We are sending special congratulations to the 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee Sol in the Garden for their World Premiere. 

Against the Tide

dir. Sarvnik Kaur 

prod. Koval Bhatia, Quentin Laurent

Against the Tide is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its California Premiere as a part of the Documentaries: International section. 

Get your tickets here.

How to Carry Water

dir. Sasha Wortzel

prod. Jess Devaney, Anya Rous, Colleen Cassingham

How to Carry Water was supported in partnership with Multitude Films as a part of the QUEER FUTURES series and will take part in the “Shorts 3: The Body” section of the festival.

Get your tickets here.

Hummingbirds

dirs. Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía “Beba” Contreras

co-dirs. & prods. Jillian Schlesinger, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin, Diane Ng, Ana Rodriguez-Falco

prods. Leslie Benavides, Rivkah Beth Medow

Hummingbirds is a 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab finalist having its California premiere in the Documentaries: USA and GGA Documentary Competition sections.

Get your tickets here.

Milisuthando

dir. Milisuthando Bongela

prod. Marion Isaacs  

Milisuthando is a 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its California premiere in the Documentaries: International and GGA Documentary Competition sections.

Get your tickets here.

Sol in the Garden

dirs. & prods. Emily Cohen Ibañez and Débora Souza Silva

Sol in the Garden is a 2022 Critical Issues Fund grantee having its World Premiere as a part of the Bay Area Short Film category as well as a three-part shorts program.

Get your tickets here.

The Tuba Thieves

dir. & prod. Alison O’Daniel

The Tuba Thieves is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee having its California Premiere as a part of the Documentaries: USA section. 

Get your tickets here.

From the AlumNest

• King Coal
  dir. & prod. Elaine McMillion Sheldon
  prods. Shane Boris, Diane Becker, Peggy Drexler
  
  
• Confessions of a Good Samaritan
  dir. Penny Lane
  prod. Gabriel Sedgwick

Post written by Spring intern Tess Caldwell

Mija

dir. & prod. Isabel Castro

prod. Tabs Breese, Yesenia Tlahuel

With Doris’ voice as our guide, Mija uses VHS archive, verité footage, and camcorder vlogging to tell the story of two young women’s coming-of-age journeys as they look for success and belonging. The film is an immensely emotional and intimate portrait honoring the resilience of immigrants and their children. 

Mija is a 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the McBaine Documentary Feature Competition.

For our Children

(previously Black Mothers Love & Resist)

dir. & prod. Débora Souza Silva

prod. David Felix Sutcliffe

Wanda Johnson and Angela Williams, mothers of young Black men victimized by police brutality, come together and build a network of community-led support, mutual aid, and healing in this trenchant documentary. 

For our Children is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Documentaries: USA section.

Midwives

dir. & prod. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

prods. Bob Moore, Ulla Lehmann, Mila Aung-Thwin

A tale of the complicated relationship between Rohingya and Buddhists in Myanmar, told over five years through the eyes of two midwives from either side of the divide. 

Midwives is a 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee and is part of the Documentaries: USA section.

From the AlumNest

• The Janes
  dirs. Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes
  prods. Emma Pildes, Daniel Arcana, Jessica Levin
  
  
• TikTok, Boom.
  dir. & prod. Shalini Kantayya
  prods. Ross M. Dinerstein, Danni Mynard

A special shout out to our Co-Founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello, producer of Sell/Buy/Date (dir. & prod. Sarah Jones, prods. David Goldblum, Julie Parker Benello), screening in the Documentaries: USA section.

Check out the full line-up with this link.

The San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM), among the longest running film festivals in the US, unveiled the line-up yesterday for its 62nd annual showcase. Congratulations to the Nest-supported filmmakers who will be soaring to the Bay Area for the festival, which takes place from Wednesday, April 10  to Tuesday, April 23:

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

• Sunday, April 14 at 4:30 pm at SFMOMA
• Tuesday, April 16 at 8:30 pm at  SFMOMA Phyllis Wattis Theater

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

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

• Sunday, April 14 at 1:00 pm at BAMPFA
• Monday, April 15 at 6:00 pm at Creativity Theater

Always In Season, directed by Jacqueline Olive (2018 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee)

When 17-year-old Lennon Lacy is found hanging from a swing set in rural North Carolina in 2014, his mother’s search for justice and reconciliation begins while the trauma of more than a century of lynching African Americans bleeds into the present.

• Thursday, April 18 at 6:00 pm at SFMOMA
• Friday, April 19 at 6:00 pm at Grand Lake Theatre
• Saturday, April 20 at 3:30 pm at Creativity Theater

Hail Satan?, directed by Penny Lane (2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient)

A look at the intersection of religion and activism, tracing the rise of The Satanic Temple: only six years old and already one of the most controversial religious movements in American history. The Temple is calling for a Satanic revolution to save the nation’s soul. But are they for real?**

• Saturday, April 20 at 6:00 pm at Victoria Theatre
• Tuesday, April 23 at 8:30 pm at Roxie Theatre

And a special congratulations to Rachel Lears, director of Knock Down the House, which will screen Saturday, April 13 at 7:30 pm at Castro Theatre. Rachel is a former Nest grantee for The Hand that Feeds. 

The festival will run from April 4-17. For more information on the programming, schedule, and tickets, visit the SFFILM website.

Tre Maison Dasan, directed by Denali Tiller

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.

The following films directed by filmmakers who have been supported by the Nest in the past will also be screening at the 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival!

Inventing Tomorrow directed by Laura Nix (2018 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient)
The Pushouts directed by Katie Galloway (director of the Nest-supported film, The Return)
Skywards directed by Eva Weber (director of the Nest-supported film, Black Out)

Post by 2018 Spring Programs Intern Dinayuri Rodriguez.

Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to support three films being featured at this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival: MUHI – Generally Temporary, directed by Rina Castelnuvo-Hillerma and Tamir Elterman (in competition for the Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature); Motherland, directed by Ramona Diaz; and Whose Streets?, directed by Sabaah Folyan and co-directed by Damon Davis. Congratulations Rina, Tamir, Ramona, Sabaah, and Damon and good luck to MUHI – Generally Temporary!

For more information about the SF International Film Festival, or the full festival lineup, visit the SFFS website.

MUHI – Generally Temporary
Directed by Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander
and Tamir Elterman

MUHI – Generally Temporary tells the story of Muhammad (Muhi), a Palestinian child from Gaza and the son of a Hamas activist wanted by Israel. As a newborn, Muhi is transferred to Israel for treatment of a life-threatening condition. Months turn into years and Muhi, now six, has lived his whole life in the Israeli hospital, confined for security reasons to its premises with his grandfather. The film explores Muhi’s contradictory world in which he is treated, raised, and saved by his people’s enemy, while his parents remain in Gaza.

Screenings: 

April 9, 12:30 p.m. (SFMOMA) / April 12, 6:30 p.m. (BAMPFA) / April 13, 1:00 p.m. (YBCA Screening Room)

To buy tickets, visit the SFFS MUHI – Generally Temporary webpage.

Motherland
Directed by Ramona Diaz

One of the world’s poorest and most populous countries, the Philippines, struggles with reproductive health policy—both in the legislature where laws are in debate, and in a hospital with the busiest maternity ward on the planet.

Screenings:

April 6, 6:00 p.m. (YBCA Screening Room) / April 8, 7:30 p.m. (Roxie Theater)

To buy tickets, visit the SFFS Motherland webpage.

Whose Streets?
Directed by Sabaah Folayan
and co-directed by Damon Davis

A firsthand look at how the murder of one teenage boy became the last straw for a community under siege, Whose Streets? is a story of love, loss, conflict, and ambition. Set in Ferguson, MO, the film follows the journey of everyday people whose lives are intertwined with a burgeoning national movement for black liberation.

Screening:

April 14, 8:00 p.m. (PROXY)

To register for the free screening, visit the SFFS Whose Streets? webpage.

The festival, presented by the San Francisco Film Society, is the longest-running film festival in North America.

Longinotto will accept the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award on Saturday, May 2 and will participate in an onstage conversation following a screening of Dreamcatcher. Dreamcatcher tells the story of Brenda Myers-Powell, a former prostitute, who helps women and girls break the cycle of sexual abuse and exploitation. The film had its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where Longinotto was recognized with the World Cinema Documentary Directing Prize.

The film premiered on Showtime on March 27, 2015.

Democrats will have its first of three screenings on Monday, May 4 at the Pacific Film Archive Theater. The film recently had its world premiere at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival, winning the prize for Best Documentary Feature. Democrats follows two politicians from rival parties as they are assigned to a bipartisan committee tasked with transitioning Zimbabwe from an authoritarian government to a democratic one.