Hot Docs is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference, and market, and embodies a deep commitment to gender parity, with 54% female directors in this year’s official selection, according to their press release. Two of our staff members will be in attendance so be sure to stay in touch via our social media channels for some exclusive content at the festival!

Farming the Revolution

dir. & prod. Nishtha Jain

prod. Valérie Montmartin

Farming the Revolution was supported through Nishtha Jain’s 2020 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its World Premiere in the International Competition

7 Beats Per Minute

dir. Yuqi Kang

prod. Ina Fichman, Anita Lee

7 Beats Per Minute was a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its Canadian Premiere in the Canadian Spectrum Competition.

A Photographic Memory

dir. & prod. Rachel Elizabeth Seed

prods. Sigrid Dyekjær, Beth Levison, Matt Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Danielle Varga

A Photographic Memory was a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its International Premiere in the Persister section.

Intercepted

dir. Oksana Karpovych 

prods. Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego, Darya Bassel

Intercepted is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee having its Canadian Premiere in the Festival Favorites section.

Look Into My Eyes

dir. & prod. Lana Wilson

prod. Kyle Martin

Look Into My Eyes was supported through Lana Wilson’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its Canadian Premiere in the Special Presentations section.

Spotlight on Brett Story

2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Brett Story will be engaging in an illuminating conversation with author and organizer Astra Taylor. Learn more about Astra Taylor in Conversation with Brett Story here.

From the AlumNest

• Adrianne & the Castle – Canadian Premiere
  dir. Shannon Walsh
  prod. Ina Fichman

• Power
  dir. & prod. Yance Ford
  prods. Sweta Vohra, Jess Devaney, Netsanet Negussie

• We Did Not Consent
  dir. Dorothy Allen-Pickard
  prods. Rosa Harris Edmonds, Lindsay Poulton

• Xixi – World Premiere
  dir. & prod. Fan Wu
  prods. Sona Jo, Venice De Castro Atienza, Yoonsoo Her

• Yintah – Canadian Premiere
  dirs. & prods. Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano
  prods. Bob Moore, Katie McKay, Mila Aung-Thwin

Meet Our Team at Hot Docs

We are exhilarated that our Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes and Program Assistant Will Tamura will be in attendance at the festival. They will be attending Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported screenings and industry events. Make sure to say hi!

A Photographic Memory

dir. & prod. Rachel Elizabeth Seed

prods. Sigrid Dyekjær, Beth Levison, Matt Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Danielle Varga

A Photographic Memory was a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee.

Get your tickets here.

Intercepted

dir. Oksana Karpovych

prods. Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego, Darya Bassel

Intercepted is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee.

Get your tickets here.

Look Into My Eyes

dir. & prod. Lana Wilson

prod. Kyle Martin

Look Into My Eyes was supported through Lana Wilson’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award.

Get your tickets here.

The Callers

dir. & prod. Lindsey Dryden

prods. Colleen Cassingham, Samantha Steele

The Callers was supported through the QUEER FUTURES series in collaboration with Multitude Films. 

Get your tickets here.

Union

dir. & prods. Brett Story, Stephen Maing

prod. Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, Martin Dicicco

Union was supported through Brett Story’s 2023 Chicken & Egg Award.

Get your tickets here.

In the Forum

The Reality Check Forum at DC/DOX is intended to be a dedicated space for fostering dialogue and collaboration within the documentary film community. This includes numerous panels, workshops, performances and masterclasses offering valuable resources and best practices for keen filmmakers. We are proud to have so many filmmakers from our community and our CEO Jenni Wolfson  participating in this year’s forum!

• Performance: Moore For Sale
  Friday, June 14
  With producer of 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Joonam, Keith Wilson
  
  
• Panel: Treasure Maps – Finding Story in the Archives
  Friday, June 14
  With 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Rachel Elizabeth Seed
  
  
• Panel: Filmmaking within a Cooperative
  Friday, June 14
  With 2020 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Kimberly Reed
  
  
• Workshop: The Future of Funding
  Saturday, June 15
  With CEO Jenni Wolfson
  
  
• Workshop: How to Stop Working for Free
  Saturday, June 15
  With 2019 Nest Knight Fellowship recipient Tiffany Fisher-Love
  
  
• Panel: Subject/Matter
  Saturday, June 15
  With producer of supported film Dick Johnson is Dead, Katy Chevigny
  
  
• Panel: State of the Industry
  Saturday, June 15
  With 2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Dawn Porter
  
  
• Panel: Documentary and the Real World – Impact Case Studies
  Saturday, June 15
  With Project: Hatched 2021 grantee Maya Cueva
  
  
• Panel: Behind the Scenes
  Saturday, June 15
  With Stephen Maing & Martin DiCicco of supported film Union and 2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Dawn Porter

From the AlumNest

• Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr
  dir. & prod. Kimberly Reed
  prod. Robin Honan

• And So It Begins
  dir. & prod. Ramona S. Diaz

• As Long As We Can | World Premiere
  dir. Kristy Guevara-Flanagan

• Familia
  dirs. & prods. Picho García, Gabriela Pena

• In Due Season | World Premiere
  dir. Ashley O’Shay
  prod. Cherrelle Swain

• Luther: Never Too Much
  dir. Dawn Porter
  prods. Trish D. Chetty, Ged Doherty, Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner, Leah Smith

Hot Docs is North America’s largest documentary festival, conference, and market, and embodies a deep commitment to gender parity, with 54% female directors in this year’s official selection, according to their press release. Two of our staff members will be in attendance so be sure to stay in touch via our social media channels for some exclusive content at the festival!

Farming the Revolution

dir. & prod. Nishtha Jain

prod. Valérie Montmartin

Farming the Revolution was supported through Nishtha Jain’s 2020 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its World Premiere in the International Competition

7 Beats Per Minute

dir. Yuqi Kang

prod. Ina Fichman, Anita Lee

7 Beats Per Minute was a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its Canadian Premiere in the Canadian Spectrum Competition.

A Photographic Memory

dir. & prod. Rachel Elizabeth Seed

prods. Sigrid Dyekjær, Beth Levison, Matt Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Danielle Varga

A Photographic Memory was a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its International Premiere in the Persister section.

Intercepted

dir. Oksana Karpovych 

prods. Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego, Darya Bassel

Intercepted is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee having its Canadian Premiere in the Festival Favorites section.

Look Into My Eyes

dir. & prod. Lana Wilson

prod. Kyle Martin

Look Into My Eyes was supported through Lana Wilson’s 2019 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its Canadian Premiere in the Special Presentations section.

Wilfred Buck

dir. & prod. Lisa Jackson

prod. Alicia Smith, Lauren Grant

Wilfred Buck was supported through Lisa Jackson’s 2023 Chicken & Egg Award and is having its North American Premiere in the Canadian Spectrum Competition.

Spotlight on Brett Story

2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Brett Story will be engaging in an illuminating conversation with author and organizer Astra Taylor. Learn more about Astra Taylor in Conversation with Brett Story here.

From the AlumNest

• Adrianne & the Castle – Canadian Premiere
  dir. Shannon Walsh
  prod. Ina Fichman

• Power
  dir. & prod. Yance Ford
  prods. Sweta Vohra, Jess Devaney, Netsanet Negussie

• We Did Not Consent
  dir. Dorothy Allen-Pickard
  prods. Rosa Harris Edmonds, Lindsay Poulton

• Xixi – World Premiere
  dir. & prod. Fan Wu
  prods. Sona Jo, Venice De Castro Atienza, Yoonsoo Her

• Yintah – Canadian Premiere
  dirs. & prods. Jennifer Wickham, Brenda Michell, Michael Toledano
  prods. Bob Moore, Katie McKay, Mila Aung-Thwin

Meet Our Team at Hot Docs

We are exhilarated that our Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes and Program Assistant Will Tamura will be in attendance at the festival. They will be attending Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported screenings and industry events. Make sure to say hi!

The 21st edition of CPH:DOX took place from Wednesday, March 13 to Sunday, March 24 in Copenhagen, Denmark. We are proud to see that 3 supported films and 13 supported filmmakers were part of the lineup and that many of our supported filmmakers also participated in the CPH:CONFERENCE and CPH: FORUM. Some of our team was also there to participate in person to support our filmmakers. See below for more details.

• 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Brett Story’s Union | International Premiere | F:act Award & Nine to Five sections | dirs. Brett Story, Stephen Maing | prods. Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone

• 2019 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Lana Wilson’s  Look Into My Eyes | International Premiere | Special Premieres & Stranger Than Fiction sections | dir. Lana Wilson | prod. Kyle Martin

• 2022 Critical Issues Fund Grantee Intercepted | Urgent Matters & Battlefields sections | dir. Oksana Karpovych | prods. Rocío B. Fuentes, Giacomo Nudi

From the AlumNest

• And So It Begins
  dir. & prod. Ramona Diaz
  
  
• Bottlemen 
  dir. & prod. Nemanja Vojinovic
  prod. Marija Stojnic 
  
  
• La Base | International Premiere
  dir. Vadim Dumesh
  prod. Quentin Laurent
   
  
• Night of Nights | World Premiere
  dir. Truman
  prod. Violet Feng
  
  
• Marching in the Dark | World Premiere
  dir. Kinshuk Surjan
  prods. Evelien De Graef, Hanne Phlypo, Digna Sinke, Arya Rothe
  
  
• Phantoms of the Sierra Madre | World Premiere
  dir. & prod. Håvard Bustnes
  prod. Christian Aune Falch, Bird Runningwater
  
  
• Power | International Premiere
  dir. & prod. Yance Ford
  prods. Netsanet Negussie, Sweta Vohra, Jess Devaney
  
  
• Silent Trees | World Premiere
  dir. & prod. Agnieszka Zwiefka
  prods. Heino Deckert, Sigrid Dyekjaer, Zofia Kujawska
  
  
• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story | European Premiere
  dirs. Peter Ettedgui & Ian Bonhôte
  prods. Lizzie Gillett, Ian Bonhôte, Robert Ford
  
  
• The Black Garden | World Premiere
  dir. Alexis Pazoumian
  prod. Clara Vuillermoz
  
  
• The Bones | World Premiere
  dir. Jeremy Xido
  prod. Ina Fichman
  
  
• The Stimming Pool | World Premiere
  dirs. The Neurocultures Collective, Benjamin Brown, Georgia Bradburn, Sam Chown-Ahern, Robin Elliott-Knowles, Lucy Walker, Steven Eastwood
  prod. Chloe White, Steven Eastwood
  
  
• Your Fat Friend
  dir. & prod. Jeanie Finlay
  prod. Suzanne Alizart

CPH: FORUM

At CPH:FORUM, top producers and highly acknowledged directors from all over the world take the stage to pitch 30 carefully selected projects of documentary features and series in the intersection of nonfiction, fiction, visual art, journalism, and science. Six films from our community of filmmakers were presented.

2023 Research & Development Grant recipient Cinderella Unbound, UK/RO
dir. & prod Ilinca Calugareanu | prod. Anamaria Antoci

Freedom (WT), DK
dir. Camilla Nielsson | prod. Signe Byrge Sørensen

In Praise of Invasive Species, CA
dir. Mila Aung-Thwin | prod. Bob Moore

The Dirty Dream, IN
dirs. & prods. Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh

The Listeners, UK/US/FR
dir. & prod. Lindsey Dryden | prod. Samantha Steele

Victor, US
dir. Stephani Victor | prods. Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Matt Radecki

CPH: CONFERENCE

A 4-day industry event offering a range of inspiring talks with visionary thinkers, investigating current themes in documentary filmmaking, and creating an interactive and hands-on platform for exchange with other professionals of our documentary community. The theme this year was Re:Building Narratives – Accessibility And Equity In Documentary. Our filmmakers were well represented across the different activities from Tuesday, March 19 to Friday, March 22.

SOCIETY: STORIES OF OUR LIFETIMES

Tuesday, March 19

With Lizzie Gillett and Sigrid Dyekjær, producers of supported film Merkel, as keynote speakers for the Viva Independent Feature Docs section. Clara Vuillermoz, producer of 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Polaris was a speaker in the A Conflict of Interest or an Interest in Conflict? section. Lindsey Dryden, supported through the QUEER FUTURES program, also participated in the LGBTQIA panel. Curated by 2023 Development grant recipient Derren Lawford. 

FILM:MAKERS IN DIALOGUE

Wednesday, March 20

With 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Brett Story, Stephen Maing, producer of supported film Union, and Yance Ford, director of supported film Strong Island.

SCIENCE: WAYS OF KNOWING AND SEEING

Thursday, March 21

With 2023 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Lisa Jackson as a keynote speaker in the Stars: Indigenous Ways of Knowing section, and Mila Aung-Thwin, producer of 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab participant Midwives, as a speaker in the Action: Legacies of science, cinematic justice section.

2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Margreth Olin is also considered an expert at the conference.

Meet our Team at CPH:DOX

Our Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes and Program Director Kiyoko McCrae attended and took 1:1 meetings with filmmakers.

We are proud to congratulate a longtime collaborator and advisor in our labs, Carla Gutierrez, for the international premiere of her new documentary, Frida.

Post written by Communications Assistant Tess Caldwell

We are sending special congratulations to the 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee Razing Liberty Square on their World Premiere. See below for more details.

• 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Against the Tide | Canadian Premiere | dir. Sarvnik Kaur | prod. Koval Bhatia

• 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist – Eat Bitter | Canadian Premiere | dirs. Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy | prod. Mathieu Faure

• 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Tatiana Huezo’s – The Echo | North American Premiere | dir. & prod. Tatiana Huezo | prod. Dalia Reyes

• 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory | Canadian Premiere | dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi | prods. Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue

• 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Milisuthando | Canadian Premiere | dir. Milisuthando Bongela | prod. Marion Isaacs

• 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Grantee Mila Turajlić’s Non-Aligned: Scenes From the Labudović Reels | North American Premiere | dir. & prod. Mila Turajlić | prod. Carine Chichkowsky

• 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Polaris | Canadian Premiere | dir. Ainara Vera  | prods. Clara Vuillermoz, Emile Hertling Peronard

• 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Tonje Hessen Schei’s Praying for Armageddon | North American Premiere | dir. Tonje Hessen Schei | co-dir. Michael Rowley | prods Torstein Parelius, Ingrid G. Aune Falch, Christian Aune Falch

• 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee Razing Liberty Square | World Premiere | dir. & prod. Katja Esson | prods. Ann Bennett, Corinna Sager, Ronald Baez

• 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Jialing Zhang’s Total Trust | North American Premiere | dir. & prod. Jialing Zhang | prods. Knut Jager, Michael Grotenhoff, Saskia Kress

Special Presentations in the Big Ideas Section

The 2023 Special Presentations program features high-profile subjects, award-winning films and filmmakers, and masterful perspectives on current events and pressing issues. There are 24 films set to screen in this program. Two Nest-supported films are being featured in the Big Ideas section.

Is there Anybody Out There?

dir. Ella Glendining

prod. Janine Marmot

2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Is There Anybody Out There? is having its Canadian premiere.

Get your tickets here.

It’s Only Life After All

dir. & prod. Alexandria Bombach

prods. Kathlyn Horan, Jess Devaney, Anya Rous

Hot Docs Forum

The Hot Docs Forum, one of the festivals’ flagship industry events, is where filmmakers are able to pitch to international decision makers. This year, they’ve chosen 19 Forum projects representing 16 countries and 23 filmmakers, 12 of whom are women and 11 of whom are BIPOC.

Intercepted

dir. Oksana Karpovych 

prods. Giacomo Nudi, Rocío Barba Fuentes, Pauline Tran Van Lieu, Lucie Rego, Darya Bassel

Intercepted is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee.

From the AlumNest

• We Will Not Fade Away
  dir. Alisa Kovalenko
  prods. Valery Kalmykov, Oleksiy Kobelev

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

Meet our Team at Hot Docs

Representing Chicken & Egg Pictures, our Program Director Kiyoko McCrae will be in attendance at Hot Docs. While in Toronto shell be attending the Hot Docs Forum, Deal Maker meetings, and attending the Work in Progress program.

Post written by Spring Intern Tess Caldwell

• 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist Eat Bitter | World Premiere | Dox:Award section | dirs. Ningyi Sun, Pascale Appora-Gnekindy | prod. Mathieu Faure 

• 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Is There Anybody Out There? | Highlights section | dir. Ella Glendining | prod. Janine Marmot 

• 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Mila Turajlić’s Non-Aligned: Scenes from the Labudović Reels | Artists & Auteurs section | dir. & prod. Mila Turajlić | prod. Carine Chichkowsky

• 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Tonje Hessen Schei’s Praying for Armageddon | F:act Award section | dir. Tonje Hessen Schei | co-dir. Michael Rowley

• 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Margreth Olin’s Songs of Earth | World Premiere | Dox:Award section | dir. & prod. Margreth Olin

• 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory | Highlights section | dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi | prods. Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue

• 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Elwira Niewira’s The Hamlet Syndrome | Highlights section | dirs. Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosolowski | prod. Magdalena Kaminska

• 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee The Tuba Thieves | Next:Wave section | dir. & prod. Alison O’Daniel

• 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Jialing Zhang’s Total Trust | World Premiere | Dox: Award and Rewriting the Future sections | dir. & prod. Jialing Zhang | prods. Knut Jager, Michael Grotenhoff, Saskia Kress

QUEER FUTURES

In partnership with Multitude Films, three short documentaries of the QUEER FUTURES series, directed by Brit Fryer & Noah Schamus, Twiggy Pucci Garçon, and Sasha Wortzel that radically imagine future visions of queer life, will have their world premiere. These films expand the boundaries of nonfiction to explore gender affirming care, fat beauty and liberation, and nonbinary ballroom culture. Transcending the rigidity and oppressions of the current moment, these directors locate, build, and inhabit worlds that offer us new ways of being–in the present and the future. 

• How to Carry Water
  dir. Sasha Wortzel
  prods. Jess Devaney, Anya Rous, Colleen Cassingham

• The Script
  dirs. Brit Fryer, Noah Schamus 
  prods. Jessica Devaney, Colleen Cassingham 

• MnM
  dir. Twiggy Pucci Garçon
  prods. Colleen Cassingham, Jessica Devaney

From the AlumNest

• Body Parts
  dir. Kristy Guevara-Flanagan
  prod. Helen Hood Scheer

• Kim’s Video
  dirs. & prods. Ashley Sabin, David Redmon
  prods. Deborah & Dale Smith, Rebecca Tabasky, Francesco Galavotti 

• Merkel
  dir. & prod. Eva Weber
  prods. Lizzie Gillett, Sigrid Jonsson Dyekjær, Sonja Henrici

• Victim/Suspect
  dir. & prod. Nancy Schwartzman
  prods. Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Alice Henty, Amanda Pike, Rachel de Leon

CPH: FORUM

At CPH:FORUM, top producers and highly acknowledged directors from all over the world take the stage to pitch 30 carefully selected projects of documentary features and series in the intersection of nonfiction, fiction, visual art, journalism, and science. Eight Nest-supported filmmakers will present their new projects: Brett Story, Iryna Tsilyk, Jessica Kingdon, Meena Nanji and Zippy Kimundu, Mila Turajlić, Oksana Karpovych, and Vaishali Sinha. 

CPH: CONFERENCE

A 5-day industry event offering a range of inspiring talks with visionary thinkers, investigating current themes in documentary filmmaking, and creating an interactive and hands-on platform for exchange with other professionals of our documentary community. Our Nest is well represented across the different activities from Monday, March 20 to Friday, March 24. 

A DIALOGUE ON CRAFT WITH MAITE ALBERDI AND ANNA HINTS
Monday, March 20
With 2020 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Maite Alberdi

THE TRUST POLICY 
Tuesday, March 21
With Chicken & Egg Pictures CEO Jenni Wolfson, Shanida Scotland (Doc Society), Jess Kwan (Concordia Fellowship), and Sean Flynn (Points North Institute).

A DIALOGUE ON CRAFT WITH ALISON O’DANIEL, AXEL DANIELSON & MAXIMILIEN VAN AERTRYCK
Tuesday, March 21
With 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab recipient Alison O’Daniel

A DIALOGUE ON CRAFT WITH JIALING ZHANG, PUK DAMSGÅRD AND SØREN KLOVBORG
Wednesday, March 22
With 2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Jialing Zhang

A DISCUSSION WITH JESSICA KINGDON
Thursday, March 23
With 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Jessica Kingdon

CITIZEN FILMMAKERS 
Friday, March 24
With 2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Elwira Niewira, 2018 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Nanfu Wang, 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Volia Chajkouskaya, and 2023 Critical Issues Fund recipient Alisa Kovalenko

SONGS OF EARTH – LISTENING TO CARE
Friday, March 24
With 2022 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Margreth Olin, Diego Galafassi, Cara Mertes, Bo Øksnebjerg, and Danielle Turkov Wilson

RISE OF INSTITUTIONS
Friday, March 24
With our Senior Creative Consultant Yvonne Welbon, 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Volia Chajkouskaya, and Anne Marie Borsboom.

Meet our Team at CPH:DOX

Our CEO Jenni Wolfson is participating in the CPH: CONFERENCE, and our Associate Director of Program Sabine Fayoux Cantillo will be taking 1:1 meetings with filmmakers.

We are sending huge congratulations to our International Program Consultant Tereza Simikova, CPH:DOX Head of Industry & Training, and to her team, for putting together this fantastic edition. 

We are proud to present the twelve grantees selected for the 2022 Critical Issues Fund. The Critical Issues Fund supports filmmakers, with more than $250,000 in funding, whose work is focused on important and topical issues that are currently having a decided and material impact on communities domestically and internationally. The 2022 grant awardees have projects exploring some of the most pressing issues of the moment: the war in Ukraine, gun violence, reproductive justice, and climate emergencies. 

“Through the Critical Issues Fund, we have identified films that have the potential to drive social change by sharing these stories with the world now—not years down the line. Chicken & Egg Pictures cares deeply about these issues and believes that a more equitable and just world can be shaped by the power of documentary films. Our hope is that through highlighting these stories told by talented women filmmakers, others will be motivated to action to support the films and the issues they highlight,” said CEO of Chicken & Egg Pictures, Jenni Wolfson. “We live in a world that’s not doing enough to prevent war, gun violence, climate change, or advance reproductive justice. We firmly believe these films can help in the fight for these issues.” 

We are thrilled to give these filmmakers a warm welcome to the Nest. The 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantees are: 

After Roe (Working title)
Directors: Amber Fares, Geeta Gandbhir (US/CANADA)
After Roe explores the ongoing nationwide battle playing out after the Supreme Court left the fate of tens of millions of women in the hands of politicians across the country.

Breaking the News
Directors: Heather Courtney, Chelsea Hernandez, Princess Hairston (US)
Producer: Diane Quon
Breaking the News follows a group of women and non-binary journalists, bucking the white male status quo, to launch The 19th*—a digital news startup that asks who has been omitted from mainstream coverage and how they can be included.

Displaced 
Director: Olha Zhurba (UKRAINE)
Producer: Darya Bassel 
Displaced captures a collective portrait of Ukrainians fleeing the grindstones of war, and those who stayed and are forced to adapt to life under constant shelling.

Frontline 
Director: Alisa Kovalenko (UKRAINE)
Producer: Katarzyna Kuczyńska 
Co-producers: Monica Hellström, Valeryi Kalmykov
Frontline is a diary from the frontline of the Russian invasion of Ukraine by a director and mother turned soldier.

Hollywood Does Abortion (Working title)
Directors & Producers: Barbara Attie, Mike Attie, Janet Goldwater (US)
Producer: Eliza Licht 
Hollywood Does Abortion explores descriptions of abortion in film and television, revealing how Hollywood both reflects and distorts this safe but controversial medical procedure.

Intercepted 
Director: Oksana Karpovych (UKRAINE/CANADA)
Producer: Les Films Cosmos
Intercepted is a journey through Ukraine that reveals the banality of evil behind the Russian invasion.

Plan C
Director & Producer: Tracy Droz Tragos (US)
Plan C follows the journey of a grassroots network, with a controversial visionary at the helm, as they fight to expand access to abortion pills across the United States, and keep hope alive during a global pandemic and the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Razing Liberty Square 
Director: Katja Esson (GERMANY/US)
Razing Liberty Square features Miami as ground zero for sea level rise. When residents of the Liberty Square public-housing community learn about a $300-million revitalization project in 2015, they soon discover that this sudden interest comes from the fact that their neighborhood is located on the highest and driest ground in the city. Now they must prepare to fight a new form of racial injustice: climate gentrification.

Red Zone
Director: Iryna Tsilyk (UKRAINE)
Producer: Darya Bassel 
Red Zone shares Tsilyk’s very intimate and female perspective on the question—what does it mean to be a woman in the war times?

Sol in the Garden 
Directors: Emily Cohen Ibañez, Débora Souza Silva (US/COLOMBIA/BRAZIL)
Sol in the Garden features Sol—who is released from prison after 16 years of incarceration—and follows her journey as she discovers that coming into her own freedom can be as challenging as living behind bars. Through a community gardening collective of formerly incarcerated horticulturalists in East Oakland, Sol strives to recover her humanity and sense of self.

Untitled Baby Doe Film 
Director: Jessica Earnshaw (CANADA)
Producer: Holly Meehl Chapman
Untitled Baby Doe Film intimately explores the phenomena of pregnancy denial through the stories of two women, a generation apart, given life sentences for the deaths of their newborns.

Untitled Uvalde Documentary 
Director & Producer: Anayansi Prado (PANAMA/US)

Note: The parentheses next to the directors’ names indicate the directors’ country or countries of origin.