Chicken & Egg Pictures is dedicated to supporting women nonfiction filmmakers whose diverse voices and dynamic storytelling have the power to catalyze change, at home and around the globe. We match strategically timed financial support with rigorous, respectful and dynamic mentorship, creative collaboration and community-building to nurture women filmmakers. We operate from a basic belief that people respond to stories, not issues. Thus, we support women filmmakers who are actively stretching as storytellers and are committed to taking creative risks. When we choose a project it is because we firmly believe that this film needs to be made and this filmmaker is the one to make it. We engage in a full vetting process. We fund, knowing that the filmmaker, who is generally at a critical juncture in her career, is open to mentorship, collaboration, community building and strategic feedback and that the project will be completed and launched in step with the social movement that needs it most. Aggregating over twenty years of collective expertise as award-winning producers and directors (The War Room, 1993, A Healthy Baby Girl, 1995, Blue Vinyl, 2002, Everything's Cool, 2007, Hotel Gramercy Park, 2008), social justice activists, educators, funders and practitioners of rigorous audience engagement campaigns, we (Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand) co-founded and launched Chicken & Egg Pictures in July 2005. We came together to create a dynamic venture that is as responsive to the needs of women filmmakers, particularly those making films dedicated to social change, as it is mindful of how the "business" of filmmaking and social change works-and could work better. For more on Chicken & Egg Pictures, check out our three grants: I Believe in You, Liberty, and Celebration, as well as our two film funds: Which Came First Environmental Film Fund and Mother Wit Human Rights Film Fund.
Something looks off?