Constructing Cosplay (21 minutes)
by Monique Yamaguchi, MVA 2022
“Cosplay,” a portmanteau for the words costume and play, is known around
the world as an activity in which individuals dress up in specific costumes
from anime, film or television at some of the most popular comic book,
anime and multi-genre conventions around the world such as San Diego
ComicCon, WonderCon, Los Angeles Comic Con and Anime Expo. The
process of cosplay involves the navigation of performance, performativity,
gender and race as those involved create identities through a process of
labor to create and perform their chosen characters.
Crafting Brown Beauty (28 minutes)
by Sanaya Dhablania, MVA 2022
Crafting Brown Beauty explores the ways in which South Asian women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB) have utilized craft to help decolonize their sexuality and desire. Crafting Brown Beauty documents the stories of three Desi-American’s journeys to embrace and live in their authentic sexual identities, and ultimately reveals the power that embodied practices and craft have in decolonizing sexuality and creating community. Using poetry, spoken word, painting, photography, spiritual healing, and social media, these three Desi-Americans utilize their respective crafts and focus on themes of sexuality and desire in order to make sense of post-colonial coloniality over the brown body and embrace their authentic selves. The drama of these combined stories climax with pain of living through the colonized aspects of one’s sexual identity, the difficulty in recognizing and reframing these aspects, the effort in relearning and loving a decolonized sexual identity.
Fendi (16 minutes)
by El Whittingham, Ph.D. student in Anthropology
A young Cambodian queer activist, under the stage name Fendi Charms, explores the possibilities of bringing drag performance into the light of day—a first in Cambodian history. Fendi works to understand precolonial gender expression and how the first generation after Pol Pot's genocide can integrate ancient understandings of nonbinary gender expression and sexuality into a rapidly reconfiguring society. Fendi takes us into the cramped corners of nightclub dressing rooms and out into the streets of Cambodia's capital, before the COVID-19 pandemic, as she pushes for LGBTQUIA+ visibility.
Indigenous Illusions Come to Life (30 minutes)
by Chandler Owen Zausner, MVA 2022
Indigenous Illusions Come to Life explores the spectrum of interaction that modern Native people bring to the consideration of the flawed Edward Sheriff Curtis salvage ethnography of a “vanishing race," by replacing a legacy of colonial representation and cultural misogyny with the voices of Indigenous descendants. Contemporary perceptions are actively transforming the curatorial and Native reception that grounds a reinterpretation of Curtis’s photographs, films and recorded testimony. The current movement towards the empowerment of indigenized visual media, by Native scholars, artists and activists, reveals issues of spiritual revival, natural resource control, economic exploitation, and cultural reclamation by shifting characterization of Native imagery from romanticism to ethnocentricity to self-advocacy.
Re-memory-ing Blueboy
by Eric Hensley, MVA 2023
Blueboy magazine was founded in 1974 by publisher Donald Embinder—advertising executive, LGBTQ+ pioneer and provocateur. Blueboy was the first nationally distributed gay mens' magazine in the United States. It served as the premiere resource for the interests of gay men ranging from music, art, fashion, hotspots, nightlife, politics to nude male pictorials.
In continuation of curatorial projects, such as the Blueboy ephemeral exhibition Hensley curated for Hammer Museum and The Huntington Art Museum, Hensley's exhibits provide a deeper understanding of gay life in America at the intersection of gay liberation and the AIDS crisis.
Hensley discusses the concepts of “rememory” and “gleaning silences” as critical conceptual lenses deployed in the analysis of the upcoming exhibition, Re-memory-ing Blueboy. Re-memory-ing Blueboy aims to understand the ways in which ephemera, in this case, Blueboy magazine—something meant to exist for a short time, has the capacity to be both ephemera and long-lived. When examining the function of ephemera it is important to understand that ephemera, like other types of objects, have an agency and biography of their own which in turn, enable ephemera to form an identity, create community, and serve as a catalyst for expressing culture. Understanding how gay ephemera functions differently than heteronormative ephemera, Blueboy is analyzed against problematic perceptions of gay life in order to assess the differences of the functions, as well as highlight the ways in which ephemera can be used to recuperate maligned communities.
Ujima Means Community (25 minutes)
by Fefe Smith, MVA 2023
Through the lens of a gripping documentary, Ujima Means Community immerses viewers in the complex web of environmental, social, and political factors that have perpetuated the crisis of contamination in South Central Los Angeles. Opened in 1972, Ujima Village was supposed to have been an oasis for over 600 working-class Black families in South Central Los Angeles. Against this backdrop, Ujima Means Community follows the tautology of yet another minority community abandoned by the leaders put in place to protect them; shedding light on the experiences of marginalized communities who have borne the brunt of pollution and highlighting the urgent need for systemic change. Told from the perspective of the last resident, Navaline Smith, community activist, Tim Watkins, and environmental researcher, Danielle Hoague; Ujima Means Community serves as a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity, inspiring audiences to take action and demand accountability from those in power.
We Are A Garden (23 minutes)
by Rachael Geary, MVA 2023
Set in the outskirts of the filmmaker’s hometown in rural Pennsylvania, We Are a Garden explores a Lutheran congregation’s relationship with mediatization since the coronavirus pandemic. The filmmaker serves as a portal from their current residence in Los Angeles, California, to Boyertown, Pennsylvania, guiding the audience into the world of contemporary worship service practiced in and outside of St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. When the pandemic revealed the limitations of St. John’s digital presence, the congregation began implementing livestream and asynchronous worship service options when members could no longer gather in person. Although St. John’s had been broadcasting their worship services on a local cable network since the 90s, social media websites like YouTube and Facebook provided a more instantaneous connection to a church service. As congregants adapted to new ways of attending worship, the increased dependency on digital media resulted in other new media implementations in worship services once the church reopened for in-person services in 2021. The film asks us how community remains alive in a time where one does not necessarily need to be in the physical presence of one another but can in digital spirit.
Where to Find Witches in the San Fernando Valley (23 minutes)
by Anna Weiler, MVA 2023
In 2022, witchcraft was the fastest growing spiritual practice in North America. In the Los Angeles area, there are over 50 metaphysical stores that specialize in products related to magick and mysticism. These stores provide entry points into the world of witchcraft. They help support communities and practitioners and also offer spaces for those interested in learning about witchcraft to become familiar with it and learn from expert practitioners. These stores host rituals and classes and other community events that allow practicing and prospective witches alike to come together to grow and learn. This film follows Salvatore “Sal” Santoro and Griffin Ced, both practicing witches and metaphysical store managers, as they introduce us to the world of witchcraft through the stores that they run. We also briefly follow Laura Catania, a crew member on the film, as she becomes interested in the film’s subject matter and ultimately decides to try witchcraft for herself.
Working with the Inevitable (23 minutes)
by Symon Braun Freck, MVA 2022
A film inspired by love, loss, and exploration, Working with the
Inevitable attempts to make sense of end-of-life care and the limitless
possibilities within the field of Thanatology—the study of death, dying, and
bereavement. Working with the Inevitable breaks down misconceptions of
end-of-life care by shedding light on the endless facets within the discipline
through an exploration of the career choices of people approaching the space from divergent vantages. Against the backdrop of the filmmaker’s own connection with death and dying, the film follows four professionals working in Thanatology who have pursued drastically different paths. A doctor, a professor, a funeral director, and a death doula share their journeys and insight on death positivity and education. Hoping to motivate viewers to take a deeper look at their own relationship with death, this honest film dives into the complexities of one of the only inevitabilities of human life.