Q

dir. & prod. Jude Chehab

Q is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee. 

Retrospective: Jeanie Finlay

We were proud to watch one of our 2023 Chicken & Egg Award recipients Jeanie Finlay, a prominent documentary filmmaker hailing from Northern England, getting recognized with a retrospective at this year’s Big Sky Film Festival. Jeanie’s films tell intimate stories that resonate with audiences globally, and this retrospective featured 12 selections from her repertoire, including her most recent feature Your Fat Friend. Explore the full program here.

From the AlumNest

• Troll Storm – World Premiere
  dir. & prod. Eunice Lau
  prods. Brooke Pepion Swaney, Zachary Kerschberg

• American Grail: A Quest for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker  – World Premiere
  dir. Andy Sarjahani
  prod. Jolene Pinder

• Bring Them Home / Aiskótáhkapiyaaya – World Premiere & Winner of the Big Sky Award
  dirs. Ivan MacDonald, Ivy MacDonald, Daniel Glick
  prods. Daniel Glick, Ivan MacDonald, Sarah Clarke

• Confessions of a Good Samaritan 
  dir. Penny Lane
  prod. Gabriel Sedgwick

• Dark Money
  dir. & prod. Kimberly Reed 
  prod. Katy Chevigny

• Eat Flowers
  dir. River Finlay
  prods. Alison Klayman, Cig Harvey, River Finlay, Sashka Rothchild

• Montana Indigenous Voting Rights – World Premiere
  dir. Ivan MacDonald
  prods. ACLU of Montana, Western Native Vote, Jessica Jane Hart

• Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr – World Premiere & Winner of the Mini-doc Award
  dir. & prod. Kimberly Reed 

• Unseen
  dir. & prod. Set Hernande
  prods. Félix Endara, Diane Quon, Day Al-Mohamed

For our Children

(previously Black Mothers Love & Resist)

dir. & prod. Débora Souza Silva

prod. David Felix Sutcliffe, Adina Luo

For Our Children is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

The Hamlet Syndrome

dirs. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski

prod. Magdalena Kaminska

The Hamlet Syndrome was supported through Elwira Niewira’s 2021 Chicken & Egg Award.

From the AlumNest

Nest-supported filmmaker Penny Lane was selected as the 2023 Retrospective artist. The retrospective includes six films directed by Lane from 2010 to today, including Nest-supported Hail Satan?, The Pain of Others; and Nuts!, Our Nixon, and The Voyagers. 

• For the Record
  dir. & prod. Heather Courtney
  prod. Paul Stekler
  
  
• Sealed in Blood
  dir. Sofian Khan
  prod. J. Motts
  
  
• Lily Gladstone: Far Out There
  dir. & prod. Brooke Pepion Swaney
  prod. Jeri Rafter

Lily Gladstone: Far Out There will being having its World Premiere

Post written by Spring intern Tess Caldwell

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.

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.