Joonam

dir. Sierra Urich

prod. Keith Wilson

Joonam is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Get your tickets here.

Machtat

dir. Sonia Ben Slama

prods. Tania El Khoury, Cécile Lestrade, Elise Hug

Machtat is a 2020 (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.

Non-Aligned: Scenes From the Labudović Reels

dir. & prod. Mila Turajlić

prod. Carine Chichkowsky

Non-Aligned: Scenes From the Labudović Reels was supported through Mila Turajlić’s 2020 Chicken & Egg Award.

Get your tickets here.

Q

dir. & prod. Jude Chehab

Q is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee.

Get your tickets here.

Suddenly TV

dir. & prod. Roopa Gogineni

prods. Reem Haddad, Trevor Snapp, Fiona Lawson-Baker

Suddenly TV is a participant of Project: Hatched 2023.

Get your tickets here.

Chicken & Egg Pictures | POV Shorts Co-Production Fund

POV Shorts and Chicken & Egg Pictures announced today via DEADLINE the five recipients of the inaugural Chicken & Egg Pictures | POV Shorts Co-Production Fund, which granted $120,000 for development and production funding to three short documentary projects helmed by women and non-binary filmmakers. The initiative marks the two organizations’ first joint content development project, and all films are co-productions of POV Shorts and Chicken & Egg Pictures. In partnership with Points North, the institute will welcome the grantees as an official fellowship cohort at the 2023 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF2023). 

Chicken & Egg Pictures and POV Shorts each contributed $60,000 to finance the fund which awarded three non-recoupable $40,000 grants to new nonfiction short-form works in progress or already in production. In addition to financial support, each project will receive creative, strategic, and editorial advice from the Chicken & Egg Pictures and POV Shorts teams. The completed shorts will be considered for launch on PBS via national linear broadcast and PBS Digital, which reaches an audience of 44.7 million people monthly.

Chicken & Egg Pictures | POV Shorts Co-Production Fund Grantees

En Travesti

dirs. Brit Fryer, Lydia Cornett

En Travesti explores the entangled relationship between voice, gender, and opera through those who contend with these connections daily––a trans opera singer switching voice types, a musicologist delving into the legacy of Castrati singers, a cisgender vocalist challenging conventional voice categorizations, and an otolaryngologist specializing in vocal procedures for performers. From the history of trouser roles to breakthroughs in vocal feminization surgery, the film weaves together a tapestry of present-day stories while recognizing a long history of gender nonconformity in an art form bound by the binary. 

Hold Me Close

dirs. Aurora Brachman, LaTajh Weaver

As winter gives way to spring, and spring to summer, two Queer Black women in love experience rituals of care, joy, and unavoidable pain, and a season of life together.  

The Roost (working title)

dir. Imani Dennison 

The Roost (working title) is an experimental documentary exploring the rich history of a roller skate community in Louisville, KY. Through an intimate video lens, we delve into key community members’ personal recollections of the sport and its role in navigating life amidst the challenges of a gun-violence-affected city.

En Travesti explores the entangled relationship between voice, gender, and opera through those who contend with these connections daily––a trans opera singer switching voice types, a musicologist delving into the legacy of Castrati singers, a cisgender vocalist challenging conventional voice categorizations, and an otolaryngologist specializing in vocal procedures for performers. From the history of trouser roles to breakthroughs in vocal feminization surgery, the film weaves together a tapestry of present-day stories while recognizing a long history of gender nonconformity in an art form bound by the binary. 

From the AlumNest

• Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
  dir. Lucy Walker
  prods. Charlie Corwin, Michael D. Ratner, Miranda Sherman, Dalia Burde, Christopher Newman

• The Lady Bird Diaries
  dir. & prod. Dawn Porter
  prod. Kim Reynolds

Meet Our Program Team at Camden International Film Festival

Representing Chicken & Egg Pictures, our Program Director Kiyoko McCrae, Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes and Industry & Artist Development Manager Tobi Phang-Lyn will be in attendance at this year’s Camden International Film Festival. They will be bringing the Chicken & Egg Pictures | POV Shorts Co-Production Fund grantees to the festival, supporting our alumni and hosting a gathering, meeting with new filmmakers during 1-on-1 meetings, and watching as many docs as they can!

Post written by Communications Intern Tess Caldwell

Assia Boundaoui is an Algerian-American journalist and filmmaker based in Chicago. She has reported for the BBC, NPR, AlJazeera, VICE, CNN and was the recipient of a first place Mark of Excellence Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Her directorial debut, The Feeling of Being Watched, was a participant in the 2016 Accelerator Lab and a recipient of The Whickers Chicken & Egg Pictures Award.

In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. With unprecedented access, The Feeling of Being Watched weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance.

In 2018, The Feeling of Being Watched had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival, was an official selection at Hot Docs, and received the Audience Award at Camden International Film Festival,  the BlackStar Film Festival, Boston GlobeDocs Film Festival, and the Regent Park Film Festival. The film also won jury awards for Best Documentary Feature and James Lyons Editing Award For Documentary Feature at the Woodstock Film Festival. Assia is a fellow with the Co-Creation Studio at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, where she is iterating her most recent work, The Inverse Surveillance Project,  a machine learning fueled sequel to The Feeling of Being Watched.

Post by Morgan Lee Hulquist.

The 2018 Harrell Award for Best Documentary Feature went to On Her Shoulders, directed by Alexandria Bombach (2018 SXSW LUNA / Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient) *

This empowering documentary presents 23-year-old Nadia Murad, a Yazidi genocide survivor determined to tell the world her story. Determined advocate and reluctant celebrity, she becomes the voice of her people and their best hope to spur the world to action.

The Feeling of Being Watched, directed by Assia Boundaoui (participant of the 2016 Accelerator Lab and recipient of The Whickers Chicken & Egg Pictures Award) received the Audience Award.

In the Arab-American neighborhood outside of Chicago where director Assia Boundaoui grew up, most of her neighbors think they have been under surveillance for over a decade. With unprecedented access, The Feeling of Being Watched weaves the personal and the political as it follows the filmmaker’s examination of why her community fell under blanket government surveillance.

Congratulations Alexandria and Assia!

For more about the other Nest-supported projects at the 2018 Camden International Film Festival, see our previous blog post.

* Chicken & Egg Pictures did not support On Her Shoulders but supported director Julia Alexandria Bombach through the SXSW LUNA / Chicken & Egg Pictures Award.

In a press release from CIFF, Senior Programmer Samara Chadwick stated, “Programming at parity celebrates the contributions of the many formidable women in the field, while also emphasizing the fact that, in a century of documentary filmmaking, we’ve largely known one dominant perspective. […] At CIFF we’re drawn to directorial approaches from outside the canon, and we value all the creative voices and cinematic languages that have been otherwise underrepresented.”

At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we applaud the push for gender parity from the Camden International Film Festival.

See a full itinerary for Nest-supported films, filmmakers, and friends at CIFF below.

Points North Pitch, Saturday Sep. 15 at 10 AM at the Camden Opera House, including a pitch from 2018 Diversity Fellows Initiative grantee Robie Flores for her project The In Between.

Skywards, directed by Eva Weber (Black Out, 2007), Saturday Sep. 15 at 10 AM at The Strand Theatre in Rockland.

Survivors, co-directed by Arthur Pratt, Banker White, Anna Fitch and Barmmy Boy, Saturday Sep. 15 at 12:30 PM at the Rockport Opera House.

A Cure for Fear (Series), directed by Lana Wilson (The Departure and After Tiller), Saturday Sep. 15 at 3:30 PM at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland*

The Feeling of Being Watched, directed by Assia Boundaoui (2016 Accelerator Lab grantee and The Whickers award winner), Sunday Sep. 16 at 12:30 PM. Assia will also be speaking on the Documentary as Co-Creation panel at 3:30 PM on Saturday Sep. 15 at High Mountain Hall in Camden.

On Her Shoulders, directed by Alexandria Bombach (2018 SXSW LUNA / Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient), Sunday Sep. 16 at 5 PM at The Strand Theatre in Rockland.*

Blowin’ Up, directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal, Sunday Sep. 16 at 5:30 PM at the Rockport Opera House.

Post by 2018 Communications Intern Morgan Lee Hulquist.