Chicken & Egg Pictures has selected the grantees for its 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab, Women and Hollywood can confirm exclusively. The program awards a total of $400,000 to first- and second-time women and nonbinary documentary filmmakers.
“Despite the pandemic’s effects on our industry, documentary filmmakers continue to develop daring new projects, and so we at Chicken & Egg Pictures continue to support them at the same level,” said Program Director Lucila Moctezuma. “On International Women’s Day, we are proud to announce ten newly supported projects by filmmakers from around the world: each telling unique stories of otherness and belonging and pushing the boundaries of documentary film. We have already begun to offer support through our first retreat, and our team can’t be more excited to work with this cohort of talented and determined filmmakers throughout the year.”
The participating projects include “Testament,” Zipporah Kimundu and Meena Nanji’s chronicle of activist Wanjugu Kimathi’s fight for justice in Kenya, and Isabel Castro’s “Mija,” a portrait of a music manager whose work is essential to protecting her undocumented family. Also among the selections is Ella Glendining’s “Is There Anybody Out There?,” which follows a young woman with a rare disability as she searches for other people like herself.
“The internationally-based directors hail from the U.S., Mexico, India, Lebanon, Kenya, U.K., Serbia, and Sweden,” a press release details, “and their work has been supported by Black Public Media, DocedgeKolkata, and NeXtDoc and featured in The Centre Pompidou, The Marshall Project, and The New York Times.” Several of the 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab filmmakers have also done advocacy work in the documentary field: Kimundu founded Afrofilms International and Nanji founded GlobalGirl Media, while “Last Nomads” director Biljana Tutorov serves as Program Director at CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator.
The (Egg)celerator Lab counts Loira Limbal (“Through the Night”), Jacqueline Olive (“Always in Season”), and Rintu Thomas (“Writing With Fire”) among its alumnae.
Synopses and credits for the 2021 grantees are below, courtesy of Chicken & Egg.
Note: The parentheses next to the directors’ names indicate the filmmakers’ nationalities and/or countries of origin.
Acts of Reparation
Directors: Selina Lewis Davidson, Macky Alston (U.S.)
Two friends—Black and white—explore how to heal historic injury from slavery and the Native American genocide in their friendship, families, communities, and nation.
Against the Tide
Director: Sarvnik Kaur (INDIA)
A tale of love, brotherhood, and resentments against the backdrop of an adoring sea, which is turning adverse under the menacing effects of an all-pervading calamity called climate change.
Is There Anybody Out There?
Director: Ella Glendining (U.K.)
A young woman with a rare disability documents her search for others with the same condition, never having seen another body like her own.
Mija
Director: Isabel Castro (MEXICO / U.S.)
Doris Muñoz is an ambitious music manager whose undocumented family depends on her ability to discover aspiring pop stars.
Q
Director: Jude Chehab (U.S. / LEBANON)
God works in mysterious ways and so do women—through an intergenerational lens, the filmmaker goes deep into her mother and grandmother’s lives to reveal their attachment to a secret muslim women’s cult.
Seeds
Director: Brittany Shyne (U.S.)
A portrait of a centennial African-American farm in Thomasville, Georgia. Using lyrical black and white imagery, this meditative film examines the decline of generational black farmers and the significance of owning land.
Testament
Directors: Zipporah Kimundu, Meena Nanji (KENYA / U.S.)
Wanjugu Kimathi leads a struggle for narrative and economic justice in Kenya, exposing British colonial atrocities and building a nationwide grassroots movement for land reparations.
The In Between
Director: Robie Flores (U.S. / MEXICO)
A lyrical coming-of-age portrait of growing up on the US-Mexico border. Woven from the daily lives of children in the sister cities of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, the film is a celebration of fronterizo identity.
The Last Nomads
Director: Biljana Tutorov (SERBIA / SWEDEN)
A tumultuous family drama unfolds as Gara (59) and Nada (13) defend their land, which is set to become military proving ground—threatening their environment, people, and way of life.
The Tuba Thieves
Director: Alison O’Daniel (U.S.)
From 2011-2013 tubas were stolen from Los Angeles schools. The Tuba Thieves is not about thieves or missing tubas. Instead, it asks what it means to listen.
