Category: Film Presentations

For Us, By Us: Our Beloved Communities – We Just Want to Be – April 27

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For Us, By Us: Our Beloved Communities is a multicultural film screening and discussion series highlighting documentary films made by a diverse group of local filmmakers who are telling personal stories of Bay Area community heroes.

Presented by Re-Present Media and Filmmakers Collaborative SF

For Us, By Us: Our Beloved Communities – We Just Want to Be

Saturday, April 27, 2024, 2:15–4:45PM
The New Parkway Theater
474 24th Street Oakland, CA 94612

Screening of new footage from We Just Want to Be, panel discussion with community mental health advocates, and audience Q&A with the filmmakers.

We Just Want to Be is a documentary film in early production that tells the story of a survivor’s lifelong healing from trans conversion therapy, and the friendships across race and generation that helped facilitate that journey.

Free – registration required via Eventbrite

This project is made possible with support from the Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation, Hobson Lucas Family Foundation, and California Humanities, a partner of the NEH. Visit www.calhum.org.

Oaktown Stories – October 28

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Oakland’s communities tell our own stories through short personal films followed by community dialogues with guest speakers. This is the third in a series of three events in October 2023.

Sat, Oct 28, 1-3pm
East Bay Community Space
507 55th St, Oakland

For free tickets: https://re-presentmedia.ticketleap.com/oaktownstories2023-3/

“Synchronized” (Corinne Cueva) 
Inspired by Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi, Synchronized was produced during the COVID-19 pandemic and features voices from BIPOC LGBTQ+ Oakland residents along with beautiful takes of Oakland’s changing urban landscape.
– With guest speaker Maria Clara Merçon and community partner Carmen Wong (Three Thirty Three Arts).

“Wake The Town” (Bryan Wiley) 
Wake The Town features the personal stories of former Oakland residents from the Black community and their complex relationship with rapid gentrification.
– With guest speaker La’Donna Mitchell.

“Coach Emily” (Pallavi Somusetty)
Emily Taylor is an Oakland-based queer Black rock climbing coach who supports young girls and non-binary kids of color as they grapple with discrimination in the outdoors.
– With guest speaker and community partner Emily Taylor (Brown Girls Climbing).

Oaktown Stories – October 21

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Oakland’s communities tell our own stories through short personal films followed by community dialogues with guest speakers. This is the second in a series of three events in October 2023.

Sat, Oct 21, 3-5pm
EastSide Cultural Center
2277 International Blvd, Oakland

For free tickets: https://re-presentmedia.ticketleap.com/oaktownstories2023-2/

“Bayanihan & Resilience” (Jocelyn Tabancay Duffy)
Penny Baldado, a queer Filipino immigrant and proud owner of Café Gabriela, makes it through the COVID-19 pandemic by giving back to Oakland.
– With guest speaker and community partner Penny Baldado (Café Gabriela).

“My Name is Lai” (Lucy Saephan) 
Lai, a Mien American elder, shares her memories as a refugee survivor of war in hopes to heal invisible wounds and not be forgotten.
– With guest speaker and community partner Jae Saechao (Cold Rice Collective).

“This Adventure Called California” (Jennifer Huang) 
Recently-divorced Arnoldo 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.
– With guest speaker Arnoldo Lopez and community partners Rafael Bautista (US Advisory Council on Human Trafficking), Nur Jannah Kaalim (Filipino Advocates for Justice), and Josué Revolorio (Multicultural Institute).

Oaktown Stories – October 14

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Oakland’s communities tell our own stories through short personal films followed by community dialogues with guest speakers. This is the first in a series of three events.

October 14, 1-3pm
West Oakland Public Library
1801 Adeline St, Oakland

For free tickets: https://re-presentmedia.ticketleap.com/oaktownstories2023-1/

“Why More Black Americans Should Try Capoeira” (Chinwe Oniah) 
For an Afro-Brazilian art form, it’s surprising to see so few Black practitioners of capoeira in the Bay Area.
With guest speaker and community partner Contra Mestra Andrea (FICA Oakland).

“When The Garden Comes” (Jay Gash)
When The Garden Comes follows a multi-generational North Oakland family across themes of home, garden, and legacy.
With guest speaker Creasie Jordan and community partner Joshua Alperin (Oakland Public Library).

“ALIVE IN BRONZE: Huey P. Newton (1942–1989)” (A.K. Sandhu)
ALIVE IN BRONZE follows Fredrika Newton and Dana King (an activist and an artist) working to honor the Black Panther Party’s vital place in American history through the creation of a monument of its co-founder Huey P. Newton.
With guest speaker and community partner Fredrika Newton (Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation).

Silent Beauty screening at the Roxie – April 16

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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.

Oaktown Stories 2 with Re-Take Oakland Filmmakers

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Oaktown Stories 2 banner
 

Re-Take Oakland filmmakers Jessica Jones, Jenn Lee Smith, and A.K. Sandhu presented three films. With their guest speakers and community partners, they held a community discussions relating to the contributions of black women to Oakland with our audience members.

  • Women Who Ride (Jessica Jones) shared an intimate portrait of D’Vious Wayz, Oakland’s first black women’s motorcycle club, as they come together to build a community around their passion for riding. This sneak peak introduced the themes and characters that will appear in a longer film slated to finish this fall. Guest speaker Frankie “Tish” Edwards spoke on black women creating a positive space for themselves.

  • Queen of the Court (Jenn Lee Smith) introduced Cheri King, a tennis tournament director and coach, as she teaches students the art of tennis and shares ways it may bridge socio-economic gaps. Guest speaker Cheri King spoke on how tennis can be empowering for black and brown youth.

  • For Love and Legacy (A.K. Sandhu) followed Dana King and Fredrika Newton as they create the first public art sculpture honoring Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, and how they reconcile their mixed-race identity. Guest speakers Dana King and Fredrika Newton of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation spoke on the importance of women’s contributions to community building and social justice movements.

 

Oaktown Stories with Re-Take Oakland Filmmakers

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Oaktown Stories June 5th 7-9p

 

Re-Take Oakland filmmakers Corinne Manabat Cueva, Jay Gash, Lucy Saephan, and teo octavia presented four films. With their guest speakers and community partners, they held deeply engaging discussions relating to the personal stories of Oaklanders with audience members.

 

  • Rooted in Resilience (teo octavia) focused on refugee and advocate Danny Thongsy as he fights against his deportation and for the rights of Southeast Asians. Guest speakers and community partners Lan Nguyen and Jun Hamamoto (Stand4Danny) centered the themes of grassroots activism and advocacy, Southeast Asian refugee and immigrant stories, displacement and deportation, and mobilization and movement building.

 

  • When the Garden Comes (Jay Gash) explored their family home and garden in North Oakland through three generations and how it can be a source of memories. Guest speakers and community partners Creasie Jordan and Keith Battle (BAVC) centered the themes of gardening and land for the black and brown community, defining legacy, and family histories and traditions.

 

  • Synchronized (Corinne Manabat Cueva) embraced 5 women of color as they collectively reflect about their experiences living and thriving in Oakland. Guest speakers and community partners Carmen Wong and Grace Patterson (BAVC/Reel Stories) centered the themes of expectations about Oakland; personal identity, place, and space; and the impacts of being creatives.

 

  • My Name is Lai (Lucy Saephan) drew a portrait of her Mien American grandmother as a cultural bearer carrying generational wisdom connecting her experiences in both Laos and Oakland. Guest speakers and community partners Lai and Muong Saephan (Lao Iu Mien Cultural Association) centered the themes of the Mien community in Oakland, intergenerational relationships and legacy, and the community’s future.

 

Interior Ecologies at the AAAS Conference

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Re-Take Oakland filmmakers Corinne Manabat Cueva and Lucy Saephan discussed the relationship between culture, ecology, and personal storytelling at the 2021 AAAS conference. They screened their two new short films: My Name is Lai, featuring Lucy’s Mien grandmother talking about her experiences of life, and Synchronized featuring women of color discussing their relationship to living in Oakland.

Little White Lie

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[Little White Lie]

Little White Lie is a personal film about how the filmmaker came to terms with being raised as a white Jewish girl after discovering that her biological father was black.

Reflections by Sherry Chiang

{Jennifer and Lacey]The documentary Little White Lie (2014), conceptualized and directed by filmmaker Lacey Schwartz Delgado, raises many questions related to identity and shifts in self-perception. Following the screening event on August 18th, 2019 at the East Bay Community Center, she interacted with the audience, discussing perspectives on denial and acceptance.

First, Schwartz described how the concept of the film evolved. Little White Lie, she explains, shifted from a documentary focusing on an issue-based film about Jewish and black communities in 2002 to a deeply personal work when filming began in 2006. “What is the beginning, middle, and end [of the film],” Lacy said, becomes informed by shifts in self-perception. This relates to a bigger notion of the social construct race, where there is a choice between focusing on big societal issues versus individual familial structures. Lacey mentions that struggles around race are often experienced interpersonally, such as within families, instead of through overarching societal issues.

Lacey Schwartz, within Little White Lie, identifies as a black woman. When questioned by an audience member on whether her self-identity was exclusive or non-exclusive, specifically relating to Lacey’s origins of being born half Jewish, she says that while identifying as Jewish and black now, identities are fluid and that race is defined by perceptions of people.

While interviewing people after the question and answer session, I found out that another volunteer experienced a similar hiding and denial of identity. She, like Lacey, realized she had a different father following the beginning of college, yet she does not discuss the issue with her mother due to the cultural shame or stigma her mom would face, internally and externally. From other audience members, I found several second timer viewers of the film, and that Little White Lie became of personal significance to them because of its resonance with their stories.