Chicken & Egg Pictures Announces Grant Recipients
[Source: Chicken & Egg Pictures, July 29, 2010]
MARKING FIVE YEARS, CELEBRATING $1.5 MILLION & MORE THAN 3,000 MENTORSHIP HOURS FOR WOMEN FILMMAKERS
Organization's Environmental-Focused "Which Came First Fund'' to Support Three Films in Production in the Gulf Region in Aftermath of the Devastating BP Oil Spill, A Collaboration with Veteran Filmmaker/Producer Marc Weiss
NEW YORK – Chicken & Egg Pictures, the hybrid film fund and nonprofit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers, is proud to announce the grant recipients from the 2010 Spring Open Call.
Now in its fifth year of operation, with over $1.5 million in grants and over 3,000 mentorship hours provided to women filmmakers, Chicken & Egg Pictures is indeed ''incubating and hatching all at once.''
Founded in 2005 by award-winning independent producer/directors Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand, Chicken & Egg Pictures nurtures and supports women filmmakers whose diverse voices represent a range of lived experiences and realities that have the power to change the world as we know it. This unique hybrid of a film fund, philanthropic organization and ''hands-with'' production entity matches strategically-timed financial support with rigorous,
respectful and dynamic mentorship, creative collaboration and community-building opportunities.
This spring, more than 300 applications were submitted for three grant categories.
''We are re-inspired by the rigorous and passionate work that women non-fiction filmmakers are tackling and bringing to the fore. There is no lack of inspiration, no lack of optimism in the face of very serious and egregious times and there is no doubt in our minds that women storytellers have an important place at the table of public thought and action – one that they are setting with intense, important and riveting stories of our times and for our times. There are more worthy projects than we can support. Thus, we have strived to make our application process – from the practical questions on our Letter of Inquiry to the group feedback ''best practices'' sessions we offer around the country – a process that will benefit projects beyond the Chicken & Egg Pictures grant process."
- Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand
I BELIEVE IN YOU GRANTS
I Believe in You grants are made at varying stages of the production and post-production process. They offer a filmmaker the freedom to explore her vision, kick off and develop a project, find grace and clarity in creative chaos, spend time in the edit room or serve as a bridge to her next goal. Films that received this grant and have recently gone on to great success include Monica and David by Alexandra Codina (Winner of Best Documentary Feature at Tribeca 2010, forthcoming HBO broadcast) and Wo Ai Ni Mommy by Stephanie Wang-Breal (Winner of Best Documentary Feature at Silverdocs 2010, forthcoming PBS/POV broadcast).
I Believe in You grantees from the Chicken & Egg Pictures 2010 Spring Open Call announced today are:
ALWAYS IN SEASON, directed by Jacqueline Olive (Bay Area)
For almost a century until the mid-1960s, tens of thousands of ordinary people attended the lynchings of nearly 5,000 African Americans that often included hours of torture, mutilation and photographs. With intimate accounts from spectators, their descendants and relatives of lynching victims, ALWAYS IN SEASON examines the effect this level of violence still has on Americans, while exploring whether it really has been easy for blacks and whites to forget a recent past that includes racial terrorism. (Development/Production)
CALL ME KUCHU, directed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright (UK and NYC)
CALL ME KUCHU tells the story – at once tragic and hopeful – of a tight-knit community of gay and transgender Ugandans in a country where homosexuality is a crime punishable by life imprisonment. At a time when an “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” tabled in Parliament promises even harsher penalties, and religious leaders orchestrate ferocious anti-gay marches, Uganda's "kuchus" find themselves fighting for justice and freedom on the frontlines of Africa's gay rights movement. (Editing)
CHESS MOVIE (working title), directed by Katie Dellamaggiore (NYC)
A squat concrete building on an inner-city block, Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, New York may not impress from the outside, but inside Ms. Vicary’s classroom, something special is happening. Here, hundreds of students have learned to play chess, one of the world's oldest and most complex games. I.S. 318 boasts the best junior high chess program in the nation, despite a high percentage of student poverty. This year, chess team members learn that being the best isn't easy, especially when state and city-wide budget cuts threaten their beloved afterschool program. (Editing)
DEAR MANDELA, directed by Dara Kell and Christopher Nizza (NYC)
The South African government promised to ‘eradicate the slums’ by 2010, in time for the Soccer World Cup. But three young shack dwellers who live in the vast slums of Durban refuse to be moved from their homes. DEAR MANDELA follows their journey over three years, from the chaos on the streets to the highest court in the land as they resist the evictions and put the promises of their hero, Nelson Mandela, to the test. (Editing towards completion)
EL JARDIN (working title), directed by Natalia Almada (Mexico City)
EL JARDIN is a portrait of a cemetery in the drug heartland of México. Since the war on drugs began in 2007, the cemetery has doubled in size and the mausoleums have doubled in height creating a skyline that looks like a fantastical surrealist city more than a resting place for the deceased. Here, the lives of the cemetery workers and families of the victims, guilty and innocent, intersect in the shadow of this bloody conflict that has claimed over 23,000 lives. (Editing)
OUR SCHOOL, directed by Mona Nicoara (NYC) co-directed by Miruna Coca-Cozma (Romania)
OUR SCHOOL tells the story of race relations in a small Transylvanian town through the eyes of Roma children struggling to break the barriers of segregation. The documentary follows three children, over a period of four years, as they seek a better future through education. The result is an elegy about hope and squandered opportunities, as well as a meditation on what it truly means - and what it truly takes - to give a real chance to a whole generation of children. (Editing)
SEEKING ASIAN FEMALE, directed by Debbie Lum (SF)
A Chinese-American filmmaker ventures into the world of an older Caucasian man who is obsessed with young Asian women like her. When he meets a willful young woman from China over the Internet and she agrees to come to the U.S. to marry him, fantasy and reality collide in this unexpected tale of modern love. (Post-production)
LIBERTY GRANT
The Liberty Grant from Chicken & Egg Pictures enables a filmmaker to stop fundraising, focus on the creative side of completing her film and launch on the festival circuit with her rights and spirit intact. The film Freeheld from Cynthia Wade received the Liberty Grant and went on to the Academy Awards® in 2008 where it received the Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject and was broadcast on HBO.
The Liberty Grant recipient from the Chicken & Egg Pictures 2010 Spring Open Call announced today is:
THE PATRON SAINTS, directed by Melanie Shatzky & Brian M. Cassidy (USA/Canada).
PATRON SAINTS is a disquieting and at times surrealistic exploration of an assisted living facility. Bound by first-hand ruminations of the nursing home’s youngest and recently disabled resident, the film is a revealing portrait of the changing nature of bodies and minds. (Completion)
WHICH CAME FIRST FUND (WCFF)
In Spring 2009, Chicken & Egg Pictures launched the WHICH CAME FIRST FUND (WCFF), an environmental film fund dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are taking on challenging, time-sensitive and serious environmental-justice issues and translating them into compelling character-driven stories. Prior WHICH CAME FIRST FUND grantees include Garbage Dreams, directed by Mai Iskander, which has gone on to win 24 film festival awards and was shortlisted for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2009.
- SPECIAL INITIATIVE IN RESPONSE TO THE BIG SPILL -
This round, in response to the BP Oil Spill and devastation along the Gulf, Chicken & Egg Pictures' WHICH CAME FIRST FUND has teamed up with veteran filmmaker/producer Marc Weiss to support three films addressing the myriad of issues and environmental crises that the Gulf region has been grappling with for decades, now dramatically revealed by the ''Big Spill.''
“I'm thrilled to collaborate with Chicken & Egg Pictures. Applying their innovative and adaptable model to this disaster responds to the urgency of the moment, illustrating the critical role storytellers can play in the face of the worst man-made environmental disaster in many years." - Marc Weiss
The three ''Gulf'' films are: Rebecca Ferris's ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, Leah Mahan's TURKEY CREEK and Margaret Brown's UNTITLED MARGARET BROWN OIL SPILL DOC:
ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, directed by Rebecca Ferris (LA)
For 170 years, the Native Americans of Isle de Jean Charles have fished, hunted and lived off the land deep in the Louisiana bayous, but now a host of environmental problems - coastal erosion, sea level rise and the recent Gulf oil spill - are forcing them to decide whether to stay on their beloved island and potentially be washed away, or move to higher ground.
TURKEY CREEK, directed by Leah Mahan (LA)
When the historic African-American cemetery of Turkey Creek is bulldozed for commercial development, prodigal son Derrick Evans returns home to help protect his coastal Mississippi community. When the twin disasters of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill devastate the Gulf Coast, residents join with other endangered communities to fight for a sustainble future.
UNTITLED MARGARET BROWN OIL SPILL DOC, directed by Margaret Brown (AL and NYC)
Peabody-Award winner Margaret Brown's new documentary is an investigation into the personal stories behind the BP Oil Spill. The film will explore how scientific, government and corporate interests respond in the wake of an environmental crisis, and the way this is affecting a region and culture so rooted in nature.
The WHICH CAME FIRST FUND is also proud to be supporting Bag It with a WCFF Liberty (completion) grant.
BAG IT, directed by Susan Beraza (CO)
Is your life too plastic? Our story follows Jeb Berrier, an average American guy who is admittedly not a "tree hugger," who makes a pledge to stop using plastic bags. This simple action gets Jeb thinking about all kinds of plastic as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. When Jeb's journey takes a personal twist, we see how our crazy-for-plastic world has finally caught up to us and what we can do about it. Today. Right now. (Completion)
- ANNOUNCEMENT OF SPECIAL FUNDING INITIATIVE -
Chicken & Egg Pictures is partnering with the Rooftop Filmmakers' Fund for a second year to provide a grant for a short film by a woman filmmaker. (APPLICATIONS DUE AUGUST 3RD FOR NEW GRANT.)
The Rooftop Films / Chicken & Egg Women Filmmakers' Short Film Grant will award one $6,000 grant to a female director and match that director with a veteran filmmaker as a mentor or collaborator with a schedule that reflects the filmmaker's experience and needs. Equipment and utilities are also available to the filmmakers, courtesy of Rooftop Films.
"There is no better partner, with whom to be celebrating and investing in short film than Rooftop Films. Together we hope to build on our funding/mentorship/public programs initiatives and help give these short films extraordinary long and dynamic lives. All of us have been deeply impressed by Rooftop's long and indeed extraordinary commitment to nurturing, celebrating, funding and presenting short films. Via this partnership we look forward to helping them extend the opportunities given to women filmmakers,"
- Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand
The application process is now open and applications are due August 3, 2010. Every filmmaker who has ever screened at Rooftop Films, or who has ever applied for a grant in previous open calls, or received support from Chicken & Egg Pictures is eligible. Instructions on how to apply are available here:
http://www.rooftopfilms.com/produce_filmfundguidelines_shorts.html
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About Chicken & Egg Pictures
Chicken & Egg Pictures is a film fund and nonprofit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the art and craft of storytelling as they are about the human rights, global health and environmental justice issues they are embracing, translating and exploring on film.
Films that have received support from Chicken & Egg Pictures include: The Academy Award® winner Freeheld by Cynthia Wade (Best Documentary Short, 2008), Lioness by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, Connected by Tiffany Shlain (in production), Earth Camp One by Jennie Livingston (in production), Eventual Salvation by Dee Rees, Body Typed by Jesse Epstein and The Oath by Laura Poitras.
More information about these and other projects is available at www.CHICKENEGGPICS.org and the organization's blog at chickeneggpics.blogspot.com.
