Fanshen | Mixed Roots Stories

Wanted: Stories About the Asian American Experience

From the CAAM website: The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) is a non-profit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. We do this by funding, producing, distributing and exhibiting works in film, television and digital media.

We encourage you to tell your unique story – and then take advantage of the many resources out there to help get your story distributed to a wider audience. Others will benefit greatly from your truths!

Hafu – Upcoming Screenings

Synopsis from the Hafu website:

With an ever increasing movement of people between places in this transnational age, there is a mounting number of mixed-race people in Japan, some visible others not. “Hafu” is the unfolding journey of discovery into the intricacies of mixed-race Japanese and their multicultural experience in modern day Japan. The film follows the lives of five “hafus”–the Japanese term for people who are half-Japanese–as they explore what it means to be multiracial and multicultural in a nation that once proudly proclaimed itself as the mono-ethnic nation. For some of these hafus Japan is the only home they know, for some living in Japan is an entirely new experience, and others are caught somewhere between two different worlds.

Upcoming Screenings

Please check our screenings page for the latest updates.

January
19~25 Zushi, Kanagawa Cinema Amigo
24 – London Premiere! at Birbeck University

February
8 – Stuttgart, Germany – Deusch-Japanische Gesellschaft Baden-Württenberg
8 – 14 Osaka Premiere! Nanagei Cinema @ 18：45（Playing once a day）
9 – Phoenix, Arizona Japanese Culture Club of Arizona
15 – 21 Osaka Nanagei Cinema @ 20：35（Playing once a day）
22 – Washington D.C., Organized by JETAADC

If you would like the film to be screened in your hometown visit our website for details or simply email us to info@hafufilm.com

Scholarships for Media Makers – DEADLINE 2/17/14

The Purpose: By endorsing and supporting quality education, the Alliance for Women in Media, Southern California (AWM SoCal), wishes to guarantee the future quality of radio, television, digital media and related fields in Southern California. Toward that goal, AWM SoCal has established a scholarship fund to aid in the higher education of promising students. This complements AWM SoCal’s mission: to advance the impact of women and men in the electronic media and allied fields by educating, advocating and acting as a resource to its members and the industry.

The Scholarship: AWM SoCal will make available funds for annual scholarship awards for tuition and books. Awards will be announced on March 8, 2014. Scholarship winners will be invited to attend the Genii Awards on April 24, 2014 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.

Eligibility Criteria: Applicants must meet the following criteria:

Southern California resident (male or female) in Ventura, Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, or Riverside counties.
Attending a Southern California accredited four-year College as a junior, senior, or graduate student.
Enrolled in television, radio or digital media courses or related curriculum.
Enrolled in at least 9 semester hours Spring 2014.
Verification by department head, advisor or counselor certifying applicant meets the eligibility criteria.
Previous AWM Southern California scholarship winners are eligible.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO: http://awmsocal.org/content.php?page=Scholarships

Solo Performance Theater Festival – Submissions Open 2/1/14

From the All For One website:

The All For One Theater Festival is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of solo performance. The annual Festival takes place in New York City and offers extraordinary solo theater, workshops and panels to increase awareness and appreciation of the form. After the Festival, the organization works year around to book AFO shows in order to create sustainable opportunities for solo artists and teachers. AFO also works to create opportunities in education and community engagement for all solo artists. – See more at: http://www.afofest.org/about/#sthash.UC2A5mAN.dpuf

The Mixed Reddit Experience – Is Obama ‘Black’?

Reddit is an online resource that allows its readers to ‘upvote’ posts. If enough people respond to and click the ‘up’ arrow on a post, it ends up on the ‘front page’ of Reddit – making it more accessible to thousands (if not millions) of people. About a month ago someone posed this question on Reddit: Why is Obama always referred to as black? Surely you would be equally as accurate in calling him white… or am i missing something?

The conversation that follows is fascinating, informative, and very well worth the read.

Playwright Sarah Rutherford Explores Mixed Families

Sarah Rutherford is a British playwright married to a Jamaican man and raising mixed children. Her new play Adult Supervision, a dramedy, was influenced by conversations she’s had with others about her children and husband (both alarming and encouraging). Adult Supervision explores what happens when a group of mothers gathers to celebrate President Obama’s election. Here’s a quote from the article on representing mixedness in theatre:

Do you think theatre has been shy addressing issues of multiculturalism?

I guess I’ve become very used to seeing certain issues addressed in relation to race: drugs, gangs, all that. Of course they’re more than valid subjects for drama, but what I don’t see on stage is people like me and my friends and family. When there was an outcry about Danny Boyle‘s depiction of a happy, educated, middle-class mixed-race family in the Olympic ceremony, I was aghast at the claims that such families don’t exist. We’re probably one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country; yet we’re pretty much invisible in the media and especially on stage.

A Mixed Roots Hero: Brendon Ayanbadejo

We were so happy to read THIS article about former NFL player and sports commentator Oladele Brendon Ayanbadejo. He has and openly discussed his parents’ interracial marriage in connection with his support for legalizing gay marriage – equating the immorality of anti-miscegenation laws (which would have made his own parents’ marriage illegal in 16 states prior to 19670) to laws like Proposition 8 in California prohibiting gay marriage.

Amma Asante’s Next Film: Mixed German Experience (?)

Amma Asante is the British director of the forthcoming film Belle (click HERE for Variety’s favorable review after the Toronto Film Festival screening). Belle explores the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle – the daughter of an African woman and a British Naval officer in the 18th Century, who is raised by British Aristocrats and faces challenges within her family and society for being mixed (the film is slated for its US release this summer). Asante is hoping her next project will be directing the film Where Hands Touch – a story of the romance between a mixed woman and a German SS officer in the 1940s. If you have the chance to see Belle, please head over to our Facebook page HERE and leave a comment letting us know what you think. We’ll be keeping tabs on Where Hands Touch and will let keep you posted on production information and release dates!

Jude Narita

from JudeNarita.com

Jude Narita is a renowned solo performance artist whose plays address the Asian and Asian American experience. Her most famous play Coming Into Passion/Song for Sansei was awarded a number of important distinctions: The LA Drama Critics Award, a Drama-Logue Award, the James Wong Howe Award and the VESTA Award. Take a look at her website for more details on when she is performing (she also teaches!): http://www.judenarita.com/

Special Series on France’s Black Community

There are many Mixed Roots Stories to share on the topic of immigration. The headline of this story particularly caught my eye: In May 2013, France’s National Assembly successfully voted on a bill to remove the words ‘race’ and ‘racial’ from the country’s penal code. It introduces a special series on ‘Black France’ that delves into the question of whether politics will have a lasting effect on those who face the daily disparities caused by the belief that ‘race’ somehow makes us different from one another. Click the link for more: http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2013/08/201382894144265709.html