Join co-founders Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand for a dynamic funder briefing about the next phase of “I Believe in You” funding and strategic support. Chicken & Egg funded filmmakers Luisa Dantas, Dee Rees and Susan Stern will present excerpts of their works-in-progress:

• Land of Opportunity: The New New Orleans (Luisa Dantas) takes us to the frontlines of the greatest reconstruction effort in American history.

• Eventual Salvation (Dee Rees) is the story of a woman’s return to Liberia to rebuild her life and community.

• Our Oil (Susan Stern) takes us inside the growing African oil conflict.

After the screenings, learn more about Chicken & Egg’s incubation model -- matching funding with mentorship to emerging and veteran women filmmakers. Lunch to follow. Tides Foundation: Presidio Building 1014 at Lincoln Blvd & Torney Ave in San Francisco.

Space is limited. RSVP by May 6 to natalie@chickeneggpics.org.

More about the Films

• Land of Opportunity directed by Luisa Dantas (In association with C&E). One of the world’s great cities, in the most prosperous nation on earth, is still staggering from the devastation caused by an unprecedented disaster. However, post-Katrina New Orleans is also ripe with opportunity. As the world watches, it has become a beacon for natives and newcomers seeking a stake in the new New Orleans. Land of Opportunity: The New New Orleans takes us to the frontlines of the greatest reconstruction effort in American history. Tenacious residents, struggling to rebuild their city and their lives, mingle with ambitious urban planners, impassioned activists and determined immigrants fill the screen of this powerful film and series that looks beyond the broken levees. As the world’s greatest super-power sets out to rebuild democracy around the globe, can it succeed on its own soil?
• Eventual Salvation directed by Dee Rees (In association with C&E). Fed up with racism in the United States, Earnestine Smith—known affectionately as “Amma”—turned to a new home in 1958: Monrovia, Liberia, a place that offered the promise of true citizenship and liberty. Amma thrived in her new country where she was an educator and landowner—until civil war erupted in 1980. Amma initially refused to leave, but eventually fled tback o the US under imminent threat of death. With the end of the devastating civil war and the election of Africa’s first female president, Eventual Salvation is the story of Amma’s return to Liberia to rebuild her life and community.”
• Our Oil directed by Susan Stern (In association with C&E). Africa now rivals the Persian Gulf as America’s top oil supplier. Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer. But in the past year, more than 100 oil workers have been kidnapped by Niger Delta militants, seeking more of the profits and less of the pollution from American and European oil companies. Our Oil takes us inside the growing African oil conflict.

About Chicken & Egg Pictures

Julie Parker Benello, Wendy Ettinger and Judith Helfand, themselves award winning non-fiction producers/directors [The War Room (1993), Blue Vinyl (2002), Everything’s Cool, (2007)], have aggregated over twenty years of collective expertise and experience as filmmakers, social-justice philanthropists and mentors. In partnership with Working Films, they’ve created a unique venture that is dynamic, resonant and responsive to the current needs of the field and women filmmakers. www.chickeneggpics.org