25 Tips and Ideas on How to Bag It!

As the summer winds down and students return to schools and universities, school supplies and packed lunches become a part of day-to-day life. In BAG IT!, funded in part with Chicken & Egg’s Pictures’ Liberty Grant, filmmaker Suzan Beraza chronicles Jeb Berrier’s decision to stop using plastic bags. Through this simple action, Jeb discovers how plastic has taken over our daily lives.

Learn how to lower your plastic consumption or even how to have a plastic-free school year with these 25 ideas and tips from our friends at Reel Thing!

Here are our favorite 25 ideas for Back to School!

1. Phase out plastic use at school by starting a Bag It Club! (Bag It Clubs meet weekly to plan how to reduce their school's collective use of plastic).
2. Check out the best price on Klean Kanteens anywhere! Their summer merchandise sale ends Monday, September 5!
3. Organize a waste-free lunch day that encourages students and teachers to pack reusable lunches. Check out this guide for more organizing tips.
4. Host a school-wide screening of Bag It and pair it with an activity aimed at reducing plastic.
5. Organize a cleanup at a nearby waterway (here's an organizing guide to help).
6. Design reusable water bottles and sell them as a fundraiser.
7. Become a Plastic FREE Campus! The center for Health, Environment and Justice has created a fantastic tool kit to guide your school to action.
8 - 17. READ TEN WAYS TO BE A PVC FREE SCHOOL!
18. Register your school with the Kokua Foundation's Plastic Free Schools program which aims to help reduce single-use plastics on school campuses by encouraging students; faculty; and parents to make commitments to go plastic free.
19 - 23. Five Easy Tips from the Environmental Working Group for packing a healthy school lunch that your kids will actually eat!
24. Keep your Fork! Send your kids to school with their own lunch kit!
25. Arts and Crafts! Make your own reusable lunch bags. Check out this great How To blog!

What are your tips for a plastic-free new school year? Join the conversation on Facebook!

Chicken & Egg Executive Produced Semper Fi: Always Faithful Comes to New York

Do you know what's in your drinking water? From 1957 until 1984, over 1 million people were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, resulting in numerous illness and deaths. See the story of Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger as he searches for answers regarding the death of his nine-year-old daughter, and his efforts to hold the military accountable for their actions.

Semper Fi: Always Faithful premieres Friday, August 26th as part of IFC's DocuWeeks program. Filmmakers Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon will answer questions in-person after the screenings on Sunday, August 28th at 7:40 PM, Monday, August 29th at 5:20 PM, and Wednesday, August 31st at 7:35 PM. Additional screening dates and times are listed below.

Semper Fi: Always Faithful tells the story of Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger, a devoted Marine for nearly twenty-five years. As a drill instructor he lived and breathed the “Corps” and was responsible for indoctrinating thousands of new recruits with its motto Semper Fidelis or “Always Faithful.” When Jerry’s nine-year old daughter Janey died of a rare type of leukemia, his world collapsed. As a grief-stricken father, he struggled for years to make sense of what happened. His search for answers led to the shocking discovery of a Marine Corps cover-up of one of the largest water contamination incidents in U.S. history.

This documentary follows Jerry’s mission to expose the Marine Corps and force them to live up to their motto to the thousands of soldiers and their families exposed to toxic chemicals. His fight reveals a grave injustice at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune and a looming environmental crisis at military sites across the country.

Semper Fi: Always Faithful Screening Dates & Times:
- Friday, Aug 26, 12:05 PM & 5:20 PM
- Saturday, Aug 27, 3:50 PM & 9:55 PM
- Sunday, Aug 28, 2:00 PM & 7:40 PM
- Monday, Aug 29, 12:05 PM & 5:20 PM
- Tuesday, Aug 30, 3:45 PM & 9:55 PM
- Wednesday, Aug 31, 2:00 PM & 7:35 PM
- Thursday, Sept 1, 12:05 PM & 5:20 PM

For more information or purchase tickets, check out IFC's website.

Chicken & Egg Pictures Now Accepting Applications for Fall 2011 Open Call!

Have a story to tell?--An issue just burning up inside that you can tell with a fresh perspective, a unique angle, or a distinctive voice? Is it a topic you know will reach out to audiences far and wide, inspiring them to help make a change? Do you need to share a character the world needs to hear from, who will transform conversations through their unique sensibility, story, or relation to the world?. . .

Then apply here!

Remember to always read the guidelines and FAQs before submitting your application!

Chicken & Egg Pictures is dedicated to supporting women filmmakers through financial support, mentorship, and more!

Submission deadline is September 30th, 2011 MIDNIGHT, PACIFIC TIME! Best of luck!

Chicken & Egg Pictures Executive Produced at IFC Center's DocuWeeks!™

During the month of August, IFC Center's 15th Annual DocuWeeks™ program will screen two films Executive Produced by Chicken & Egg Pictures! -- THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement and SEMPER FI: Always Faithful.

IFC Center's DocuWeeks™ program is designed to highlight the year's best documentaries in time for the Academy Awards® considerations.

Throughout DocuWeeks™, THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement will be showcased in a special two hour filmmakers-in-person program along with Barbara Hammer's MAYA DEREN'S SINK and Phio Ambo's THE HOME FRONT.

THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
Directed by: Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday

The film features 85-year old Mr. Armstrong, an African American barber in Birmingham, Alabama, as he experiences the manifestation of an unimaginable dream: the election of the first African American president. This colorful and courageous activist of the Civil Rights era casts his vote, celebrates Obama’s victory and proudly unfurls the American flag as he is inducted into the Foot Soldiers Hall of Fame. Mr. Armstrong links the magnitude of the present paradigm shift with challenges he faced in the past: from his sons’ integration into an all white school to the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights. The documentary raises questions about democracy and patriotism in the face of adversity, and the vigilance and action required to ensure continued forward movement to end racial injustice.

Filmmakers in Person Screening Event Dates & Times:
- Tuesday, Aug 16th, 5:00 PM
- Thursday, Aug 17th, 7:15 PM
- Friday, Aug 18th, 5:00 PM

Click here for more information on this special filmmaker event!

SEMPER FI: Always Faithful
Directed by: Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon

Marine Corps Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger was a devoted Marine for nearly twenty-five years. As a drill instructor he lived and breathed the “Corps” and was responsible for indoctrinating thousands of new recruits with its motto Semper Fidelis or “Always Faithful.” When Jerry’s nine-year old daughter Janey died of a rare type of leukemia, his world collapsed. As a grief-stricken father, he struggled for years to make sense of what happened. His search for answers led to the shocking discovery of a Marine Corps cover-up of one of the largest water contamination incidents in U.S. history.

Semper Fi: Always Faithful follows Jerry’s mission to expose the Marine Corps and force them to live up to their motto to the thousands of soldiers and their families exposed to toxic chemicals. His fight reveals a grave injustice at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune and a looming environmental crisis at military sites across the country.

Semper Fi: Always Faithful Screening Dates & Times:
- Friday, Aug 26, 12:05 PM & 5:20 PM
- Saturday, Aug 27, 3:50 PM & 9:55 PM
- Sunday, Aug 28, 2:00 PM & 7:40 PM
- Monday, Aug 29, 12:05 PM & 5:20 PM
- Tuesday, Aug 30, 3:45 PM & 9:55 PM
- Wednesday, Aug 31, 2:00 PM & 7:35 PM
- Thursday, Sept 1, 12:05 PM & 5:20 PM

For more information about these screenings and more check out IFC Center's DocuWeeks™ website!

Join Chicken & Egg Pictures In Celebrating Our Spring 2011 Grantees!

CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES ANNOUNCES 2011
SPRING GRANT RECIPIENTS

Award-Winning Hybrid Film Fund and Non-Profit Production Company
Announces Grants for Fourteen Non-fiction Films Directed by Women

Follows Six Emmy Nominations and Two Oscar-Qualifying Films at DocuWeeks

NEW YORK (August 1, 2011) – Chicken & Egg Pictures, the award-winning hybrid film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers, is proud to announce the fourteen grant recipients for its Spring Open Call 2011.

With over $1.8 million in grants and over 3,500 mentorship hours provided to women filmmakers since it was established in 2005, Chicken & Egg Pictures has had a significant impact on documentary filmmaking and the issues they illuminate. This year alone, five films executive produced or supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures received Emmy® nominations. In addition, two new films – touching on timely policy issues – that are executive produced by Chicken & Egg Pictures will have their Academy Awards®-qualifying runs next month as part of DocuWeeks™.

Award-winning independent producers and directors Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand founded Chicken & Egg Pictures in 2005. They match strategically timed financial support with rigorous, respectful and dynamic ''hands-with'' mentorship, creative collaboration and community-building opportunities – or what they like to call “chick-flick-ship”.

“Six years ago this month we came together to build this dynamic venture with the mission of being both responsive to the needs of women filmmakers, particularly those making films dedicated to social change, and mindful of how the business of filmmaking and social change works—and could work better,” said Chicken & Egg Pictures co-founders Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand.

Spring Open Call 2011 Grant Recipients:
This spring, more than 300 women filmmakers submitted applications for consideration.

Of the fourteen funded documentary projects announced today, two existing grantees, Atomic Epilogue by Ellen Spiro and Mariachi High by Ilana Trachtman, are receiving additional grants due to their timeliness and urgency. “We were impressed by Ellen’s ability to respond to the recent nuclear energy and radiation disaster in Japan by turning her compelling character-driven memoir and precautionary tale about one man and his nation’s atomic waste, into an even more compelling and useful short. Likewise, Mariachi High is taking on the spectre of slashing culture, music and art programs from public schools through the experience of one competitive Mariachi high school band in Zapata, Texas.

The grantees from the Chicken & Egg Pictures 2011 Spring Open Call announced today are:

I BELIEVE IN YOU Grants:

A QUIET INQUISITION, directed by Holen Kahn and Alessandra Zeka

A doctor must choose between breaking the law or breaking everything she stands for. This is the reality of living in one of the six countries in the world where the termination of any pregnancy, even if in response to a result of rape, incest, or to save the woman’s life is illegal and actively prosecuted.
For: Editing

CAUGHT IN THE NET, directed by Hilla Medalia and Shosh Shalm

“Caught in the Net” follows China as the first country in the world to classify Internet Addiction as a clinical disorder. The film features a Beijing treatment center where Chinese teenagers are being de-programmed. We follow the lives of three teens from the day they arrive throughout their three-month treatment period and their return home.

For: Production

FIGHTING FOSTER, directed by Stephanie Wang Breal

“Fighting Foster” brings to life the conflicting values, uncertainties and tensions that surround the foster care system. The film follows three parents who have lost their child(ren) to the child welfare system and the legal, administrative and emotional battles they must overcome in order to get their child(ren) home.

For: Development

GIDEON’S ARMY, directed by Dawn Porter

The United States criminal justice system is strained to the breaking point. What it is like to work as a lawyer for the accused? Long hours, low pay and staggering caseloads are so common that even the most committed often give up. But they now have help. Jonathan Rapping, founder of the Southern Public Defender Training Center has dedicated his career to mentoring the lawyers who represent the people society would rather forget. Can he make a difference?

For: Production

HOME AGAIN, directed by Julie Englander

When you’ve grown up all over the world, can you ever really go home again? HOME AGAIN is an intimate documentary that poses questions about citizenship, faith, politics, and identity—one that views America through the eyes of missionary kids who’ve grown up overseas. Though their passports say they're American, they find upon their return that the U.S. can be the strangest country of all.
For: Production

IN THE MIDDLE, directed by Lorena Luciano

Locals on the remote Italian island of Lampedusa are split between compassion and animosity. As thousands of migrants make the dangerous crossing to Lampedusa fleeing the ongoing crisis across the Arab world, NGOs such as UNHCR, Red Cross, and Doctors without Borders have poured on the island to assist the asylum seekers, the unaccompanied minors, the pregnant women who are kept in detention centers, painfully unaware of the uncertain future awaiting them.

For: Development

THE NEW BLACK, directed by Yoruba Richen

The New Black is a documentary-that uncovers the complicated and often combative relationship between the African-American and LGBT civil rights movements. Specifically, the film examines homophobia in the black church and reveals the Christian right wing’s strategy of exploiting this phenomenon in order to pursue an anti-gay political agenda.
For: Production

UNSTABLE ELEMENTS, directed by Madeleine Sackler

The members of the Belarus Free Theater risk their lives staging illicit performances and campaigning around the world to expose what life is truly like under the last dictatorship in Europe, where the secret police are still called the KGB and political dissenters disappear.

For: Production

LIBERTY GRANTS:

GIRL MODEL, directed by Ashley Sabin

Girl Model follows a complex supply chain between Siberia, Japan, and the

U.S. within the modeling industry. The story is told through the eyes of a scout and a 13

year-old model.
For: Completion

THE MOSUO SISTERS, directed by Marlo Poras

Two spirited daughters from China's last remaining matriarchal ethnic minority are thrust into the worldwide economic downturn when they lose the only jobs they've ever known.

For: Completion

MARIACHI HIGH, directed by Illana Trachtman

Mariachi High follows a year in the life of competitive high school musicians in the top-ranked ensemble Mariachi Halcon in Zapata, Texas – a flash point for the issues facing the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S. As President Obama sounds a call for lowering the Latino dropout rate, the highest in the country, Mariachi High turns a positive lens on college-bound Latino role models who are inspired by cultural pride and striving for excellence. High school has never sounded so good.

Additional grant for: Editing

WHICH CAME FIRST Environmental Film Fund:

ATOMIC EPILOGUE: Hope Dies Last, directed by Ellen Spiro

Atomic Epilogue explores the changing face of energy production in the United States through one man’s unusual life and legacy. “Atomic” Ed Grothus spent decades as an activist and educator, while collecting tons of detritus from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in his unofficial museum of the nuclear age, The Black Hole. In his final days, Ed confronts his own death with honesty and humor, looking forward to the legacy of hope he wants to leave behind.
Additional Liberty Grant for: Completion

BIDDER 70, directed by Beth Gage and George Gage

Moral monkey-wrencher, Tim DeChristopher derailed President George W. Bush’s 2008 Christmas gift to the energy industry, fraudulently bidding $1.8 million at auction without intention to pay or drill, to save 22,000 acres of Utah’s pristine red rock wilderness. Now he’s paying for it with his future. On July 26, 2011 a federal judge sentenced DeChristopher to 2 years in prison, 3 years of supervised probation and a $10,000 fine for his act of civil disobedience - an act that has catapulted DeChristopher into the national spotlight and energized a movement.

For: Post production

XMAS WITHOUT CHINA, directed by Alicia Dwyer

Two families living side by side, but worlds apart, collide when pride and mischief inspire Chinese immigrant Tom Xia to challenge his American neighbors to celebrate Christmas without any Chinese products.

For: Editing

Update on the Impact of Chicken & Egg Pictures in 2011:

This month Chicken & Egg Pictures is also celebrating the six Emmy nominations received by five grantees: A Small Act by Jennifer Arnold, Deep Down: A Story from the Heart of Coal Country by Jen Gilomen and Sally Rubin, Monica & David by Ali Codina, The Oath by Laura Poitras (2 nominations) and Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy by Stephanie Wang Breal. The Emmy Awards ceremony will be on September 26th.

In the meantime you can catch Semper Fi: Always Faithful by Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon and The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement by Gail Dolgin and Robin Fryday, both Executive Produced by Chicken & Egg Pictures, during their Academy Awards®-qualifying runs next month at the International Documentary Association's 15th Annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase.

“The impact these films and grantees have had this year are testament to the value of the investment of dollars and hours we collectively devote to creative mentorship, collaboration, community building we provide,“ said Chicken & Egg Pictures co-founders Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand.

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About Chicken & Egg Pictures

Chicken & Egg Pictures is a film fund and non-profit production company dedicated to supporting women filmmakers who are as passionate about the art and craft of storytelling as they are about the human rights, global health and environmental justice issues they are embracing, translating and exploring on film. In 2010, Chicken & Egg Pictures received the Loreen Arbus Award from New York Women in Film and Television, honoring Those Who Take Action and Effect Change, through making a significant contribution to promoting the advancement of women in the entertainment industry.

Films that have received support from Chicken & Egg Pictures include: The Academy Awards® winner Freeheld by Cynthia Wade (Best Documentary Short, 2008), Lioness by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers, Connected by Tiffany Shlain, Orgasm Inc. by Liz Canner, Eventual Salvation by Dee Rees, Body Typed by Jesse Epstein and The Oath by Laura Poitras. More information about these and other projects is available at www.chickeneggpics.org and the organization's blog at chickeneggpics.blogspot.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Natalie Difford at (212) 875-0456 or natalie@chickeneggpics.org
Adam J. Segal at (202) 422-4673 or adam@the2050group.com