Category: All Events
We co-presented the Getting Unstuck webinar with Show&Tell and Filmmakers Collaborative SF on June 15, 2023 at 1pm PT.
Identifying and overcoming common sticking points is essential to moving your film forward. Jennifer Crystal Chien, Director of Re-Present Media, and Kevin White, Executive Director of Filmmakers Collaborative SF, shared insights on how to build and maintain momentum to get your film funded, made, and out into the world. The webinar had over 300 attendees.
Silent Beauty, directed by Jasmin Mara López, is screening at the Roxie in San Francisco on Sunday, April 16th at 1pm. The film will be followed by a Q&A with director Jasmin Mara López, moderated by Jennifer Crystal Chien. Following the screening, the Silent Beauty team will host a healing gathering open to survivors of childhood sexual abuse who identify as women.
When director Jasmin Mara López sees a photo of her niece with her grandfather, she is flooded by painful memories of her own childhood sexual abuse at his hands—and the following 24 years of her silence. In this cinematically striking and poetic documentary, López bravely films her story as a willful act to accept difficult truths while finding beauty in the process of healing. As she defies the cultural silence that pervades her family and confronts her abusive grandfather, who is a Baptist minister, a world of generational abuse unfolds, and she quickly discovers she is not alone. Through archival family footage and intimate moments with her family, López has created a film about confronting painful truths and the beauty one can feel when they reach the other side of grief.
For tickets: https://roxie.com/production/silent-beauty/
Following the screening, the Silent Beauty team will host a healing gathering open to survivors of childhood sexual abuse who identify as women. If you are a CSA survivor who identifies as a woman and would like to participate, please fill out this form.
We presented a Community Building session titled, Restorative Practices for BIPOC Creatives, for the European Film Market Toolbox Programme. The EFM Doc Toolbox Programme and EFM Fiction Toolbox Programme are part of the European Film Market’s Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. The programs empower filmmakers from marginalised groups and the Global South to gain market intelligence, business tools, and connections for effective navigation in the global film market.
Our session focused on principles and practices for BIPOC filmmakers and creatives working within environments rooted in white supremacist culture. The vision was to focus on working sustainably and effectively amid predictable challenges that arise. Themes of the session included shifting perspectives on approaching the work, handling challenging situations in new ways, and building community.
Re-Present Media Director, Jennifer Crystal Chien, participated in the DOK Leipzig 2022 Industry Talk: Personal Storytelling from Underrepresented Communities on October 18, 2022.
Jennifer was in conversation with filmmakers Brenda Akele Jorde (The Homes We Carry), Mickaël Bandela (One Mother) and Paula Vaccaro, founder of Pinball London and member of the steering committee of ARTEF. The panel was moderated by Gugi Gumilang, Executive Director of In-Docs.
Re-Present Media Director, Jennifer Crystal Chien, participated in the Mill Valley Film Festival 2022 Panel: The Power of Personal Documentary Films: The Distributors on October 13, 2022.
In early 2022, Re-Present Media issued an article, The Power of Personal Documentary Films, presenting data gathered from emerging BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) filmmakers working on personal documentary films. In particular, the article explored the impact of racism and white-supremacy culture on their work.
This session presented highlights of the survey project as it relates to the current distribution landscape, then dove into a deep conversation with distribution professionals. Themes included: the value of personal documentary films from diverse communities, how personal documentaries are currently distributed, the challenges of marketing such films, the missed opportunities to connect with audiences because of an unconscious bias against these films, and how strategies can shift among distributors for programming, acquiring, and marketing personal documentaries.
Jennifer was in conversation with Brenda Avila-Hanna (New Day Films), Amanda Salazar (Film Programmer), and Annie Roney (ro*co Films, Founder & Chief Executive Officer). The panel was moderated by Claire Aguilar (producer/consultant, former Director of Programming and Policy at International Documentary Association).
Filmmakers Collaborative SF and Re-Present Media are presenting a series of workshops focused on helping filmmakers with practical filmmaking advice and strategies to move their films forward. Workshop participants will walk away with tangible documents and tools for the next step in their filmmaking journey.
Thu, September 22, 2022 | 3:30pm – 5:00pm PT
This practical workshop aims to equip filmmakers, funders, and participants to address challenges that arise during the filmmaking process by highlighting existing tools and resources on documentary ethics and accountability. It will focus on financial impacts and benefits, ownership, content review rights, and the film’s impact on participants.
Thu, October 20, 2022 | 1:00pm – 2:30 pm PT
This hands-on workshop will help filmmakers design a customized distribution plan for their film. We will cover creating goals for your film, evaluating different distribution channels, finding audience, strategies for DIY distribution, sequencing your release, and more – all with the goal of creating a unique and actionable distribution strategy for your film.
Thu, November 17, 2022 | 1:00pm – 2:30pm PT
This hands-on workshop will help you critically assess your ideas, structure development and strategy to successfully secure funding and move your film forward. It will focus on aligning the filmmaking process with a film’s funding potential, efficiently organizing time and resources, producing a compelling work sample, proposal and pitch deck, leveraging a team approach, and more.
Cost: Free for Filmmakers Collaborative SF members or sliding scale (pay what you can)
For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.filmmakerscollaborative.org/events
This Adventure Called California, directed by Re-Take Oakland filmmaker Jennifer Huang, will screen at the 2022 United Nations Association Film Festival on Sunday, October 23 at 1pm in Palo Alto.
This Adventure Called California is a short documentary film about recently divorced Arnoldo, who comes to the United States from Mexico to win back his family but meets only brutality and despair, until a chance encounter at a racquetball court changes the course of his life.
For more information, visit this page.
Coach Emily, directed by Re-Take Oakland filmmaker Pallavi Somusetty, is having its first in-person screenings! The film will screen:
October 22 at 4:00pm with BAMMS at the Roxie
For more information and tickets, visit this page.
October 23 at 12:30pm with Kearny Street Workshop at the Roxie
Pallavi Somusetty is a featured artist for this showcase.
For more information and tickets, visit this page.
Coach Emily follows Emily Taylor, a Black woman rock climbing coach determined to close the adventure gap for her team of young girls of color in Oakland.
When the Garden Comes, directed by Re-Take Oakland filmmaker Jay Gash, is screening at Femininity Framed on Friday, October 7th at 5pm at Rose Mary Jane in Oakland.
When the Garden Comes follows how the legacy of homeownership and gardening pumps through the veins of a Black family in North Oakland.
Femininity Framed features female filmmakers of color exploring their femininity within short films.
For more information and tickets, visit this page.
For Love and Legacy, directed by Re-Take Oakland filmmaker A.K. Sandhu, is making its way back to the Bay Area at Mill Valley Film Festival. The film is screening in the Shorts Program: Painting Pictures, October 12 at 3:45pm at Rafael 3.
For Love and Legacy tells the personal stories of sculptor Dana King and activist Fredrika Newton who come together to build a new monument that honors the Black Panther Party’s vital place in American history.
For more information and tickets, visit this page.
A.K. Sandhu will also be leading an archival workshop, Reel Life: History on Film, with Bay Area archivist, Alex Cherian, on October 15 at 11:30am. Exploring themes of history and memory, A.K. will talk about the curated archival footage she considered and utilized for the film, and participants will be able to study and learn how archives expand historical significance.
For more information and tickets, visit this page.
For Love and Legacy will also be screening at these upcoming festivals: DocNYC, HotSprings, Montreal Black FF, New Haven Docs, Montclair, and Urbanworld FF.