Happy Halloween to our tough, brilliant community of filmmakers, supporters, peers, and friends.
There’s plenty happening right now that’s meant to scare us. But we are more formidable and determined, more creative than Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger could ever dream (ha!) of being. You know when, about 20 minutes into a horror movie, everyone in the group chooses to split up? And inevitably, they each meet their doom but for the one 'final girl'? Well, we’re not following that tired old plot. We’re proudly arm-in-arm with you all, ready to face down the monster of the week. We see working together, protecting the collective, as an imperative that means we'll all not just survive, but thrive.
Read on to learn about Chicken & Egg’s upcoming WIP Showcase at DOC NYC, our experience at the Women Moving Millions Summit, fall’s bounty of community wins, a farewell to Associate Director of Program Sabine Fayoux Cantillo, and more.
May your weekend prove a treat! Thanks for reading. 🎃🦇
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20th Anniversary WIP Showcase at DOC NYC
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In celebration of our 20th anniversary, we’re proud to present a WIP Showcase at this year’s DOC NYC on November 13. The showcase will feature six supported films and offer filmmakers the opportunity to gain industry support and funding. Learn more and get a ticket to the showcase here.
WIP Participants:
✦ Emma Francis-Snyder’s Anatomy of a Life
✦ Habiba Nosheen’s The Gymnasts of Fisherman Colony
✦ Ashley O'Shay’s Southmont Drive
✦ Rita Baghdadi’s Stallions
✦ Amada Tourrella’s Vena Acuática
✦ Maris Salumets’s War on Women
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Plus, more C&E at DOC NYC...
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Sharing the Power of Story at WMM
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Pictured: Jenni Wolfson, Nisha Pahuja, Sara Khaki, and Monika Parekh
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“Before policy can change, public imagination has to expand—and that expansion begins with story.” —Jenni Wolfson
At this year’s Women Moving Millions Summit, CEO Jenni Wolfson moderated a conversation with supported filmmaker Sara Khaki (Cutting Through Rocks), filmmaker Nisha Pahuja, and Monika Parekh of P-Squared Philanthropies to reflect on how stories fuel empathy, accountability, and real change. The theme of the summit was "The future is collective," and we were proud to show up, learn, and share together with such powerhouse change-makers.
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Looking Back at CIFF 2025
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Pictured: Katarzyna Kuczynsa, Alisa Kovalenko
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At this year's Camden International Film Festival, Program Director Kiyoko McCrae served on the Cinematic Vision Award jury, while Program Coordinator Will Tamura met with prospective filmmakers, and Communications Manager Mariana Sanson documented all the hot conversations and happenings (check out our IG highlights).
And of course, along the way we cheered on our AlumNest filmmakers included in the lineup: Brittany Shyne, Alisa Kovalenko, Brit Fry, Lydia Cornett, Ainara Vera, Geeta Gandbhir, and Iva Radivojević!
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Film spotlight: There Was, There Was Not |
Pictured: Emily Mkrtichian and Céline Semaan
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“The documentary evolved from an observational meditation on strength into an urgent portrayal of survival, capturing the personal and cultural impacts of a homeland at risk of loss, and the power of story to keep it alive.”—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire
Congratulations to Emily Mkrtichian, whose There Was, There Was Not recently closed out a successful theatrical run at DCTV Firehouse Cinema!
In a moving Q&A, Emily shared how her camera became both a shield and a doorway, a way to enter intimate spaces and offer protection. What began as a quiet portrait of everyday resilience in the Republic of Artsakh, a disputed Armenian territory, transformed into an urgent chronicle of survival, capturing both the personal and cultural cost of a homeland under threat and the enduring power of story to preserve what’s at risk of being lost. Her film offers a vital reminder: narrative is power.
Since its world premiere at True/Flase last year, the film has collected accolades including the Audience Award and First Honorable Mention Jury Award in the International Competition at Argentina’s Mar del Plata Film Festival, and the FIPRESCI International Film Critics’ Award at Armenia’s Golden Apricot Film Festival. Next screening stops: San Francisco, London, Hartford, and beyond!
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Fall Community Highlights
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✦ Michèle Stephenson and Elizabeth Lo will be honored at the DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute on November 12.
✦ Seven supported filmmakers received the Sundance Documentary Fund: Jane M. Wagner’s *holds you tight*, Giselle and Stephen Bailey’s Untitled, Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s The River, Amada Torruela’s Vena Acuatica, Siku Allooloo’s Indigena, and Violet Du Feng’s The Dating Game
✦ Your Fat Friend kicked off its Bums And Butts In Seats initiative to make movie theaters more welcoming for fat folks by documenting their seat sizes
✦ Black Snow is newly streaming on POV
For a full rundown of filmmaker awards, premieres, and other achievements this month, click below.
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ICYMI: Research & Development Grant Recipients Announced
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We've announced our 2025 Research & Development cohort via Variety! 35 filmmakers will receive $10K in research grants or $20K in development grants, plus mentorship from the C&E team, peer community and creative support, and connections to industry leaders. Learn more about the cohort here.
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Our staff is freshly returned from a team and culture-building retreat in Upstate New York! Stepping away from the city allowed us space to reflect, play, and plan together. We know the current moment requires us to be aligned and resolute in our values, and we’re excited to be putting time and effort into how we show up as a team, as individuals, and as part of the documentary community.
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Farewell to our Dear Sabine! |
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After 9 incredible years, Associate Director of Program Sabine Fayoux Cantillo is off to her next adventure in the doc world, joining Visions Du Réel as Head of Industry.
Sabine has helped build our flagship filmmaker-first programs and brought her signature philosophy of radical tenderness to everything she touched. Her presence will be deeply missed—but once in the Nest, always in the Nest. We wish you the best, Sabine!
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✦ Supported filmmaker Rintu Thomas reflects on the filmmaking process for her Oscar nominated film Writing With Fire via Documentary Magazine. She shares, “We’re in an era where every image is preframed and optimized for algorithms, blurring the line between performance and authenticity. What does it mean, then, to be a documentary filmmaker in this hypermediated world?”
✦ In Philanthropy Today, Borealis Philanthropy’s Sadé Dozen advocates for funding narrative change, saying, “We are in the midst of a coordinated narrative collapse. To defend hard-won rights and continue building a more free and fair future, funders must… begin asking, “What am I doing to strengthen and sustain the narrative networks already moving hearts and minds?”
✦ Pooja Rangan’s new book, The Documentary Audit, interrogates how listening functions within documentary, offering a compelling provocation—what happens when we stop treating listening as a moral imperative, and instead start treating it as a site of struggle?
✦ Contessa Gayles joined the Pure Non-Fiction podcast to talk about her abolitionist film Songs From the Hole: “It is necessary that the full spectrum of our humanity is depicted–– whether its fiction or non-fiction… so that folks can recognize themselves outside of the extremes and to know that the other pieces of their lives are valuable, not just their trauma, not just their extreme accomplishments.”
✦ C&E Communications Intern Amelia Ray shares her experience at Sidewalk Film Festival, which runs in her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama. In a blog post, she offers insight into the current Southern documentary climate as well as reflections on supported film screenings: “There is such a desperate need for healing in our communities right now, and the arts can definitely be a portal for that.”
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