Grrillah Filmmaking Workshop II - Production August 31, 2004

GRRRILLAH FILMMAKING IN THREE PARTS - Part Two: Production
Presented by Sycamore Street Girl Gang (SSGG). Get hands-on with an all women film collaborative project.

Our upcoming film transforms the classic Viet Namese poem "Truyen Kieu" (The Tale of Kieu), into an experimental narrative about a Viet Namese massage parlor worker in San Francisco's Tenderloin district.

This free workshop, the second installment of a three part workshop, is a hands-on, behind the scenes look on how to make a feature film.

Part Two: Production
Topics: Storyboarding, casting, art direction, set design, sound design, shooting schedule, rehearsal, camera work (how to hold a camera, handle equipment), lighting a scene

Workshop one focused on funding a film, the screenplay writing process, research and project development, as well as collaborating with other people and organizations. The second workshop will go further into the production process of making a film.

If you've always been curious about what it takes to make a film, this is a great way to learn how a group of artists did it for themselves! Folks who are interesting in getting the full hands-on experience are welcome to apply to join the production crew.

This workshop series is for women only.

Part Three: Post-production (date TBA)
Topics: Editing process, distribution, soundtrack, publicity/outreach

About the Sycamore Street Girl Gang
:: Producer/Director/Editor ::
Vu T. Thu Ha is an interdisciplinary artist working primarily in film, photography and conceptual art. Her work strives to create visual dialogue around Asian American issues such as identity, language, assimilation and immigration. Vu was born in Viet Nam and immigrated to the U.S. in 1984 to North Carolina. As a union organizer in Texas, Louisiana, Quebec and California, she has worked among Vietnamese garment workers and health care workers, and in San Francisco as a vocational counselor and community organizer with Vietnamese American immigrants. Vu currently lives and works in the Mission District and has been an active member in the Bay Area arts community over the past five years, collaborating on video projects with Purple Moon Dance Project, Leslie Mah, and Maiana Minahal. She has guest lectured and conducted workshops at San Francisco State University, City College of San Francisco, the Potrero Hill Neighborhood Center, Writers Corps, Diversity Works and Asian Sisters in Action. Vu?s work has been exhibited at spaces such as SOMArts Gallery, Asia Pacific Cultural Center, Noe Valley Public Library and ProArts Gallery. Her first films, each night and Shut Up White Boy, have been screening nationally and internationally.

:: Writers and Collaborating Artists ::
Lisa Asagi is a writer, media artist and creative consultant. She is the author of two artist books, Physics and Twelve Scenes at 12am. A writer of creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, she has been published internationally in magazines, journals and anthologies. She has worked professionally with NAATA in the areas of distribution, events production, curating, and educational material development. She has also contributed to various film and video projects in the roles of office manager for Ancestors in America directed by Loni Ding and associate producer for Kelly Loves Tony, directed by Spencer Nakasako. She has helped in the development of several independent art-based organizations, such as Downwind Productions (Honolulu) and Runt (UK), in the role of creative consultant. She actively collaborates with a wide range of visual, media/film, and performance artists. Recent exhibits of collaborative projects include: Book2, a series of remodeled found books created with Justin Chin and R. Zamora Linmark, commissioned by the Potrero Nuevo Fund; Traveller's Tales, an online exhibit with visual artist Gaye Chan, commissioned by the Institute of Visual Arts in London. She is a grateful recipient of a 2003 Individual Artist Grant awarded by the San Francisco Arts Commission. She was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii and currently resides in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Maiana Minahal is a queer Filipina American poet and teacher. She was born in Manila, raised in Los Angeles, and lives in San Francisco. She studied with June Jordan's poetry collective, Poetry for the People, was a winner in the 1999 San Francisco Bay Guardian Poetry Contest, and is a recipient of a Serpent Source Foundation Artist Award Grant. Her work has been published in June Jordan's Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint, Take Out: Queer Writings from Asian and Pacific America, inVasian: Asian Sisters Represent, Screaming Monkeys, Going Home to a Landscape, maganda magazine, and is featured on the spoken word cd Infliptration: A Youngblood Revolution. An Artist-in-Residence at the Jon Sims Center, Maiana is creating a poetry performance called "Before Their Words", a collaborative, interdisciplinary poetry performance that combines subversive, poetic narrative with indigenous pre-colonial Philippine cultural traditions. In addition to the San Francisco Bay area, Maiana has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, and Austin, and has taught poetry workshops both locally and nationally. She is a founding member of the Queer Pin@y Kreatibo collective. Maiana's first book of poetry, Sitting Inside Wonder, was published in November 2003 with Monkey Press.

Debbie Ng is a writer and filmmaker whose first video, Troo Bloo, screened in 2003 at the National Queer Arts Festival and APAture. Her work is grounded in the San Francisco Bay area and the nonprofit field. She is a trainer and consultant in the areas of youth development, volunteer management, community outreach, and board development. She has also been a volunteer with the Asian Women?s Shelter and an advisory board member for the Chinatown Beacon Center.

ly-huong nguyen was made in Viet Nam, born in Hawai'i, and grown in Cali. She is descended from a long line of peasants. Some of her scribblings have appeared in Asian Americans: the Movement and the Moment, BambooGirl zine (issue 10) and vnwomensforum.com. She occasionally works on a meandering and funny tale of her family's refugee experiences and developing her internal universe as expressed through a webpage. ly-huong works as campaign researcher and trainer for youth organizations throughout the country. She was co-founder and member of the organizing collective of em*power viet sisters, a volunteer-run Oakland Vietnamese female youth community leadership and empowerment program (2001-03). She is a practicioner of wing chun kung fu/JKD, muay thai and ballroom dancing. She likes spam. She received an MA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley spring 2002.

Jacqueline Thu-Huong Vu, M.S.W, P.P.S.C is a consultant to the Oakland Unified School District helping to develop the district?s Foster Youth Program. She is also former Board President of Young Women United for Oakland, a youth run and led organization focused on harm reduction and youth advocacy through street based outreach to young women working in the Oakland street economy. Having recently come from McClymonds High School Student Support Staff, Jacqueline is a school-based social worker with a focus on youth development and empowerment.
August 31, 2004, 7pm
Locus Arts at Galeria de la Raza, 2857 24th St @ Bryant, San Francisco
Admission: Free. Please RSVP at [email protected].