Chicken & Egg Pictures WHICH CAME FIRST FUND Open Call is now open! Deadline is September 30th 2010

In 2009, Chicken & Egg Pictures launched the WHICH CAME FIRST FUND which provides dedicated financial and creative support to women filmmakers who are taking on challenging, time-sensitive and complex environmental justice issues with innovative, creative and cutting-edge storytelling.

Projects funded under this new fund thus far include: Deep Down, What's On Your Plate?, Land of Opportunity and Garbage Dreams amongst others.

Do you have a WHICH CAME FIRST story you want to share with us? Applications are accepted through until September 30th, 2010 so get a move on!

Not sure whether your film fits the bill? We're open to a broad interpretation of "environment" and in the spirit of our good friends at the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, offer this expansive definition: where ever people live, work and play is "the environment". We are interested in helping the public [via the films and projects we support] understand how knowledge, beliefs, political economy and culture have shaped, been shaped and continue to be shaped by the environment. We want to support films that explore how human interactions with the natural world are always mediated by institutions, economics, politics, ideas, values and even mushrooms (THE VANQUISHING OF THE WITCH BABA YAGA). We are interested in the changing relationships between people and environment over time -- from where people get, produce or harvest their food (WHAT’S ON YOUR PLATE) to where their garbage goes and goes or becomes (GARBAGE DREAMS).

We strive to support women filmmakers who are taking on challenging, time-sensitive and serious environmental-justice issues (LAND OF OPPORTUNITY) who have a clear passion for translating the science, data and impact of past and current "crises" (ATOMIC EPILOGUE) into compelling, human and visual stories. We are interested in out-of-the-box story-telling skills and a commitment to community engagement. We also appreciate a good sense of "humor".

Apply here. Good luck! We'll be back in 2011 with a more general call.