Four documentaries with festival premieres that were impacted by COVID-19 will receive grants from Chicken & Egg Pictures. The org, which supports women and non-binary nonfiction filmmakers, has announced the latest recipients of Project: Hatched, a film completion fund that has been reshaped in light of the pandemic. Women and Hollywood can exclusively confirm that Erika Cohn’s “Belly of the Beast,” Cecilia Aldarondo’s “Landfall,” Maria Finitzo’s “The Dilemma of Desire,” and Sharon Shattuck and Ian Cheney’s “Picture A Scientist” are the new grantees.
“Belly of the Beast” traces the fight against illegal sterilizations in women’s prisons, while “The Dilemma of Desire” explores female sexual desire. “Landfall” looks at post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico through an ecological and economic lens, and “Picture A Scientist” is about institutional gender discrimination in science.
Introduced earlier this year, Project: Hatched “was originally designed to support directors with finishing funds and mentorship as they prepared for the world premiere of a feature-length documentary film,” per a press release. The inaugural recipients were Shalini Kantayya’s “Coded Bias,” Elyse Steinberg, Eli Despres, and Josh Kriegman’s “The Fight,” and Anabel Rodríguez Ríos’ “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela.” To address the effects the coronavirus has had on festival-bound filmmakers, Chicken & Egg Pictures has “reshaped the program to better fit filmmakers’ needs in the current documentary film landscape.”
The latest recipients will be awarded a $10,000 to $20,000 cash grant, join a cohort for peer-to-peer mentorship calls with visiting experts, and set goals with and receive mentorship from Chicken & Egg’s senior creative team. Directors of the inaugural Project: Hatched grantees will also participate in the new peer-to-peer mentorship model, sharing their experiences and offering support to their peers.
“This unprecedented moment requires us to innovate as an organization and to reimagine the way our programs support filmmakers,” said Chicken & Egg Program Director Lucila Moctezuma. “Peer mentorship is an instrumental part of our programs, and we know that filmmakers need each other’s support in order to navigate this changed industry. Each member of this Project: Hatched cohort is a director seeking to forge new models in the documentary world, engage with their audiences in new ways, and increase the social impact of their films in the digital space.”
More details on the new Project: Hatched grantees are below, courtesy of Chicken & Egg.
Belly of the Beast Director: Erika Cohn (UNITED STATES)
When an unlikely duo discovers a pattern of illegal sterilizations in women’s prisons, they wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections.
Belly of the Beast made its world premiere in June 2020 as the opening night film of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival—Digital. The film has since been profiled in Documentary Magazine, The Guardian, and The Root.
Landfall Director: Cecilia Aldarondo (UNITED STATES)
Through shard-like glimpses of everyday life in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico, Landfall examines a ruined world at the brink of transformation, spinning a cautionary tale for our times.
An official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, Hot Docs International Film Festival, and DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Landfall has recently been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, Filmmaker Magazine, among other publications.
Picture A Scientist Directors: Sharon Shattuck, Ian Cheney (UNITED STATES)
Picture A Scientist chronicles the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists.
Picture A Scientist was an official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. The film’s virtual theatrical run reached 47 theaters across the USA in June 2020, and raised money for two organizations advancing women of color in STEM. The film has been featured in Science Magazine, Variety, and Salon.
The Dilemma of Desire Director: Maria Finitzo (UNITED STATES)
An exploration of “cliteracy,” and the clash between the gender politics and the imperatives of female sexual desire.
The Dilemma of Desire was originally slated to premiere at SXSW Film Festival and went on to screen at the digital editions of Hot Docs International Film Festival, deadCenter Film Festival, and AFI DOCS Film Festival. The film has been reviewed in Indiewire, The Hollywood Reporter, and Women and Hollywood.
