In September 2023 POV Shorts and Chicken & Egg Pictures announced their first joint content development project: the Chicken & Egg Pictures | POV Shorts Co-Production Fund, which granted $120,000 for development and production funding to short documentary projects helmed by women and gender-expansive filmmakers. and all films are co-productions of POV Shorts and Chicken & Egg Pictures.
Chicken & Egg Pictures and POV Shorts each contributed $60,000 to finance the fund which awarded three non-recoupable $40,000 grants to new nonfiction short-form works in progress or already in production. Recipients were selected via a dual panel review following a call for nominations from a broad grouping of film festivals and curators.
In partnership with Points North, the institute welcomed the grantees as an official fellowship cohort at the 2023 Camden International Film Festival (CIFF2023) enabling them access to the film festival and participation in a “Production Summit” on making films for PBS distribution. Recipients were selected via a dual panel review following a call for nominations from a broad grouping of film festivals and curators.
The selected films will be produced and funded in compliance with PBS Funding Standards and Producing Guidelines. Once completed, the shorts will be considered for launch on PBS via national linear broadcast and PBS Digital, which reaches an audience of 44.7 million people monthly.
Chicken & Egg Pictures | POV Shorts Co-Production Fund 2023 Grantees
Read more details about the grant and the filmmakers selected in the press release announcing the program.
Tessitura Directors: Brit Fryer, Lydia Cornett Synopsis: Blending historical overview with character portraits, Tessitura explores the entangled ways that voice, character, and gender are continuously reformulated in opera by those who contend with these connections daily. The film delves into the ways that contemporary transgender opera singers navigate the traditional rule and categories of their art form, interweaving personal stories with historical contexts to highlight the ongoing dialogue about gender fluidity in opera. By purposefully deemphasizing the historical figures of the castrati and women performing trouser roles, the film instead focuses on transgender opera singers who are contending with the constraints their genre imposes.
Hold Me Close Directors: Aurora Brachman, LaTajh Weaver Synopsis: Hold Me Close explores the unique power and complexity of the relationship between two Queer Black womxn, Corinne and Tiana. Utilizing audio the couple self-recorded every day over the course of a season, Corinne & Tiana experience cycles of life’s joys and pains together in the home they share. Depicted through elegantly composed tableaus of domestic scenes of the couple shot on super 16mm film, paired with searingly intimate documentary audio of the womxn from life within their home, the film bears witness to the distinct constitution of their love.
The People Could Fly Director: Imani Dennison Synopsis: The People Could Fly is an experimental documentary exploring the rich history of a roller skate community in Louisville, KY. Through an intimate video lens, we delve into key community members' personal recollections of the sport and its role in navigating life amidst the challenges of a gun-violence-affected city.