This year, Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to present our third annual (Egg)celerator Lab pitch, in which filmmaking teams from all ten 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantees give quick pitches to a live audience of documentary industry folks and receive feedback from international decision makers and buyers.

This year’s pitch session is moderated by award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand, Chicken & Egg Pictures’ Co-Founder and Senior Creative Consultant, and will include a panel of:

• José Rodriguez of Tribeca Film Institute,
• Alexandra Hannibal of CNN Films,
• Jo Lapping of BBC Storyville,
• Jess Gormley of The Guardian, and
• Christine Kecher of A&E Networks.

The 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantees are:

• An Act of Worship, directed by Nausheen Dadabhoy (US/PAKISTAN)
• #Mickey, directed by Betzabé García (MEXICO)
• Between Fire and Water, directed by Viviana Gómez Echeverry (COLOMBIA)
• We Are Inside, directed by Farah Kassem (LEBANON)
• Untitled PRC Project, directed by Jessica Kingdon (US)
• Mama Bears, directed by Daresha Kyi (US)
• Silent Beauty, directed by Jasmin López (MEXICO/US)
• Pray Away, directed by Kristine Stolakis (US)
• Cutting Through Rocks, co-directed by Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Eyni (IRAN/US)

Anyone with a Sheffield Doc/Fest pass is welcome to sit in on the sessions, learn about the incredible film projects these emerging filmmakers are working on, and hear feedback from panelists. The Chicken & Egg Pictures (Egg)celerator Lab Pitch will take place Sunday, June 9 at 11:00 AM at ITV Town Hall Reception Room B. More information here.

And if you’re at Sheffield Doc/Fest, don’t miss screenings of these Nest-supported films:

One Child Nation (2017 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee), directed by Nanfu Wang (also a 2018 Chicken & Egg Award recipient) and Jialing Zhang

How much control does a person have over their own life? In China, state control begins before a child is even born.

One Child Nation is in the running for the The Tim Hetherington Award, supported by Dogwoof. Tickets and screening times are available here.

American Factory, directed by Julia Reichert (2016 Chicken & Egg Award recipient) and Steve Bognar*

Dizzying, hilarious and devastating, this tale of two factories makes for a landmark story of workplace anxiety. Directors Reichert and Bognar have spent a decade documenting the plight of Ohio’s factory workers, and their dedication pays off when they are given astonishing access to Fuyao, a Chinese auto glass manufacturer, as it revives a shuttered General Motors plant in Dayton.

Tickets and screening times are available here.

Hail Satan?, directed by Penny Lane (2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient)
With humor and searing insight, director Penny Lane debunks misrepresentations about the Satanic Temple. Drawing on extensive access to the organization’s participants, this unflinching examination reveals the controversial religious movement’s aim to shine a light on the hypocrisy around America’s separation of church and state.*

Tickets and screening times are available here.

And a special shoutout to these members of our AlumNest of previously-supported filmmakers:  Knock Down the House, directed by Rachel Lears (former Nest grantee for The Hand That Feeds) and The Great Hack, directed by  Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim (former Nest grantee for The Square).

The Independent Filmmaker Project announced the nominees for the 28^th Annual IFP Gotham Awards.  The Gotham Awards celebrate independent films and film projects and have a record of providing early recognition ahead of the upcoming national awards season.

At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we were so proud to see Nest-supported filmmaker and Impact & Innovation Initiative participant Nico Opper nominated for the “Breakthrough Series – Short Form” Award for their series The F Word. 

Season one of The F Word: A Foster to Adoption Story revealed the story of one queer couple adopting from foster care in Oakland, CA. Season two (2018 Impact & Innovation Initiative) continues their story while amplifying other voices in the foster care world: birth families, foster youth, adoptees, adoptive parents of color, and social entrepreneurs working to repair a broken system.

Chicken &  Egg Pictures also previously Nico’s feature documentary Visitor’s Day, which recently had its broadcast premiere on World Channel on PBS.

The Gotham Awards will be held at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, November 26. In the meantime, season one of The F Word is available to stream online. Congratulations Nico and good luck!

The F Word: A Foster to Adopt Story, directed by Nico Opper

Season 1 of The F Word revealed the story of one queer couple adopting from foster care in Oakland, CA. Season 2 continues their story while amplifying other voices in the foster care world: birth families, foster youth, adoptees, adoptive parents of color, and social entrepreneurs working to repair a broken system.

Breathe, directed by Winslow Porter and Milica Zec*

A communal experience connecting us through the simple power of existence, Breathe transforms users into Rose, a young girl orphaned after a devastating war. Rose’s life changes drastically after the trauma of living out formative years inside a conflict zone. Through her eyes, viewers live out the greatest joys and most profound struggles from her adolescence to adulthood. Each moment is inextricably shaped by her upbringing—yet she is able to find strength in small interconnected moments with those she loves.
Even as humanity continues to fail and harm each other, Breathe seeks to remind us of the solace we can find in our similarities; we are all human, and we are all connected.

The Racial Terror Project, by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster

The Racial Terror Project is a groundbreaking immersive virtual reality, room-scale installation in which users time travel along the last route of Claude Neal, who was brutally hunted down and lynched by a mob of white men in Florida in 1934, and meet his descendant community today and his ancestors in the era of slavery. The Racial Terror Project tells the story of how our present-day lived experiences of racial violence and discrimination reflect a long, insufficiently-acknowledged history of white racial oppression that dates back to slavery and continues today.

We can’t wait to go along for the journey as these exciting projects push the boundaries of storytelling!

*Chicken & Egg Pictures also supported Tree, the first virtual reality experience in the trilogy that Breathe belongs to.

Congratulations to all Nest-supported filmmakers at Sheffield Doc/Fest this year! Our programs team will be there with the 2017 Accelerator Lab cohort for first- and second-time filmmakers so if you’re around, come say hello.

Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported films and filmmakers at 2017 Sheffield:

• World Premiere: Armed With Faith, directed by Asad Faruqi and Geeta Gandbhir*
• UK Premiere: Do Donkeys Act?, directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin*
• World Premiere: Even When I Fall, directed by Kate McLarnon and Sky Neal
• World Premiere: Insha’Allah Democracy, directed by Mohammed Naqvi*
• UK Premiere: Motherland, directed by Ramona S. Diaz
• UK Premiere: Strong Island, directed by Yance Ford
• European Premiere: The Departure, directed by Lana Wilson
• UK Premiere: Unrest, directed by Jennifer Brea
• European Premiere: Whose Streets?, directed by Sabaah Folayan and co-directed by Damon Davis

*Chicken & Egg pictures did not support Armed With Faith, Do Donkeys Act?, and Insha’Allah Democracy, but did support Geeta Gandhbir for A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers, Love the Sinner, and A Conversation with Police on Race (NY Times Op-Doc); Ashley Sabin for Girl Model; and Mohammed Maqvi’s film Among the Believers. And, as a 2017 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient, Geeta has received support from Chicken & Egg Pictures in the forms of a $50,000 unrestricted grant, individualized mentorship, and creative and professional workshops.

Go to the Sheffield Doc/Fest website for more information and the full lineup.

In New York instead? Check out Nest-supported films and filmmakers at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival (June 9-18).

Born into an impoverished coal-producing area of eastern Pennsylvania, by the time of his death, John MacArthur was one of the wealthiest men in the world, having made his fortune in insurance and real estate. He, along with his wife, started the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in order to secure enduring support for “

Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to announce that we are now officially part of the MacArthur Foundation legacy.

With a grant of $600,000 to be disbursed over three years, the Foundation’s support will go towards bolstering three of our signature programs: the Accelerator Lab for first- and second-time filmmakers, Diversity Fellows Initiative, and the Impact & Innovation Initiative. We are so thrilled to be included among such a prestigious group of organizations, and to help carry on the MacArthurs’ mission to build a more just world.

Read more about our partnership with The MacArthur Foundation here.