← POSITIONS OFFERED: 2012 FESTIVAL PROGRAM INTERN
CASTMEMBERS OF “ALMOST PERFECT” INTERVIEWED →
2011-12 ARMED WITH A CAMERA FELLOWS ANNOUNCED
Front Row, L-R: Jeff Man, Hansook Oh, Jo Ann Do, Micki Davis, Jocelyn Saddi-Lenhardt, AWC Mentor Ann Kaneko
Back Row, L-R: Kevin Lam, Michael Shu, Kelly Li, Veena Hampapur, Jonathan Moy
[LOS ANGELES] – Visual Communications, the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, is pleased to announce the participants of the tenth anniversary cycle of the Armed With a Camera Fellowship for Emerging Media Artists, a groundbreaking filmmakers’ development initiative established in 2001. The latest AWC cycle will premiere ten new digital short films at the Directors Guild of America on May 13, 2012 as a key highlight of the 28th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, May 10 through May 20, 2012.
The Armed With a Camera Fellowship was established to encourage the creative activities of emerging filmmakers of Asian Pacific descent, and to promote original and resourceful filmmaking strategies using accessible digital filmmaking technologies in the production, post-production, and delivery of works that offers more accurate and honest portraits and perspectives by and about Asian Pacific Americans. Beginning in 2001 with a class of seven filmmakers, the AWC Fellowship has provided access, equipment, and crucial training and mentoring to nearly 80 artists, and has yielded a sizeable portfolio of works that demonstrate a wide variety of visions and voices. Many of these works have been screened at film festivals and showcases throughout the world, and many have enjoyed sustained viewings on select online destinations.
“The Visual Communications family is proud to once again make the Armed With a Camera Fellowship available to our large community of media artists,” said Shinae Yoon, Executive Director of Visual Communications. “The AWC Fellowships confirm our commitment to developing artists whose perspectives and voices will enrich the community at large, and at the same time assist in growing a strong, vibrant creative community.
“The Fellows’ involved participation in the creative process, coupled with valuable learning opportunities through the VC Digital Academy’s intensive filmmaker trainings and seminars, promise an especially exciting new class of works,” Yoon added. “We’re excited to see what this group of AWC Fellows produce, and we invite the community to celebrate their works at Festival Week 2012.”
This year’s AWC Fellowship represents a diverse grouping of emerging cinema artists, many of whom have presented short works in past Visual Communications public screening programs including the Film Festival. This year’s AWC Fellowship class is mentored by Ann Kaneko, a veteran filmmaker and cinematographer. This illustrious group of AWC Fellows includes:
Mariquita “Micki” Davis, an MFA candidate at UC San Diego, has produced a series of videos as a multimedia artist, and in tandem with various multidisciplinary collaborators. Her proposed AWC project is based on personal testimonies of relatives and family members who have relocated from her native Guam due to U.S. military involvement.
JoAnn Do Hockersmith, a native of Orange County, CA, is a recent graduate from UC Irvine’s Fine Arts Department and currently works as a freelance videographer. JoAnn’s AWC project, PRESCRIBED, is a story set in a psychiatrist’s office and follows a young woman’s thoughts while under the spell of an experimental medication.
No stranger to last year’s Film Festival audience, Veena Hampapur presented her short film, THREADS, as part of the 2011 VC Digital Posse program. A recent UCLA grad, Veena’s AWC project, COWBOYS AND LAKERS (a profile of an immigrant Indian woman who balances family and faith with a serious sports addiction), continues her interests in the stories of marginalized peoples throughout the greater Los Angeles area.
Kevin Lam is an aspiring animation artist currently his degree at California State University, Fullerton. Having already won numerous accolades for his animation and visual artwork, Kevin is set to put his talents to work in his proposed project, PHONO, which ponders how the course of modern technology would have changed if Alexander Graham Bell had invented a robot instead of the telephone.
Kelly Li has already had a busy career since relocating from his native Ohio. A double-degree recipient from UCLA, Li has dabbled in acting, singing, as well as filmmaking. A firm believer of telling stories with universal themes, his project CAFÉ ELEVÉ observes the goings on in a Monterey Park coffee house just around closing time.
Jeff Man is the co-producer and cinematographer of the acclaimed multi-episode YouTube documentary 9500 LIBERTY, which was later re-edited into an award-winning documentary feature film. Having recently relocated to Los Angeles last year, Jeff is preparing a short film based on the sizeable photographic collection of Eddie Oshiro, a Los Angeles Little Tokyo resident and, until his death in 2005, a well-regarded community fixture.
Jonathan Moy has worked as a Graphics Coordinator and Production Associate at a variety of local Hollywood production companies. As a director, his credits include ANALYZE, CLEANED OUT, and aPART. Moy, a Wheaton College graduate, proposes a story, SIX FROM CERTAIN, in which a young man seeks marriage advice — from his ex-girlfriend, whom he still pines for.
Esther Hansook Oh, currently a degree candidate at California State University, Northridge, is a journalism major with a minor in Asian American Studies. Oh is co-directing with fellow CSUN degree candidate Tessie Navarro, MEXIPIN@, a documentary examining multi-ethnicity and mixed-race identity as seen through the experiences of Mexican and Filipino Americans.
Jocelyn Saddi-Lenhardt is a alumni of California State University, Long Beach, and cites influences as diverse as John Cassavetes’ FACES and Eric Byler’s CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES. Having already directed two short films under the mentorship of independent filmmaker Rory Kelly, Saddi-Lenhardt will develop her latest work, MOTHER & CHILD, about a harried hospital nurse and her asthmatic son.
Michael Shu is no stranger to Visual Communications, having served as the editor for Alexander Sebastien Lee’s award-winning THE REAL SHAOLIN and cinematographer for Jon Maxwell’s music video MAMMOTH — both screened at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival. Michael’s slice-of-life narrative, UNMENTIONABLES, follows the travails of a young man who stumbles into a series of predicaments in a local laundromat.
The James Irvine Foundation, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney Foundation are generous sponsors of the Armed With a Camera Fellowship.
Established in 1970, Visual Communications is the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center, and promotes intercultural understanding through the creation, presentation, preservation and support of media works by and about Asian Pacific Americans. An acknowledged pioneer in the national media arts arena, Visual Communications boasts a catalog currently comprising over 100 films and video produced through the organization; maintains a photographic archive of nearly 500,000 historical and contemporary images of Asian Pacific American histories and communities; conducts filmmaker training and education workshops and seminars; and organizes public exhibition events including the annual Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
Visual Communications is funded in part by the Aratani Foundation, California Community Foundation, Getty Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, Japan Foundation, JACL Trust, Japanese American Community Services (JACS), Sony, National Film Preservation Fund, Asian Pacific Community Fund, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, National Endowment for the Arts, Academy Foundation, Union Bank, National Endowment for the Arts, VC Stakeholders and corporate and community supporters.
For more information on the Armed With a Camera Fellowship; and for additional info about Visual Communications programs and upcoming screening and workshop events, please visit www.vconline.org.
— 30 —
