Media | 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!

MIXED MESSAGES.4 – CALL FOR ARTISTS

The 4th Annual New Orleans Loving Festival is seeking original artwork and short films with themes concerning “race, racism and the multiracial experience” for a juried group art exhibition. The art show is tentatively scheduled for June 7 through July 7 of 2014 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Please follow the guidelines below for consideration:

ART Submissions must include your bio or resume, high resolution photo(s) of the artwork, and a description – including the title, size, medium, and the year the artwork was produced. Artwork created before 2012 should not be submitted for consideration.
SHORT FILM Submissions must include your bio or resume, a film synopsis, and web link to preview the film (or screener DVD).

The DEADLINE for receiving submissions is Sunday, April 13, 2014.

All entries must be submitted electronically through https://charitablefilmnetwork.submittable.com/submit

For more information contact mail@charitablefilmnetwork.org, and please follow the New Orleans Loving Festival on Facebook.

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

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.

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!

Drake’s Mixed SNL Sketch

I have loved Saturday Night Live since its inception and have been faithful through the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s to today. There have been many ups and downs, including the lack of women-of-color, until recently. That being said, I do not recall a host so fully embracing their Mixed experience, until this past Friday (January 18, 2014). Drake shared that his father is an African-American Catholic and his mother is a white Canadian Jew, then he segued into this funny sketch Drake Bar Mitzvah Monologue – SNL Highlight (begins at minute 1:54). Enjoy!

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

Blog to Follow: The Fluidity

We love discovering blogs that address the Mixed experience! So many perspectives to ponder and such a wealth of stories told. Here’s a litte more about the author: …I am the daughter of a Black African father and White American mother. But I have found that my experience is similar to many different blends of Mixed-Race individuals, Transracial adoptees, second-generation Americans, and people involved in interracial families and relationships. The common experience is being neither and both, which may leave us wounded.

Here’s a link to the blog: http://neitherboth.wordpress.com/2013/10/19/the-fluidity/

Tumblr Roll Call: WeAreAllMixedUp

weareallmixedup.tumblr.com

Moderated by four women, the most recent posts feature photos of family members. From their ‘about’ blurb: This is a blog for those of us who are forgotten in the mainstream anti-racism movement. Those of us who are biracial, multiracial, and multiethnic and have struggled year after year with establishing our identities. This is a safe space for all mixed people of color.

Here’s the link: http://weareallmixedup.tumblr.com/