Despite our best efforts to create a more just and distributed documentary ecosystem, we still live in a world where a small group of people select or acquire films for entities that filmmakers desire—unrestricted grants, influential international film festivals, deep-pocketed platforms, and legacy broadcasters. Questions and assumptions about their processes as crucial points of access and support for filmmakers tend toward the worst. For this session, we turn the tables. These intrepid gatekeepers have pledged to give honest answers to your questions, especially the most challenging ones.
To submit your questions, click here.
Moderator: Abby Sun (IDA)
Panelist: Mads K. Mikkelsen (CPH:DOX), Kiyoko McCrae (Chicken & Egg), Bryn Mooser (XTR), and Luis Ortiz (Latino Public Broadcasting)
Biographies (submitted by the speakers):
Mads K. Mikkelsen is Head of Programme at CPH:DOX - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival - where he has been a programmer since 2009. Parallel with the festival, he runs two public cinema clubs, teaches film history at the Danish Film School, and is a frequent contributor to local and international film magazines, as well as the author of a book about non-fiction cinema. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, he received an award for his work from Festival de Cannes - Marché du film and Screen International.
Kiyoko McCrae (she/her) is Program Director at Chicken & Egg Pictures where she strategizes and oversees its programs and partnerships. Previously, she was Director of Documentary Programming and Filmmaker Labs at the New Orleans Film Society. She has served on juries for Nashville, LA Endowment for the Humanities and pitch panels for Camden, Big Sky, IDFA, CPH:DOX. She has reviewed projects for NEA, ITVS, BAVC Media, Sheffield MeetMarket, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and has been a speaker at The Gotham, Palm Springs Int’l ShortFest, Hot Springs. Her films have screened at AFI Docs, Calgary, Hot Springs, Flickers Rhode Island, IndieMemphis, Cucalorus, Milwaukee and have been supported by CAAM, Firelight Media, Reel South, World Channel, Southern Documentary Fund. She is a 2018 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, a 2020 John O’Neal Cultural Arts Fellow, a 2023 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader and a proud member of A-Doc and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
Bryn Mooser is a twice Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker, humanitarian, and the founder and CEO of XTR and DOCUMENTARY+. In 2019 Mooser founded the documentary studio XTR and launched the streaming platform DOCUMENTARY+ in 2020. Previously, Mooser co-founded RYOT, a media company specializing in documentary film and Virtual/Augmented Reality. Over his career he has produced more than 200 linear and immersive films garnering multiple Emmy Awards, two Oscar nominations, and both a Peabody and Cannes Lions Award. In 2016, Mooser sold RYOT to Verizon, becoming a SVP and helping create the roadmap for immersive media, documentary films and branded content for AOL, Yahoo and Verizon. As a humanitarian, Mooser spent three years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and was the Country Director for Artists for Peace and Justice in Haiti.
Luis Ortiz is the Managing Director at Latino Public Broadcasting. Mr. Ortiz oversees the development, financing and production of Latino-themed programming which that is distributed for broadcast on national public television and online at PBS.org. Ortiz also administers LPB’s Public Media Content and Digital Media funding initiatives, which support independent filmmakers in the creation and dissemination of Latino themed documentaries for PBS, as well as digital content engaging audiences online. In addition, he serves as Series Producer for VOCES, LPB’s signature series that features the best of Latino arts, culture and history, and shines a light on current issues that impact Latino Americans. Ortiz also manages the operations of the organization, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA
Chicken & Egg Pictures shapes a more equitable and just world with the catalytic power of documentary films by providing funding, mentorship and industry access to a global community of women and gender-expansive filmmakers. Our work is done through an intersectional lens that acknowledges that various forms of inequity often operate together and exacerbate each other, slowing or even halting people’s careers. It is our mission to disrupt and help dismantle these barriers.
Filmmakers need resources, opportunities, and access to thrive in an unbalanced film landscape. So we match strategically timed grants with creative mentorship and community, building peer networks and bringing artists together to learn from and champion one another. This support system is tailored for the unique challenges women and gender-expansive people experience in their filmmaking and career trajectories.
Since our founding, Chicken & Egg Pictures has awarded over $12 million in grants and devoted thousands of hours of creative mentorship to over 500 filmmakers from around the world. Films supported by our work have been nationally and internationally recognized with the industry’s highest honors, including Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, and Peabody Awards. And they have raised visibility and driven social change on urgent issues.
Since 2013, the organization has been led by Chief Executive Officer Jenni Wolfson. Under her leadership, our budget has grown and our programs have expanded, and our stellar team has won honors including the Social Impact Media Awards Vanguard Award and the International Documentary Association’s Amicus Award; we were also a finalist for the Nonprofit Excellence Awards.
Despite our best efforts to create a more just and distributed documentary ecosystem, we still live in a world where a small group of people select or acquire films for entities that filmmakers desire—unrestricted grants, influential international film festivals, deep-pocketed platforms, and legacy broadcasters. Questions and assumptions about their processes as crucial points of access and support for filmmakers tend toward the worst. For this session, we turn the tables. These intrepid gatekeepers have pledged to give honest answers to your questions, especially the most challenging ones.
To submit your questions, click here.
Moderator: Abby Sun (IDA)
Panelist: Mads K. Mikkelsen (CPH:DOX), Kiyoko McCrae (Chicken & Egg), Bryn Mooser (XTR), and Luis Ortiz (Latino Public Broadcasting)
Biographies (submitted by the speakers):
Mads K. Mikkelsen is Head of Programme at CPH:DOX - Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival - where he has been a programmer since 2009. Parallel with the festival, he runs two public cinema clubs, teaches film history at the Danish Film School, and is a frequent contributor to local and international film magazines, as well as the author of a book about non-fiction cinema. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, he received an award for his work from Festival de Cannes - Marché du film and Screen International.
Kiyoko McCrae (she/her) is Program Director at Chicken & Egg Pictures where she strategizes and oversees its programs and partnerships. Previously, she was Director of Documentary Programming and Filmmaker Labs at the New Orleans Film Society. She has served on juries for Nashville, LA Endowment for the Humanities and pitch panels for Camden, Big Sky, IDFA, CPH:DOX. She has reviewed projects for NEA, ITVS, BAVC Media, Sheffield MeetMarket, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and has been a speaker at The Gotham, Palm Springs Int’l ShortFest, Hot Springs. Her films have screened at AFI Docs, Calgary, Hot Springs, Flickers Rhode Island, IndieMemphis, Cucalorus, Milwaukee and have been supported by CAAM, Firelight Media, Reel South, World Channel, Southern Documentary Fund. She is a 2018 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellow, a 2020 John O’Neal Cultural Arts Fellow, a 2023 DOC NYC Documentary New Leader and a proud member of A-Doc and Brown Girls Doc Mafia.
Bryn Mooser is a twice Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker, humanitarian, and the founder and CEO of XTR and DOCUMENTARY+. In 2019 Mooser founded the documentary studio XTR and launched the streaming platform DOCUMENTARY+ in 2020. Previously, Mooser co-founded RYOT, a media company specializing in documentary film and Virtual/Augmented Reality. Over his career he has produced more than 200 linear and immersive films garnering multiple Emmy Awards, two Oscar nominations, and both a Peabody and Cannes Lions Award. In 2016, Mooser sold RYOT to Verizon, becoming a SVP and helping create the roadmap for immersive media, documentary films and branded content for AOL, Yahoo and Verizon. As a humanitarian, Mooser spent three years in the Peace Corps in West Africa, and was the Country Director for Artists for Peace and Justice in Haiti.
Luis Ortiz is the Managing Director at Latino Public Broadcasting. Mr. Ortiz oversees the development, financing and production of Latino-themed programming which that is distributed for broadcast on national public television and online at PBS.org. Ortiz also administers LPB’s Public Media Content and Digital Media funding initiatives, which support independent filmmakers in the creation and dissemination of Latino themed documentaries for PBS, as well as digital content engaging audiences online. In addition, he serves as Series Producer for VOCES, LPB’s signature series that features the best of Latino arts, culture and history, and shines a light on current issues that impact Latino Americans. Ortiz also manages the operations of the organization, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA
Chicken & Egg Pictures shapes a more equitable and just world with the catalytic power of documentary films by providing funding, mentorship and industry access to a global community of women and gender-expansive filmmakers. Our work is done through an intersectional lens that acknowledges that various forms of inequity often operate together and exacerbate each other, slowing or even halting people’s careers. It is our mission to disrupt and help dismantle these barriers.
Filmmakers need resources, opportunities, and access to thrive in an unbalanced film landscape. So we match strategically timed grants with creative mentorship and community, building peer networks and bringing artists together to learn from and champion one another. This support system is tailored for the unique challenges women and gender-expansive people experience in their filmmaking and career trajectories.
Since our founding, Chicken & Egg Pictures has awarded over $12 million in grants and devoted thousands of hours of creative mentorship to over 500 filmmakers from around the world. Films supported by our work have been nationally and internationally recognized with the industry’s highest honors, including Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, and Peabody Awards. And they have raised visibility and driven social change on urgent issues.
Since 2013, the organization has been led by Chief Executive Officer Jenni Wolfson. Under her leadership, our budget has grown and our programs have expanded, and our stellar team has won honors including the Social Impact Media Awards Vanguard Award and the International Documentary Association’s Amicus Award; we were also a finalist for the Nonprofit Excellence Awards.