Inner Nest Updates

Staff & Team Highlights

  • We hired two new full-time staff members: Filmmaker Engagement Manager Jaad Asante in March and Operations Coordinator Sarah Lee in August.

  • Program Director Lucila Moctezuma joined the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and wrote a powerful op-ed that was featured in Documentary Magazine, “Microaggression in the Documentary Business: Who Do You See at the Table?”

  • Executive Director Jenni Wolfson took a well-deserved sabbatical this summer, the first in our organization. Jenni is our longest serving staff member (eight years!) and her short-term absence was a time for her to rest and re-collect and for us to strengthen leadership across the team.

  • Cindy Choung was promoted from External Relations Manager to Director of External Relations. Iva Dimitrova (Program), Stephanie Wang (Development), and Morgan Hulquist (Communications) were promoted from Assistants to Coordinators.

  • Our Senior Creative Consultant Yvonne Welbon is breaking new ground with the Sisters in Cinema Media Arts Center in Chicago. The Center will be a place for Black girls, women, and gender nonconforming media makers and storytellers.

Program Coordinator Iva Dimitrova and Operations Coordinator Sarah Lee at New York Film Festival

Senior Creative Consultant Yvonne Welbon at Sisters in Cinema’s work-in-progress Media Arts Center

Board Highlights

  • Documentary Producers Alliance (DPA) penned an Open Letter on how the documentary field can best recognize the work of producers. We took note of this with the help of our Board Member Susan Margolin, and as a first step, we are including credits of producers in all of our communications moving forward. We look forward to keeping the DPA’s letter in mind during our strategic planning process next year. 

  • Board Member and co-host of The D-word Marjan Safinia was among community members organizing to help colleagues in Afghanistan; Marjan spent countless hours contacting representatives and coordinating to help support filmmakers, fixers, and interpreters whose lives are at risk.

  • Our Board President Julie Parker Benello, producer on Athlete A, received the Outstanding Investigative Documentary Emmy® in October. 

  • Board Member Meredith Chin is a first-time producer on the film Duty Free, directed by Sian-Pierre Regis. The film screened in select theaters across the US and its impact efforts focus on ageism, care, and economic insecurity.

Board Member Meredith Chin and Sian-Pierre Regis, director and producer of Duty Free

Chicken & Egg Pictures thanks our incredible staff, Board, and longtime Creative Consultants who help us fulfill our mission and sustain our community: Sarah Anderson, Jaad Asante, Leslie Belzberg, Julie Parker Benello, Sabine Fayoux Cantillo, Rebecca Celli, Meredith Chin, Cindy Choung, Kit Crawford, Iva Dimitrova, Wendy Ettinger, Judith Helfand, Morgan Hulquist, David Lee, Sarah Lee, Susan Margolin, Mariana Sanson Martinez, Nion T. McEvoy, Lucila Moctezuma, Roswitha Mueller-Agarwal, Patty Quillin, Brenda Robinson, Marjan Safinia, Tereza Šimíková, Alex Simon, Nancy Stephens, Stephanie Wang, Yvonne Welbon, and Jenni Wolfson.