Chicken & Egg Pictures has announced the 10 grant recipients of its 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab, Women and Hollywood can report exclusively. The program awards a total of $400,000 to women or nonbinary non-fiction filmmakers working on their first or second feature-length documentary.
Each (Egg)celerator Lab grantee will receive $40,000. Winning projects include Jennifer Rainsford’s “Stories from the Debris,” a collection of poetic stories about trauma and renewal, and “Midwives,” Snow’s portrait of two midwives practicing at a makeshift clinic.
“Several films in this cohort explore similar themes through vastly different subjects,” a press release details. “‘A Photographic Memory,’ ‘Black Mothers,’ and ‘Machtat’ tell stories of motherhood through art and memory, racial injustice, and marriage in the context of patriarchy. ‘Commuted’ and ‘Polaris’ are both stories of women’s lives after incarceration, one taking place in New Orleans and the other between France and the Arctic.”
(Egg)celerator Lab alumnae include Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang (“One Child Nation”), Lyric R. Cabral (“The Rashomon Effect”), and Jacqueline Olive (“Always in Season”).
“With the (Egg)celerator Lab, Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to bring some exciting new voices to both the US market and to the international documentary stage,” said Executive Director Jenni Wolfson. “Our holistic model of support for filmmakers not only gives them a financial boost for their projects but also equips them with creative mentorship, professional coaching, and industry connections that will last them their entire careers.”
Established in 2005, Chicken & Egg has provided over $8 million in grants and thousands of hours of creative mentorship to over 320 women and nonbinary filmmakers. For 2020, its 15th anniversary year, the org has pledged to award over $1 million across its five main programs — more than they have ever given out in a single year.
The 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab projects are below, courtesy of Chicken & Egg.
Note: The parentheses next to the directors’ names indicate the directors’ country or countries of origin.
Hidden Letters
Directors: Violet Du Feng, Zhao Qing (CHINA)
Two young Chinese Millennials in rural and metropolitan China look toward the wisdom of an ancient, secret woman-only script in order to navigate their lives in a world still dominated by men.
Eskape
Director: Neary Adeline Hay (CAMBODIA/FRANCE)
The survival story of a mother and her daughter, the filmmaker, through the desperate flight from a crumbling Cambodia after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime.
Midwives
Director: Snow (Hnin Ei Hlaing) (MYANMAR)
Two midwives work side by side in a makeshift medical clinic.
Commuted
Director: Nailah Jefferson (US)
Commuted is an intimate look at the life of Danielle Metz and the familial impacts of long-term incarceration.
Stories from the Debris
Director: Jennifer Rainsford (SWEDEN/UK)
With the Japanese Tsunami of 2011 as a backdrop, Stories from the Debris assembles a collection of poetic stories about how humans and nature rebuild after trauma.
The Boy and the Suit of Lights
Director: Inma de Reyes (SPAIN/SCOTLAND)
Hoping to rescue his family from poverty, young Borja is torn between tradition and progress as he trains to fulfil his family’s dream of him becoming a bullfighter.
Black Mothers
Director: Débora Souza Silva (BRAZIL)
Violence. Outrage. Impunity. Repeat. Black Mothers follows the journey of two women working to disrupt the cycle of racist police violence within our country’s judicial system.
A Photographic Memory
Director: Rachel Elizabeth Seed (US)
A photographer attempts to piece together a portrait of her mother, Sheila Turner-Seed, a daring journalist and a woman she never knew. Uncovering the vast archive Turner-Seed produced, including lost interviews with iconic photographers, the film explores memory, legacy and stories left untold.
Machtat
Director: Sonia Ben Slama (FRANCE/TUNISIA)
Machtat chronicles the daily life of Fatma and her daughters Najeh and Waffeh, wedding musicians in a small town in Tunisia.
Polaris
Director: Ainara Vera (SPAIN)
Polaris tells the story of two French sisters with opposite lives that reconnect with one another to support the life of a newborn baby.
