Last month, we kicked off the start to our 20th anniversary year with a special celebration in New York City. When we looked around the room, we were honored to see so many filmmakers, partners, supporters, and friends by our side—both folks who’ve been along for the ride forever and those newly welcomed to the Nest.
The night’s message was clear. When we champion community, when we invest in it deeply, we grow powerful together. Despite the immense challenges our industry and world face, we're showing up arm and arm. And our collective resilience and imagination can move mountains.
As part of our reflecting on 20 years of C&E, we also created a video featuring some of our beloved community and our programs in action. We hope you’ll take a look and share in celebrating the impact we’ve made together.
Read on for a Sheffield recap, our newest Academy members, an interview with CEO Jenni Wolfson, and more. Thanks for being here.
|
|
|
Shining at Sheffield DocFest
|
“What brings us together is a love of documentary, but even more than that, I think why we love documentaries is because we believe in another world, that another world is possible.” —Program Director Kiyoko McCrae
We hosted a 2025 WIP Showcase at Sheffield DocFest this year, highlighting supported work-in-progress films from around the globe. Bravo to our filmmakers for bringing their A-game to a room packed full of industry friends, funders, partners, and peers!
WIP Showcase participants:
✦ Anatomy of Indifference, dir. Ilinca Calugareanu
✦ *holds you tight*, dir. Jane M. Wagner
✦ Matininó, dir. Gabriela Díaz Arp
✦ NINE, dirs. Rachael DeCruz & Jeremy S. Levine
✦ Our Hoolocks (working title), dirs. Ragini Nath & Chinmoy Sonowal
|
Congrats to our newest Academy members |
|
|
Media Impact Funders spotlights CEO Jenni Wolfson |
This June, our friends at MIF invited Jenni to share how Chicken & Egg Films is showing up to support and empower filmmakers whose identities and stories are at the center of ongoing attacks in the US.
Jenni shares that, despite the chaos and confusion designed to unmoor us, “Chicken & Egg Films, first and foremost, is staying steady.” We’re continuing to champion storytellers who represent the richness of the world that we live in and who are helping shape the narratives of tomorrow. Read the interview here or catch the video below.
|
June & July AlumNest wins
|
|
|
Film spotlight: River of Grass |
“Water has life. It has memory. The sun shimmers, glimmers, and bounces on the water's surface, inviting us to listen and lose ourselves in the timeless flow of the river of grass.” —Betty Osceola, environmentalist and educator, Panther Clan, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
Sasha Wortzel’s River of Grass elevates the climate crisis documentary genre with this hypnotizing love letter to the Florida Everglades. Sparked by the book “The Everglades: River of Grass,” written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Sasha weaves archive footage, childhood memories, and the ongoing Miccosukee Tribes’ resistance to the destruction of the Everglades. The film recognizes that there cannot be a conversation about the climate crisis without naming the destructive effects of US imperialism and occupation. Yet, the film reminds us that not everything is lost, as long as we are willing to fight for it.
The film premiered in March at True/False, won the Audience Award at the Margaret Mead Festival, and last screened in June at Frameline Festival. Stay tuned here for updates on where to catch it next.
|
|
|
✦ AlumNest filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon was the keynote speaker at this year’s Southern Documentary Convening where she shared what her Appalachian roots taught her about storytelling: "We resist by telling stories that don’t trend—but stay. That are rooted in place... There’s a danger in using a place—The South, Appalachia—without interrogating it. In turning it into a costume. But when handled with care, place isn’t a pitch or aesthetic—it’s soil that demands tending."
✦ AlumNest filmmaker Isabel Castro wrote a New York Times Op-Ed about the quiet resistance of Latino communities in Los Angeles amid ICE raids and the National Guard’s crackdown on protests: "For undocumented people in America, the fear of deportation... isn’t just relegated to moments when immigration is a hot-button issue in the news. It’s a daily undercurrent in the lives of the people I’ve met. But here, there was fear, yes, but also a deep resolve that life—and the joy of living it—must continue."
✦ David Ehrlich wrote in IndieWire about the industry’s reticence to engage with films about the Palestinian genocide. He writes, “The point isn’t that America’s film industry should be doing more to profit off the back of an unspeakable humanitarian catastrophe. The point is that America’s film industry is displaying a collective degree of cowardice that finds it deliberately acting against its own ethos as both an artform and a business. The former is routine, but the latter is remarkable."
✦ Rinku Sen and Julia Roig wrote in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about the need for radical resistance alongside pluralistic bridge-building in order to create social change. They share, "if we pursue... such a two-pronged approach, some will work to create conditions for dialogue across issues and identities. Others will 'raise the heat' and disrupt complacency... Discomfort is inevitable, but we need to avoid vilifying each other's strategies."
|
|
|
Manage your preferences | Opt Out using TrueRemove™
Got this as a forward? Sign up to receive our future emails.
View this email online.
|
55 Washington Street Suite 307 | Brooklyn, NY 11201 US
|
|
|
This email was sent to .
To continue receiving our emails, add us to your address book.
|
| |
|
|
