (UNITED STATES) 
Producer: Donald Conley

Student activists and educators from Village Leadership Academy campaign to change the name of a park from a slaveholder to abolitionists Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood.

Storm Lake 

Directors: Beth Levison, Jerry Risius (UNITED STATES) 
Producer: Beth Levison

Pulitzer Prize-winner Art Cullen and his family fight to protect their Iowan farming community through their biweekly newspaper, The Storm Lake Times—come hell or pandemic.

Read more about Project: Hatched.

Post by 2021 Communications Intern Mariana Sanson. 

Here at Chicken & Egg Pictures, we are egg-cited to send massive congratulations to 2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Kirsten Johnson on her Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program win for Dick Johnson Is Dead, prods. Katy Chevigny & Marilyn Ness. 

Congratulations Kirsten!  

Read the full award winners list here, and check out the list of Nest-supported nominees here.

Post by 2021 Communications Intern Mariana Sanson. 

Ascension

Dir. Jessica Kingdon
Prod. Kira Simon-Kennedy, Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell

Ascension examines the contemporary “Chinese Dream” through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. In cinematically exploring the aspiration that drives today’s People’s Republic of China, the film plunges into universal paradoxes of economic progress.

Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.