NYWIFT Event "ON THEIR OWN: A Conversation With Women Documentary Directors" March 7th!

ON THEIR OWN: A Conversation With Women Documentary Directors
Event: Monday Mar. 7, 2011

Tired of waiting for someone else to greenlight your project? Want to step it up in 2011?

Join five leading documentary producers and directors and discover how they made their films on their own terms, often by themselves or with minimal crew. Find out how to create a successful documentary through passion, perseverance and the sheer drive to tell a story.

Anne Aghion is a multiple award-winning documentary filmmaker who lives between Paris and New York. She is best known for her series of films on the post-genocide Gacaca (Ga-TCHA-tcha) justice and social reconstruction process in Rwanda, including the feature My Neighbor My Killer (Official Selection, 2009 Cannes Film Festival, 2009 Nestor Almendros Award for courage in filmmaking—Human Rights Watch Int’l Film Festival, Best Documentary Nominee, 2009 Gotham Awards). Her previous film, Ice People, explores the physical, emotional and spiritual adventure of living and conducting science in Antarctica. She is an Emmy winner and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.


Rebecca Cammisa directed and produced the 2010 Oscar-nominated feature documentary Which Way Home, which also received a 2010 Independent Spirit Award nomination, an Imagen Award and an Emmy for Outstanding Informational Programming. She was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Grand Prize from The Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, and has been the recipient of two Sundance Documentary Fund Grants, two NYFA Fellowships and a 2006 Fulbright Fellowship to Mexico. In 2002, Cammisa co-directed, co-produced and shot the feature documentary Sister Helen, which won the Sundance Documentary Directing Award, and was nominated for both a Directors Guild award and an Emmy.



Rebecca Haimowitz co-directed/produced Made in India, a feature documentary about outsourcing surrogate mothers to India that premiered in May 2010 at the Hot Docs Film Festival, and continues to screen at film festivals in the US and abroad. She received her MFA in Filmmaking from Columbia University's Graduate School of the Arts, where she was awarded Faculty Honors and also worked as a screenwriting instructor. Her short film Follow Me screened at several international film festivals, including SXSW and the Woodstock International Film Festival. Haimowitz has directed various short documentaries, including a piece about feminist work in the prison abolition movement, a youth-produced series on over policing in NYC schools (made for the NYCLU), and Soundproof, about cochlear implants and deafness in her family. She is committed to creating documentary and narrative films that reveal the human side behind social and political issues.


Stephanie Wang-Breal's debut documentary, Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You, Mommy), was awarded the Grand Jury's Best Documentary Award at the AFI/ Discovery Silverdocs Film Festival, and was screened at the Asia Cinevest Festival and the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film was broadcast nationally on the PBS series POV. Besides independent documentaries, Wang-Breal also produces art video pieces for nonprofit organizations, as well as stories for various media outlets including CNN, UNICEF, MTV, Discovery, Radical Media and the Biography Channel.

Also tentatively scheduled: Laura Poitras, Oscar and Emmy-nominated director of Sundance sensation The Oath, and Mai Iskander, director of PBS’s Garbage Dreams.

Moderated by journalist and educator Jennifer Merin, About.com’s documentary expert, film critic for Womens eNews, and President of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Produced by Marcia Rock, Laurie Gwen Shapiro, Jordyn Acconcia, Veena Rao

NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York Council of the Arts and

Event Information
ON THEIR OWN: A Conversation With Women Documentary Directors Breaking Barriers
Date/Time: Monday, Mar. 7, 2011 6:30 PM
Pricing:
$15 to NYWIFT members
$25 to Nonmembers
Free for NYU Students

RSVP by prepayment online
Location: NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
20 Cooper Square

Register

FREE Unique Hands on Workshop for Western NY women Filmmakers on March 10th!

GET TO KNOW CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES AND MAKE YOUR STORIES LEAD TO ACTION (FREE EVENT)

Co-sponsored by 360 | 365, The Little Theatre, and Rochester/Finger Lakes Film & Video Office

Join us on Thursday, March 10^th from 2 – 5 p.m. at The Little Theatre (L5) - 240 East Avenue for a unique and hands on workshop for Western NY women filmmakers

Chicken & Egg Pictures is a hybrid film fund and nonprofit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the craft of storytelling as they are about the social justice, environmental and human rights issues they’re exploring on film. In this presentation and workshop, Judith Helfand will discuss films supported through this innovative UPSTART OF A "start up" and present clips from current grantees’ projects. She will explore and present the new brave world of "community engagement" via the efforts of WORKING FILMS using Chicken & Egg supported films as examples.

This workshop will be of special interest to filmmakers, community activists, and those curious about how story-driven, non-fiction films paired with community engagement campaigns lead to concrete social change. Women filmmakers, environmental health and justice activists and women's and girls' rights advocates will find this session especially useful --- because CHICKEN AND EGG PICTURES is dedicated to a whole new brand of chick flicks!

This workshop will make time for participants to share the films and stories they are working on, will focus on best practices for applying to chicken and egg pictures (the next open call is March 31, 2011) and will highlight/explore storytelling strategies that lead to effective, resonant and riveting filmmaking and ‘call to action’ activism.

Come ready to ask questions about writing an LOA, preparing a dynamic bio, get frank feedback on that clip, scene or "trailer" (bring your DVD!), brave enough to share a short passionate "pitch" and open to creating a circle of collaboration, community and chickflickship.

MEN who are collaborating/co-directing/producing with WOMEN who are in leadership positions are welcome. This is just for DOCUMENTARIES -- shorts, features, webisodes etc...

For more information on Chicken & Egg Pictures, please visit: www.chickeneggpics.org

To RSVP, please send an email to Linda Moroney at lmoroney@film360365.com

Chicken & Egg Pictures are now accepting applications for the Spring 2011 Open Call!

Got a story to tell? Have an issue just burning up inside that you can tell like no-one has seen before, that has a unique access or angle to it geared to inspire audiences far and wide? Do you need to share a character the world needs to hear from, who will transform conversations with their unique sensibility/story/relation to the world...

Apply here!

Deadline for applications: Wednesday March 30^th, 2011 at MIDNIGHT PST

Also, check out a useful blog we posted last general open call where Judith Helfand, co-founder and lead mentor, answered critical questions about applying.

Don't forget to read the guidelines and FAQs before applying, always read the guidelines!

Team Chicken & Egg looks forward to learning about your stories...good luck!

IMPACT: A Series Of Stories About Films Making Change!

How do you make your documentary film resonate with local audiences and issues? How do you build a bridge between community activist groups and the movements in your film? Watch how Deep Down’s film team are bringing together grassroots leaders from Appalachia with community leaders from across the country engaged in similar struggles.

Deep Down’s protagonist Beverly May, co-director Jen Gilomen, and outreach director Lora Smith traveled to Chicago for an ITVS Community Cinema Screening partnered with members of the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO). The group toured the Little Village neighborhood, a community known as “The Midwest Mexico,” to learn about their struggle to fight the abuses of several toxic industries including two massive coal powered power plant that are poisoning their air and people.

IMPACT is a series of videos created by Working Films and The Fledgling Fund focused on building film campaigns that ignite social change. Previous videos include “No Impact Man: Activating Your Audience” and “IMPACT: A Funder’s Perspective.”

For more information, go to workingfilms.org/impact and thefledglingfund.org/impact.

Come see Jesse Epstein's 34x25x36, part 3 of Body Typed at MoMa

We're thrilled to announce the NY premiere of 34x25x36!

34x25x36 will be screening with pioneering feminist films of the 1970's at The Museum of Modern Art.

Documentary Fortnight 2011: MoMA's International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media
Saturday, February 26, 2011, 1:30 p.m.

The line-up includes the founding documentaries of New Day Films, listed below. New Day was formed by independent filmmakers in 1971, and 40 years later, New Day's filmmaker owned & operated distribution model is still going strong.

34x25x36 is Executive Produced by Chicken & Egg Pictures in Association with The Fledgling Fund, and received a national PBS Broadcast on POV. Includes music by T. Griffin of the Quavers. Distributed through New Day Films.

Come join Trish and Jesse!

Program 97 min. Introduction and discussion with Reichert, Klein, Brandon, Rothschild, Epstein

The Films:

* 34x25x36
2009. USA. Directed by Jesse Epstein. Inside the Patina-V mannequin factory in the City of Industry, CA, the "ideal woman" is crafted out of plastic into a 34 x 25 x 36" figure. The chief designer notes that the roots of his craft lie in French 19th-century wax figures and in the medieval religious icons. New York premiere. 8 min.

* Anything You Want to Be
1971. USA. Directed by Liane Brandon. In a series of vignettes, a teenage girl discovers that despite her parents’ assurance that she can “be anything she wants to be,” reality sometimes throws a curveball. 8 min.

* Growing Up Female
1971. USA. Directed by Julia Reichert, James Klein. This early film of the modern Women's Movement was widely used by consciousness-raising groups to generate interest and explain feminism to a skeptical society. The film looks at female socialization through the lives of six women, ages 4 to 35, and the forces that shape them, including teachers, counselors, advertising, music, and the institution of marriage. 50 min.

* It Happens to Us
1972. USA. Directed by Amalie R. Rothschild. This film presents the personal stories of a wide range of women, rich and poor, young and older, black and white, married and unmarried, on the topic of abortion. Some of their stories evoke experiences from before the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision. 30 min.

REEL EDUCATION: Before

Welcome to the third residency in the REEL ENGAGEMENT series where Chicken & Egg Pictures, The Fledgling Fund and Working Films come together to work with seven filmmakers and non-profit organizations to leverage the power of films that document some of the most significant problems - and innovative local solutions - that unfold every day in schools across the United States and the world.

Take note of these filmmakers as we will be spending five days listening, brainstorming and strategizing their audience engagement campaigns to present to educators, NGOs and funders on the final day with the aim for stronger collaboration to tackle very specific issues in education: Michele Stephenson with AN AMERICAN PROMISE, Katie Dellamaggiore with BROOKLYN CASTLE, Carol Devoe with MARIACHI HIGH, Mona Nicoara with OUR SCHOOL, Alex Rotaro and Brad Laidman with SHAKESPEARE HIGH, Marcia Jarmel with SPEAKING IN TONGUES and Roland Legiardi-Laura with TO BE HEARD. Full links to REEL EDUCATION info and film info can be found here.

From the achievement gap in Romania to the gap in Brooklyn; from tackling after-school programs -such as chess- being cut to understanding the cultural benefits of Mariachi music in school programs; from empowering youth with poetry to enriching formal education for youth with Shakespeare festivals. Whether understanding education in America is as easy as the ABCs or feels more like people are Speaking in Tongues, the documentaries featured in Reel Education provide an important window into the complexity of the issues facing our nation’s students, teachers and parents. Even more importantly they will highlight innovative community approaches that meet the diverse needs of students and that can inform the larger national dialogue about what works and what doesn’t in education.

Our goal: ensure that the release of these films and their associated new media tools support and enhance the work and action-oriented campaigns of organizations that have a proven track record of improving childrens' educational experiences and outcomes.

DAY ONE and we are already getting personal; each one of us had to present to the group an item that signified a time of great learning in our lives. Some people brought books that they read under their favorite English teacher whilst others brought books that they read to their children, a whole new time and space for learning. What signifies your time of great learning? Who was your favorite teacher and why?

Bringing experience and stories from our personal lives is proving to be a great place from which to recognize, think about and provide feedback on other peoples’ stories and causes. With the goal of presenting to the public on Thursday in mind, we spent the majority of the first day allowing each filmmaker to tell us about where they are, what they are thinking and where they need help to develop their narrative and their ask for pushing their film and audience engagement campaign into the world.

The process re-enforced how important it is to be able to “field-test” your ideas because at the end of the day a filmmaker should receive feedback on:

1. What is your ask – and not a “change the world” ask but an ask that can realistically have a significant impact to a group, a community, a school, for example.
2. Recognize that you don’t need to build an entirely new community but that you can find a community/a campaign that already exists and tap into that.
3. How do you choose which tools will further your cause, without over-extending yourself and then identify which tools are needed to reach your target audience group – not because they’re cool and available.
4. If you are still in production, what do you need to think about in terms of strengthening your narrative so it will best serve your audience with a story, not issues? Are there threads that you’ve not thought about including but which could actually really create the stories that people will relate to – beyond the central vehicle/competition/concept.

Roberta Furger from Pico California will be with us all week and so far has been crucial to making us realize how our films play into a larger picture but also questioning where we fit in that landscape, what are we looking to achieve and how should we be thinking about educational change: Is it to reform schools? Are we looking for direct policy change or to be creating better empowerment tools to parents at a community level? Re-think what the school day consists of? Re-think what constitutes an education for a child? Is it just a matter of the brain or is it cultural, physical and prongs of passion? How should schools/teachers/students be tested? What is the role of the parent/the community?

As we move into the week – where we will be honing down on some of these questions and developing the filmmakers’ “pitches” – we invite you to also think about these questions and how you might want to make a difference and more importantly, how you think films might be used to support change-making.

No Planet B! says Sun Come Up at Story Leads to Action

Last night’s monthly Story Leads To Action presented Sun Come Up by Jennifer Redfearn and Time Metzger. Sun Come Up follows the relocation of some of the world’s first climate change refugees, the Carteret Islanders – a community living on a remote island chain in the South Pacific Ocean. When rising seas threaten their survival, the islanders face a painful decision: they must leave their beloved land in search of a new place to call home. The film explores how climate change does not only affect our surroundings but also the way we view our culture and ourselves. The screening was followed by a timely discussion surrounding our rising seas and shifting coastlines, with director/producer Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger, a panel of scientists, educators, and activists. There was a feeling of community in the room that climate change affects all of us and is especially pertinent for the younger generations.

While the film deals with the refugees of the Carteret Islanders, its message is extremely close to home. The sea levels in New York have been rising each decade, and projections for the future do not look promising. Sun Come Up brilliantly exposes the fact that other cultures and people are taking action and not waiting around for someone else to make change happen. The panelists consisted of Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist at NASA and co-chair of the New York City Panel on Climate Change, Roy Arezzo, who works in the Science Department at U.A. New York Harbor School, Governors Island, Daria Ng the Online Leadership Program Associate at Global Kids, and Tracy Mann, the Founder of Climate Wise Women.

Much of the discussion focused on how these organizations help make change happen and have a ripple effect within communities. Global Kids is a non-profit that helps public school children focus on advocating for their communities and themselves. Many of the kids were actually at the screening and had some great ideas for fundraising and activism around the film. One idea that came up was combining youth activism with the scientific background of climate change. For example, having a kid from Global Kids measure the sea level changes in New York and report on it. Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig discussed the scientific process of understanding climate change. She praised Jennifer for being able to express the issue in a creative, beautiful, and powerful way, and states that in her experience, scientists have been “trained to look at culture as black and white” and so the power of media being relatable really cannot be understated. She told the audience how often times scientists at NASA spend days responding to attacks and skeptics of climate change in general. It is so important for us, in the U.S., to be active and force the government to take climate change seriously. Daria brought up how, when surveyed, most kids want to change the current climate situation, however, when asked about their consumption patterns, the answers do not correlate with their need for change. This represents a huge disconnect in the minds of the American population.

How do we rectify this disconnect and make the consumption patterns of citizens match their concern for the planet and space they live and thrive in? To give a broad answer, we can start by making connections and working together. Partnership is key. Some ideas that came out of the discussion were Global Kids partnering with NASA, Climate Wise Women organizing a speaking tour and voicing concerns to an audience, house raising parties, letting people know what’s going on, calling members of congress to enable a climate bill to pass, and modeling in ourselves the change that needs to happen for future generations.

Sun Come Up is up for an Oscar at the Academy Awards in two weeks. But regardless of whether it wins or not, rising sea levels needs to be addressed. It was great to have this Story Leads to Action now and hear the types of activism and research that are going on. However, not everyone thinks this research is important, and so it is even more pertinent that we all become more active in spreading the word and supporting those who are in positions of power and able to express themselves and create change; from filmmakers to scientists to activists to the youth. Another activity that happened last night was choosing the three words to be said on the segment of Good Morning America for the Sun Come Up. “No Planet B” ended up being chosen and everyone in the audience joined together in cheering for the film and the great ideas that came from the evening.

We are trying to encourage viewers to host a fundraiser for the Carteret Islanders in your school, community, or home! Four houses have been built on Bougainville, and the families are adapting well to their new communities. Eight more families plan to move to Bougainville over the next few months. Houseraisers are great because they raise awareness of climate change and forced migration and raise money for new houses for the Carteret Islanders and literally, raise the roof!

The Oscar’s are coming up really soon! Hosting an Oscar fundraising party is a great fun way to be involved and make change happen while celebrating the success of this film. Anyone can make a difference, and climate change affects all of us, so be a part of the action!

Visit Sun Come Up’s Website or find out more information about HouseRaisers!

Post by Sarah Tabet

Sun Come Up on ClimateWire!

Chicken & Egg Pictures grantee Jennifer Redfearn is in the news in a big way this week. Her film "Sun Come Up" about climate change refugees - which has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject - has led to an incredible new "House Raising" campaign intended to raise funds to build houses for the islanders in the South Pacific who are featured in the film.

The highly-regarded ClimateWire - the daily news service that provides articles for the websites of The New York Times and Scientific American - wrote a big feature story yesterday about Sun Come Up, the issue of environmental refugees and the news house raisers campaign. Check it out!

AN E&E PUBLISHING SERVICE

MIGRATION: Islanders lose crops, water and renew search for higher ground (Thursday, February 10, 2011)

Lauren Morello, E&E reporter

In Hollywood, an Academy Award can launch an actor's career or sweeten a film's box office receipts.

For the desperate residents of a small atoll off Papua New Guinea, an Academy Award could aid their struggle to relocate in the face of rising seas.

The 3,300 residents of the Carteret Islands are the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, "Sun Come Up," that documents their ongoing effort to procure land on higher ground. Now the islanders and filmmakers are hoping to raise $20,000 to aid those efforts by Feb. 27, the date of the Oscar ceremony, via a series of charity screenings.

Reminder of the future: Huene Island, part of the Carteret Islands chain, was split in two by powerful waves about 20 years ago. Photo courtesy of Big Red Barn Films.

"The idea behind it is to raise awareness of climate change, and physically raise the roof for the islands," said filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn, who directed and co-produced the film. "We're raising funds that will go directly back into the Carteret community."

The fund-raising comes at a time when the Carterets are preparing for their second wave of relocation. They hope to build eight houses on the larger, higher island of Bougainville, 50 miles from their current home. A smaller first wave of Carteret families made the move more than a year ago, Redfearn said, and so far they are adapting well.

Many climate scientists believe that greenhouse gas-driven warming could raise the world's oceans an average of three feet by the end of the century. That would be enough to erode and inundate the slender atolls that comprise Carteret Islands, which stand about four feet above sea level. But the islands' residents have a more immediate problem. The ocean has already washed away their ability to sustain themselves.

Now they face famine.

Salt water has contaminated wells that supply drinking water for the island. The annual summer "king tides" have grown fiercer, swamping the land where islanders used to plant taro, their staple crop. The sea's intrusion has transformed these garden plots into swamps where malaria-infested mosquitoes now breed.

The Carterets "have certainly noticed changes ... coastal erosion is a big one," said filmmaker Jennifer Redfearn, who directed and co-produced "Sun Come Up." "There are six Carteret Islands. And on Han, the largest one, they can stand on a point and look out and say, '10, 15, 20 years ago, I couldn't see that other island over there because of the coast, and the coastline has changed so much.'"

Losing their home and maybe their heritage

The islanders' push to relocate to higher ground, which dates back to 1984, has taken on new urgency. The government of Papua New Guinea now sends emergency food shipments to the Carteret communities, but that is not a permanent solution.

"The government has promised those shipments will come four times a year, but sometimes they only come two times a year," Redfearn said. "There are times throughout the year when families are only eating once a day, or every other day."

Facing a bleak future, the Carterets have taken matters into their own hands. The islands' Council of Elders formed a nonprofit in 2006 to engineer the relocation of their entire 3,300-person community. The group is named Tulele Peisa, a name the Carterets translate to "Sailing the waves on our own."

The group is directed by Ursula Rakova, a native Carteret and environmentalist who returned to run the relocation effort at the request of the islands' chiefs.

"What climate change's exact role is, even experts are hard put to answer," Rakova wrote in a 2009 post to a United Nations University-hosted blog. "Debate has raged over whether the islands are sinking, if tectonic plates play a role, and whether sea levels are in fact rising. We do not know much about science, but we watch helplessly as the tides wash away our shores year in and year out. We also know that we are losing our cultural heritage, just as the sea relentlessly wipes out our food gardens. We do not need labels but action."

"Sun Come Up" traces one episode in the ongoing relocation program, following a group of islanders that journeyed to Bougainville in 2008 to seek land, making their case at a series of community meetings with sometimes-hostile Bougainville natives.

The Carterets' larger plan, outlined in a 16-page proposal, would relocate 1,700 islanders over the next decade to three communities in Bougainville, with programs designed to ease the islanders' transition to a new culture -- and life in a cash economy.

Their hope is that they will be able to preserve their Carteret traditions as well.

"Most of our culture will have to live in memory," Rakova says in the film. "That part of our life will be washed away. How do we keep this attachment to our home?"

Copyright 2009 E&E Publishing, LLC. Republished with permission.
www.ClimateWire.net

Co-founder, Julie Parker Benello and Chicken & Egg Grantee, Jennifer Redfearn attend Oscar luncheon

Julie Parker Benello, co founder of Chicken & Egg Pictures attended the Oscars Nominees Luncheon with Chicken & Egg supported filmmakers Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger and Tracie Holder from Women Make Movies February 7 in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Sun Come Up, about the relocation of the Cataract Islanders in the South Pacific, has been nominated in the Short documentary category along with 4 other films. Jennifer and Tim both received a certificate of recognition as Oscar nominees and had their picture taken with all the nominees, including fellow woman filmmaker Lucy Walker nominated in the long form documentary category with Wasteland.


Also in attendance, Josh Fox with Gasland who along with Jennifer participated in the Reel Engagement for the Energy & Natural Resource Revolution. Luminaries such as Joel and Ethan Cohen, Roger Deakins, Javier Bardem and Annette Bening also attended.

Tune in February 27 for the Oscars and keep your fingers crossed!

Chicken & Egg Pictures announces WHICH CAME FIRST FUND Grant Recipients

PRESS RELEASE:

CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES ANNOUNCES

WHICH CAME FIRST FUND GRANT RECIPIENTS

Women founded, led & run hybrid foundation/non-profit production organization announces eight new film projects to be supported by their Environmental-focused "Which Came First Fund''

NEW YORK (February 8, 2011) – Chicken & Egg Pictures, the hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers, is proud to announce the grant recipients from their first open call dedicated to supporting story-driven films tackling the most critical environmental issues of the day.

Now in its sixth year of operation, with over $1.5 million in grants and over 3,000 mentorship hours provided to women filmmakers, Chicken & Egg Pictures is indeed ''incubating and hatching all at once.'' A unique hybrid of a film fund, philanthropic organization and ''hands-with'' production entity, Chicken & Egg Pictures provides strategically-timed financial support with rigorous, respectful and dynamic mentorship, creative collaboration and community-building opportunities.

Founded in 2005 by award-winning independent producer/directors Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand, Chicken & Egg Pictures has this mission in mind: ''we strive to nurture and support women filmmakers whose diverse voices represent a range of lived experiences and realities that have the power to change the world as we know it.''

This spring, more than 100 applications were submitted for consideration of the new mission- driven WHICH CAME FIRST FUND, dedicated to supporting films that are tackling the most critical environmental issues of our day. Past grantees in this relatively new fund include BAG IT, last year's Academy shortlisted documentary, GARBAGE DREAMS and recently oscar- nominated short documentary SUN COME UP. Which Came First Fund grantees from the Chicken & Egg Pictures 2010 Fall Open Call announced today are:

BETTING THE FARM, directed by Cecily Pingree and Jason Mann

Betting the Farm follows three farm families as they launch a new milk company in a desperate attempt to save their farms. Will their gamble rescue them—and with them an entire way of life—or will it leave them worse off than when they started?

CASINO NATION by Laure Sullivan

After a long and bloody struggle, the Seneca Nation Of Indians traded thousands of acres of land for a casino empire. The pro casino faction views this as progress, but for traditionalists, who believe that land is essential to their beliefs and way of life, this represents the "end of days". Casino Nation explores the cultural, political and moral collision between this older way of life and the $20 billion dollar Native American gambling industry.

CHESHIRE, OHIO, directed by Eve Morgenstern

What happens to an Ohio-River town once its overrun by one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the world? The power plant makes a 20 million dollar deal to buy out most of the town and bulldoze all the homes. A gun toting 83-year old woman named Boots refuses to sell and stays put. Residents, confronted with difficult choices seek out this filmmaker to offer 8mm home movies, archival photographs and testimony about the meaning of "home". Cheshire, Ohio is an elegiac story that blends historic and contemporary footage and testimony from residents, about the increasingly difficult choices we face related to the environment, and makes us think twice about home.

GREEN SHALL OVERCOME (working title), directed by Megan Gelstein

Green Shall Overcome is a character driven feature length documentary about the controversial environmental leader Van Jones. Shot over three years, with unprecedented access, the film follows Jones as he works to build “a green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.” From his office in Oakland to his office at The White House this film takes a behind-the-scenes look at the national movement for green-collar jobs.

OIL AND WATER, directed by Francine Strickwerda and Laurel Spellman Smith

Two boys come of age looking for solutions to the global problem of reckless oil drilling. Hugo fights for the survival of his Amazonian tribe while David launches the world's first company to fair-trade certify oil.

SOLARIZE THIS, directed by Shalini Kantayya

In a city where oil spills, air quality red-alerts, and poverty are commonplace, Solarize This looks beyond the debates around global warming, and asks the hard questions of how a green economy may actually be built, through the stories of three working-class trainees at a solar power jobs training program in Richmond, CA.

STORY OF SUBSIDIES, directed by Annie Leonard

The next in The Story of Stuff film series, The Story of Subsidies will provide a critical look at the role of government subsidies in propping up yesterday's obsolete and dirty economy and will offer an alternative: working together to ensure our money builds the clean, green, healthy and fair economy of the future!

UNDER WATER’S MERCY, directed by Sharon Linezo Hong

A young Native American woman returns to her family in Southeast Louisiana to find a man- made environmental crisis threatening their way of life. She overcomes great personal loss, and redefines the meaning of home.

LIBERTY GRANT
The Liberty Grant from Chicken & Egg Pictures enables a filmmaker to stop fundraising, focus on the creative side of completing her film and launch on the festival circuit with her rights and spirit intact. The film Freeheld from Cynthia Wade received the Liberty Grant and went on to the Academy Awards® in 2008 where it received the Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject and was broadcast on HBO. The Liberty Grant recipient announced today goes to an existing grantee whose vision we wholly believe in and continue to cheer on as it nears the completion line:

OUR SCHOOL directed by Mona Nicoara co-directed by Miruna Coca-Cozma
Three Roma (“Gypsy”) children from a small Transylvanian town participate in a project to
desegregate the local school, struggling against indifference, tradition and bigotry with humor,
optimism and sass. Our School is a bitter-sweet story about hope and race, and an elegy
about generational prejudice and squandered opportunities.

Examining Women Filmmakers Presence in Film this Oscar season

As the Oscar's are approaching, the Women's Media Center is thinking about what can be done to help the current representation of women filmmakers:

Last week, the 2011 Academy Award nominations were announced and, as usual, there were no nominees for Best Director who are women.

Despite widespread acclaim for The Kids Are All Right, directed by Lisa Cholodenko, Please Give, directed by Nicole Holofcener, Winter's Bone, directed by Debra Granik, and Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola, none of the women-directed films were nominated.

In fact, since the first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 -- a period of 83 years -- only four women have been nominated for Best Director (and only one woman – Kathryn Bigelow – has won the Oscar).

The statistics for the number of women writers, cinematographers, and executive producers of the top grossing 250 films of 2009 are equally stark.

To raise awareness about the serious gender disparity in filmmaking, the Women's Media Center dispatched our Progressive Girls' Voices journalists to the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah to highlight the status of women in media and to interview notable artists and leaders about the topic.

WATCH HERE: The video starring Progressive Girls' Voices journalists at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival

The first step to changing the underrepresentation of women in film is to raise awareness about this problem -- a problem so rampant we sometimes don’t even notice it.

We need your help to catalyze the movement – so please forward this video along and spread the word!

Please support the Women’s Media Center. With your help we will amplify the voices of women and girls to change the status of women.

Stay tuned for exclusive Progressive Girls' Voices interviews with Robert Redford, Geena Davis, Danny Glover, and Women’s Media Center Co-Founder Gloria Steinem!

Women's Media Center was founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem to positively impact the visibility of women in the media, amplify women's voices on key issues in the national dialogue, fight sexism and bias against women in the media, and increase professional opportunities for women across all forms of media. Through training, advocacy, and the development of original content, WMC is changing the conversation in the media so that media more accurately represents the perspectives, positions, and priorities of women.