¿Cómo SER mujer? How TO BE a Woman? (30 minutes)
by Mirtha García
¿Cómo SER mujer? explores the way femininity is constructed and altered in the lives of trans Latina immigrant women and the barriers they have overcome in pursuit of it. Johanna’s, Leslie’s and Morena’s have taken different paths to fulfill their female identity while being brought up male. "How to be a woman?" is the question that is explored through their eyes. This question seems simple enough but it is one that even biologically born females cannot define. ¿Cómo SER mujer? shows how these women’s experiences with travesti (drag queen) performances, beauty and cosmetic choices (clothing, make-up, role models), and medical interventions (hormones) in Mexico and the United States have given many options of what it means to be a woman. Through the narratives of these women who so eloquently share their stories, women everywhere will get a glimpse into a side of their femininity they might not know they have.
The Fifth Question: Why is this Passover Different? (30 minutes)
by Shirin Raban
For 2700 years, Jews in Iran have celebrated Passover to commemorate the Exodus of their ancestors from Egypt. Iranian Jews residing in Los Angeles have experienced another exodus in their lifetimes, leaving Iran after the Islamic revolution in 1979. The Fifth Question examines the Persian Passover tradition in the Iranian-American Jewish community in Los Angeles, reflecting on intergenerational continuity through the eyes of three generations. Parents and grandparents born and raised in Iran and college-age youth born and raised in Los Angeles share memories and experiences through candid interviews and intimate moments preparing symbolic foods and participating in the Seder ritual. This cross-cultural exploration of relationships between generations addresses issues of cultural identity and first generation immigrants.
Ameri‐Pino: Recognizing Filipino Heritage in America (25 minutes)
by Patrick Gadut
As a multi‐ethnic American of Filipino heritage, Patrick uses a cine‐ethnographic approach to discover what it is to be an American Filipino. Beginning in Las Vegas, Nevada, we are introduced to Aurelio Dela Cruz, a first generation Filipino and American World War II veteran. Aurelio’s description of Filipino identity through bloodline and family togetherness leads to interviews of Ceasar Elpidio and Luke Perry, hosts of radio talk show, the “Two Guys Show” and a fiesta observation of the first Briones family reunion outside of the Philippines. Returning to Los Angeles, California, Patrick narrows the quest of individual American Filipino identity with visits to heritage sites in Historic Filipinotown and personal experience interviews of his father, Patrick Gadut, Sr. and friend, Gwen Velasco. Despite adverse generational struggles of heritage recognition, hyphenated identity, and discovery of ethnic discrimination, Ameri‐Pino reveals the strengths of the American Filipino community.
L.A. Bamba: An Exploration of Son Jarocho in Southern California
(26 minutes)
by Kara Clemins
L.A. Bamba examines how Son Jarocho musicians engage with Mexican American culture in Los Angeles. Son Jarocho is historically known for its playful style dating back to its creation and spread from Veracruz. The genre is characterized by its upbeat style and colorful instrumentation. This film examines how these attributes play a role in the dissemination of ideologies and engagement with Mexican American culture. The musicians featured in the film come from diverse musical upbringings and exemplify the variety present in the Son Jarocho genre. L.A. Bamba explores the ways in which music can be utilized as a social and cultural tool and celebrates the ways that Son Jarocho musicians are taking unique strides in Southern California.
Lifted (24 minutes)
by Francesca Santos
Lifted examines a form of body modification known as suspension, a practice that hangs the human body from hooks pierced through the flesh in various places on the body. The world of suspension becomes accessible as independent practitioners and suspension groups share the history, meanings and beliefs attached to suspension, as well as, discuss the future of this growing practice. Lifted offers a view of suspension from the inside, attempting to demystify this practice through the narratives of those that understand it best, while illuminating the diversity of it’s practitioners. Drawing on themes of ritual, performance art, meditation and spiritual transcendence suspension is a tool with many uses that offers a unique experience for every participant.
Making Belief Visible: The Cultural and Civic Production of the Sañto Nino Ati-Atihan Festival in the Philippines (26 minutes)
by George Villanueva
Making Belief Visible is a visual ethnographic account of a Filipino-American filmmaker’s journey back to his father’s hometown in the Philippines to learn about the town’s local ritual and now global tourist attraction—the Sañto Nino Ati-Atihan Festival. The religious festival has evolved since its origins in the 1200’s and has been referred to as the Philippines’ Mardi Gras and Carnival. Making Belief Visible deconstructs the phenomenon through the filmmaker’s participation in the event and interviews with locals about the practices, histories, cultural performances, perspectives, sensibilities, and tensions that embody the festival’s yearly enactment.
Our Piece of the Sky (22 minutes)
by Jessie Davidson
Our Piece of the Sky is a short ethnographic film that explores the experiences of female pilots. Despite the presence of women in the early days, aviation has persistently remained a highly gendered and male-dominated field. Our Piece of the Sky explores the journeys of five pilots through reflective and reflexive interviews that offer insight into the reality of gendered experience that permeates and influences everyday life. The film touches on phenomenology and perception through an examination of the influences of gender and subjective perceptions of experience. Through a diversity of pilot’s stories, Our Piece of the Sky demonstrates the necessity of deeper consideration of the subjective embodied experiences of individuals within a culture.
Peanut Butter et Confiture (31 minutes)
by Adrienne Gerard
Moving to a new country and learning the ways of a new culture is often a long and difficult process. Add learning how to parent to this task, and you have a whole new experience for these expatriates. Yolande and Marie are two French moms learning how to raise their children to live in Southern California. Their counterparts, Heather, Dana, and Jason, are all Americans attempting the same task but in Paris, France. Peanut Butter et Confiture follows five expatriate parents on their individual journeys of learning to parent like the locals do. Each expat is at a different stage of acculturation and assimilation, and some are more expert expat parents than others. From struggling with the French language and suffering from parenting guilt, to learning how to deal with a sassy American seven-year-old, Yolande, Marie, Heather, Dana, and Jason are all learning as they go, and being raised by their foreign children along the way.
Sea & Market (31 minutes)
by Robert Raad
Sea & Market documents the work of a group of people who own and operate a small beachside market, the Dory Fleet, in Newport Beach, California. The Dory Fleet, founded in 1891, is named after boats once used by all the fishermen who launched and landed from the sand beneath the market. Sea & Market creates a portrait of the last two dorymen who continue to trailer their boat through the sand and launch it into the surf, only to return before dawn to sell their catch to market patrons. Part observational film, part diaristic essay, Sea & Market draws on the construction of memory through personal experience, and the human potential for the creation of nostalgia when concerning a form of labor defined by the most elemental forces of nature. Here, physical domains such as the sea, or market, are further defined, having overlapping proximities and comparative instances of force and retreat.
This Might Not Be Your Kink (26 minutes)
by Stephanie Mulcihy
This Might Not Be Your Kink delves into the socially taboo and often secret lives of those practicing BDSM and specifically addresses why a publically feminist female chooses to be a submissive within the kink lifestyle. The contradictory roles these women play in their public verses private lives speaks not only to the assumption that feminism is ironclad and certain, but allows variances in interpretation and room for deviation. Set in Los Angeles, this documentary film explores more realistic representations of these females and the thought processes associated with role switching, relinquishing their social and political dominance, and becoming a submissive behind the public eye.
I Am Handmade (30 minutes)
by Samantha Close
When our fingers spend more time selecting things on touch screens than physically picking them up, what does it mean to be handmade? Ethnographic documentary I Am Handmade answers this question by diving into the world of artists and craftspeople who sell their handmade creations on Etsy.com. Hobbyist and professional makers from a diverse array of backgrounds across the United States share their amazement that "complete strangers from the internet" love their silver origami unicorns, quirky hand-painted mugs, and chunky knitwear necklaces enough to part with cash. But, doing what you love isn't as easy as it sounds, and being your own boss carries with it a perverse risk of working yourself to death. The crafters in I Am Handmade can create everything from life-size Doctor Who piñatas to handspun merino yarn. Hand-making their lives, though, requires hard choices.
