Our Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes and Program Assistant Will Tamura were in attendance at the festival and the Hot Docs Forum. This year’s Forum had “20 projects—represented by 22 filmmakers, 11 of whom are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) and 16 of whom are women—representing 18 countries” (Business Doc Europe) presenting to key funders, decisionmakers, filmmakers, producers, and observers. There were a total of 58 projects being pitched across the industry events. Among the projects were 2024 (Egg)celerator Lab grantees Anatomy of a Life, Jaripeo, War on Women, Holder of the Sky, and Matininó. There were also films from the following supported filmmakers: Leah Galant, Kelly Duane de la Vega, Mila Turajlić, Chelsi Bullard, Geeta Gandbhir, Mars Veronne, Yvonne Welbon, Carine Chichkowsky, Ina Fichman, Valérie Montmartin, Lorena Luciano, Filippo Piscopo, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Kenya Jade Pinto, Brit Fryer, and Sona Jo.

We are extremely proud of 2024 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Anatomy of a Life on being awarded the Cuban Hat Award. This award, given to the best pitch as decided by Forum attendees, offers funding for powerful and unique projects. The award also includes numerous other gifts, including a feedback call with our very own Elaisha Stokes. 

Learn more about the selected projects here.

• Colleen Cassingham, producer of QUEER FUTURES films The Script, MnM, How to Carry Water

• Petra Costa, 2023 Research & Development Grant Recipient and 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient, for her Chicken & Egg-supported film

• Jess Devaney director of Chicken & Egg-supported film Love the Sinner and producer of The Script, MnM, How to Carry Water, and It’s Only Life After All

• Ramona Diaz, 2018 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient

• Maryam Ebrahimi, 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient, for her Chicken & Egg-supported film The Phantom Pain of Rojava

• Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo, directors of Chicken & Egg-supported film It Will Be Chaos

• Ivan MacDonald and Ivy MacDonald, for their film, When They Were Here, 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist

Post written by Communications Intern Tess Caldwell

Life + Life

dir & prod. Contessa Gayles

prods. Richie Reseda, David Felix Sutcliffe

An incarcerated musician struggles for healing and peace as he comes of age in this documentary-musical odyssey composed behind bars.

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

Storming

dir. Katrina Sorrentino

prod. Tiffany Fisher-Love

A family hangs in limbo, caring for their comatose son. Hope and denial blur as seasons circle in this meditation on love and letting go. 

Storming was a participant of the 2019 Nest Knight Fellowship.

From the AlumNest

• #NunsToo
  dir. Lorena Luciano, prod. Filippo Piscopo 
  
  
• Give it a Shot
  dir. & prod. Vaishali Sinha, prod. Hemang Chheda
  
  
• In Plain Sight
  prod. Farihah Zaman, dir. PJ Raval 
  
  
• Life After
  prods. Jessica Devaney, Colleen Cassingham, dir. Reid Davenport
  
  
• Meanwhile
  dir. & prod. Catherine Gund, prod. Erika Dilday
  
  
• Prisoner X
  dirs. Hilla Medalia, Amos Roberts, prod.Hilla Medalia & Gal Greenspan
  
  
• Thoughts & Prayers
  dir. & prod. Jessica Dimmock, Zackary Canepari  
  
  
• To Use a Mountain
  Executive produced by 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Brett Story, Maida Lynn, dir. Casey Carter, prod. Colleen Cassingham

The Gotham Week Conference

• The Politics of Filmmaking in the US
  Wednesday, September 21 at 2:30 pm ET
  With Project: Hatched 2022 finalist The Janes’ directors Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes.
  Cost: $25

Meet Our Team

Our Executive Director Jenni Wolfson and Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova will be taking meetings at The Gotham Week.

Check out the full list of projects participating with this link.

Nest-supported film It Will Be Chaos, will be broadcast tonight on HBO in conjunction with World Refugee Day. Directed by Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo, the film is an epic, yet intimate portrait of lives in transit and the human consequences of the refugee crisis spanning the Mediterranean. The story unfolds between Italy and the Balkan corridor, focusing on two unforgettable refugee stories of human strength and resilience in search of a better and safer future. It Will Be Chaos premiered on HBO on June 18, will have an encore presentation tonight at 5:55 pm ET, and is now available for streaming on HBO.

More powerful films to watch in honor of World Refugee Day include:

Dalya’s Other Country, directed by Julia Metzger, a story about Dalya and her mother Rudanya who arrived in Los Angeles from Aleppo as war took over (available on DVD);

Eventual Salvation, directed by Dee Rees about her 80-year-old American-born grandmother who barely escaped Liberia with her life as she returns to rebuild her community after their devastating civil war (on Netflix);

Children in No Man’s Land, directed by Anayansi Prado, which chronicles the journey of Maria de Jesus and her cousin Rene (ages 13 and 12) as they attempt to cross the US/Mexico border alone to reunite with their mothers in the Midwest (on Kanopy);

And This is Home: A Refugee Story*, directed by Chicken & Egg Board of Directors member Alexandra Shiva, an intimate portrait of four Syrian families arriving in Baltimore (premieres Friday, June 22 on Epix).

And other Nest-supported projects to watch out for in the near future are:

MUHI – Generally Temporary (2015 Accelerator Lab grantee), directed by Rina Castelnuovo and Tamir Elterman—on the festival circuit and just finished a theatrical tour in Germany; Unaccompanied Children (2017 Accelerator Lab grantee), directed by Alexandra Codina—currently in production; The Guardian of Memory (2017 Accelerator Lab Grantee), directed by Marcela Arteaga—currently in production; Number 387 (2018 Accelerator Lab Grantee), directed by Madeleine Leroyer—currently in production; Breathe (2018 Impact & Innovation Initiative Grantee), directed by Milica Zec and Winslow Porter—currently in development.

*Chicken & Egg Pictures did not support This is Home but director Alexandra Shiva is a member of the Chicken & Egg Pictures Board of Directors.

Post by 2018 Communications Intern Morgan Lee Hulquist. 

United Skates, directed by Dyana Winkler & Tina Brown (2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative)

When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture—one that has remained undiscovered by the mainstream for generations, yet has given rise to some of the world’s greatest musical talent.

The 2018 Tribeca Audience Award-winning film will be closing out the festival on Sunday, June 17 at 6:30 pm.

Blowin’ Up, directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal

Blowin’ Up looks at sex work, prostitution, and human trafficking through the lens of New York State’s criminal justice system. The film captures the growing pains of our nation’s first human trafficking intervention court in Queens, New York, and how we define trafficking and prostitution from many different perspectives: the criminal justice system, the social welfare system, and, most importantly, the women and girls who are at the center of it all.

Screenings: Thursday, June 14 at 3:30 pm and Friday, June 15 at 6:15 pm.

Dark Money, directed by Kimberly Reed

A century ago, corrupt money swamped Montana’s legislature, but Montanans rose up to prohibit corporate campaign contributions. Today, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision —which allows unlimited, anonymous money to pour into elections nationwide—Montana is once again fighting to preserve open and honest elections. Following an investigative reporter through a political thriller, Dark Money exposes one of the greatest threats to American democracy.

Screening: Thursday, June 14 at 6:00 pm.

It Will Be Chaos, directed by Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo

Life in Southern Italy is thrown into a tailspin when refugees arrive by the thousands and the locals are left to fend for themselves. Eritrean survivor Aregai, trapped in the Italian faltering immigration system, goes underground to reach Northern Europe. Through his journey, intercut with the road trip to Germany of a Syrian family, the clash between the newcomers and the locals escalates in real time.

Screening: Thursday, June 14 at 5:45 pm.

Tre Maison Dasan, directed by Denali Tiller (Accelerator Lab 2015)

Tre Maison Dasan is a story that explores parental incarceration through the eyes of three boys—Tre, Maison, and Dasan. Following their interweaving trajectories through boyhood marked by the criminal justice system, and told directly through the child’s perspective, the film unveils the challenges of growing up and what it means to become a man in America.

Screenings: Thursday, June 14 at 6:00 pm and Sunday, June 18 at 4:45 pm.

The following films were directed by Nest-supported filmmakers and will also be featured at the AFI Docs Film Festival.

Inventing Tomorrow, directed by Laura Nix (2018 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient)

On Her Shoulders, directed by Alexandria Bombach (2018 SXSW LUNA / Chicken & Egg Pictures Award recipient)

A Murder in Mansfield, directed by Barbara Kopple (2011 Chicken & Egg Pictures Celebration Award)

Skywards, directed by Eva Weber (Black Out, 2007)

See the full AFI Docs Film Festival slate here.

Post by Morgan Hulquist, Summer 2018 Chicken & Egg Pictures Communications Intern.