Spring is here. And our community’s extraordinary achievements hit us like warm sunshine to the face. But we can’t lie. We’re swirling, and we figure you might be as well. Whether it’s recent painful changes to the arts funding landscape, attacks on the rights of trans folks, immigrants, activists, and many other beloveds with our communities, or the breaking news of the assault and overnight detainment of 2025 Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal in the West Bank—we’re facing down a tidal wave of hate, fear, and ego.
We thank you, our community, for modeling the antidote: love, courage, and care for the collective. May C&E strive to fully live these values in our work.
Read on to learn about our 2026 EL open call, a keynote by CEO Jenni Wolfson, and beyond. Plus, we’re turning 20 this year—we hope you’ll celebrate with us in June!
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We are now accepting applications for the 2026 (Egg)celerator Lab, which supports filmmakers working on their first or second feature-length documentary and includes:
✦ $40,000 in grant funding for the film
✦ Mentorship from Chicken & Egg team and network
✦ Creative retreats focused on career building and creative growth
✦ Travel stipend to attend a forum or market
✦ Tailored industry meetings and funder connections
✦ Peer support from the cohort
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Jenni delivers the keynote at FIFDH
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"Films are just one piece of the larger fight for justice, but they are uniquely well suited to moving the needle on urgent and complex issues because they touch our emotions in deep visceral ways... Films move us to act through intimacy, proximity, and agency. And when films create impact campaigns grounded in the same principles, they can help channel individual action into real collective movements.” —Jenni Wolfson
This month, Jenni delivered the keynote at FIFDH's Impact Days. Titled Storytelling for Social Change: The Bridge Between Art and Advocacy, the talk weaved her 20-year journey as a storytelling advocate—from her time as a UN human rights investigator to her leadership of our organization—and hammered home the significance of doc impact campaigns as vehicles for real-world change.
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Supporting Black Box Diaries at the Oscars
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CEO Jenni Wolfson and Program Director Kiyoko McCrae attended the 97th Academy Awards in order to support Black Box Diaries (Project: Hatched 2024), which was nominated for Best Documentary Feature. We're so proud of director Shiori Ito and the rest of the filmmaking team for this huge accomplishment!
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AlumNest spotlight: Songs from the Hole
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Each month, we highlight a film from our AlumNest that's been making waves!
“The film is technically a documentary. But it might be more accurately described as high-level multimedia artwork about a key aspect of the human experience: forgiveness.”—Pendarvis Harshaw, KQED
We celebrate Contessa Gayles’ Songs from the Hole, a film about musician James “JJ’88” Jacobs’ search for healing and peace while serving a double-life prison sentence for a crime he committed as a teenager. Songs from the Hole was supported through our 2024 Project: Hatched and 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab programs.
The film has screened at 19 festivals and garnered 11 awards so far, including SXSW's Audience Award, BlackStar Film Festival's Best Feature Documentary, and New Orleans Film Festival's Audience Award and Best Feature Documentary. At Sing Sing Film Festival—the first-ever documentary showcase held within a U.S. prison—the film received the Excellence in Criminal Justice Storytelling Award from a jury of five incarcerated men. The film also won Cinema Eye Honors' Heterodox Award, which recognizes works that blur the boundaries between documentary and creative storytelling.
As part of their remarkable impact campaign, the film has screened at 10 prisons and 10 community centers across the US. These screenings are followed by exercises and musical performaces led by JJ'88 that encourage creative healing and accountability practices.
The next stop for the film is on March 28 at Salem Film Festival.
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Welcome, Development Director Amber Sasse! |
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| We are thrilled to welcome Amber Sasse, Development Director extraordinaire, to our team!
Most recently, Amber held leadership roles at MoMA PS1 and Creative Time, where she championed the use of art as a catalyst for social change. Her work centers on forging strategic partnerships, amplifying diverse voices, and breaking barriers.
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We're turning 20 this summer! Save the date for our gala celebration. More details to come!
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✦ This survey needs you: The State of the Documentary Field Study is the largest global study of documentary storytellers and an essential tool to map and advocate for the future of our industry. Make sure to add your voice!
Thank you for reading.
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