Lim + Lam Documentary by Ryan Mc

Lin + Lam are the directors of an artistic documentary that depicts the impact of modernization on the world through the modes of transportation in various cities, called “Departure.” The documentary is filmed in several different modes of transportations, and is filmed in three different cities: Taipei, Shanghai, and Hanoi. Along with the visual movement through all of the areas seen in the film, there are also several woman narrators, whom each speak a different language, which tell stories and facts about the various places they are put in. The entire documentary is made for the viewer to experience these cities through the trains, cars and bicycles that are used by the everyday person in these eastern cities.

The film starts with the departure of a train and traveling through Taipei and the suburbs surrounding it. The camera is positioned at an angle so that you can see the entire view from one side of the camera. While the train is moving casually from station to station, the narrators tell stories of political issues within the country or give a brief story or purpose about the train and its purpose. Each story is told three times, but in different languages. One of the stories gave facts about the history of the train and the importance the train system had had in times of political crisis.

The next segment of the film is shown in Shanghai in the passenger seat of an automobile. The car starts off in the center of Shanghai’s metropolitan area, and gives an amazing view of the large yet beautiful architecture of the cities surroundings. The same narrators discuss various issues of political turmoil, while half way through the segment a taxi cab mistakenly hit the car the camera was traveling in.

The final destination in the documentary is Hanoi. This time, the camera is placed on the end of a small trailer carried by a bicycle across the long narrow bridge through Hanoi. The mood of the city is very gloomy with overcast weather and old pieces of architecture that are seen on the bridge. The narrators tell stories of fighting and war that have plagued the city since the French occupation. The camera faces off the side of a long bridge which looks out into the city, and then into the river bank. The segment ends with the bike finally reaching the other side where it is nothing but farm and forest.

Lin and Lam blog (Roch Lozano's part)

LIN AND LAM BLOG POST

-Roch L.


Video filmmakers, Lin and Lam, are an artist team that explores diverse issues, such as immigration, and transcends different venues, states and countries. Lin and Lam conducted a post discussion to their film “Departure” and gave the audience insight on how they shot their film, what angles they approached and how they were inspired to create such a film. The film was shot in three cities, Taipei, (train) Shanghai and Hanoi. “Departure” conveyed colonialism and a transportation aspect that acted as a metaphor. It was interesting to find out how they filmed in these different parts of Asia and how they maneuvered through traffic and the hustle and bustle of every day life with the importance of not getting in the way of daily activity. “Space is premium,” was said according to Lin and Lam. The bridge that they filmed on was described to be narrow, and Lin and Lam were actually approached by officers on why and what they were filming. Lin and Lam loved the diversity and urban landscape of the places they chose. Movement and time were two important themes addressed in their film, in which movement was redundant and it had no direction. This also tied in with the fact that Asia is very mobile and modern through urbanization and movement for change. Asia is continuing to be developed and has a notion of progress. The colonial progress implies a metaphor for movement of continual progress in which you may not know where you are going. The filmmakers also mention in conjunction to that theory that through movement, you don’t know what it may bring and what it will leave behind. When shots in the film are frozen, and even in life, progress has stopped.
When audience members had the opportunity to ask questions, one question posed was about the chosen title of the film and how it came about. Lin and Lam said that they got the title of their movie through the process of their research, filming and editing. Amazingly, “Departure” was their main title that came to an easy consensus.
Another audience member brought up the point that there could be a feminist aspect to the film, as it was pointed out that a female voice was used to narrate the film instead of a man’s voice.
It was evident that a lot of work and filming was put into this movie, as Lin and Lam shot 30-40 hours of footage in Asia, mostly set in Taiwan. Choosing their project and process was mainly through the inspiration of colonial architecture and impact, and they initially started off with Taiwan. Transportation and progress were definite key themes in their process and Taiwan boasted its people’s love for the train that was built by the Chinese and Japanese. Lin and Lam said that most of the research done was an organic research process. They wanted to explore the new city and also explored the process of ethnography, which according to dictionary.com, is a branch of anthropology dealing with the scientific description of individual cultures. Shanghai, on the other hand, had a different occupational power, but was still consistent in the state of development through transportation and time, just like the other countries discussed. This implies that in Asia, there is “always” something unfinished, especially around construction/rebuilding. Finally, the installation of their film contributed to a social and critical interaction with space.

USF Alumni Journalism Panel

It’s a small world after all; at least when it comes to the field of media and journalism.
USF alumni Jennifer Jolley exemplified this when she and seven other alumni came to speak and share their experiences with appreciative students.
Jolley, the senior member of the group, did not seem surprised when she knew the names of the younger journalists’ mentors.
This seemed to be the emphasis of the entire panel: networking and experience.
The panel as a whole seemed to agree that the most important thing for any of the young journalism students was to get an internship.
Vicky Nguyen, correspondent for NBC11, simply said to the students three consecutive times “get an internship.”
Tuon Lam, who knows something about internships completing five during his time at USF, said students should learn everything they can and getting an internship is the best way to do it.
He also said that at the very least, if you get an internship you can figure out what you do and don’t want to do.
Kent German, CNET cell phone editor, told students “definitely do what you want.” He said students have time during college that is beneficial for doing just that.
The panelists all said that as a journalist, unless you enjoy what you are doing there is no way you can live being a journalist.
The audience, which consisted of mostly students, and numbered to about 60 total, was allowed to ask questions of the panel after they all said what they believed was important in the career of journalism.
The panel was asked bluntly to state how much money they make by Foghorn stringer and journalism student Elyse Martin.
Although they seemed a bit taken aback, a couple said they were expecting it, and said that this is not a business you get into if you are looking for money.
Tiffany Maleshefski, a technical writer and contributor to Eweek.com among other things, told a story saying the moral was that you live and work for the experience, not for the money.
At the end of the discussion, sure enough, one could see the panelists exchanging contact information; networking is a job that never stops, and as long as journalists network with each other, the world will just keep getting smaller.

From Chris Begley's blog here.

(A different account from Nick Minnott next.)

USF Journalism Panel

USF Media Studies Alums Stress the Importance of Self

For some of the alumni of the University of San Francisco Media Studies department, breaking into the journalism world has been a struggle. A number of these alums were back at USF on October 16th to talk about their experiences for the first annual Journalism Alumni Panel.

Toan Lam, a broadcast journalist who is currently working for KRON, stressed the important of building yourself when preparing to enter the journalism field. When asked if he thought that students were compromised by the lack of a journalism major at USF, Lam disagreed. Rather he said that USF is a good school for learning the theories of journalism and the lack of a structured major challengers the student to be more independent.

Lam, who originally wanted to be in print journalism rather than broadcast, had five internships during the four years he spent at USF. When the opportunity to work for the broadcast side appeared, Lam was well prepared from his time at USF.

Panel members and also USF alumni included: Vicky Nguyen, another broadcast journalist from Channel 11 (NBC), Myra Sandova who is a copywriter for the Gap, Tiffany Maleshefsky, a technical writer for eWeek, and Kent German, a cell-phone reviewer from CNET, among others.
The audience included undergraduates in the Media Studies department, who seemed to be overwhelmed by the struggles that some of panelists had experienced on their road to success. There were also several faculty members and alumni in attendance.

From Nicholas Minnott at The Rainy Day Blog.

Led Zeppelin Creates A New Pop Culture With Trance

READ THE FULL POST AT SHAUN BRIDEAU AND MORGAN UNGER'S BLOG POST HERE.


[excerpt] Several production techniques allowed Led Zeppelin to change an era of music through sound. Led Zeppelin created an element of surprise and a new range of loudness within music at this time. The language of light made their music dynamic as quiet, gentile, music erupted into strong forms of collaborative sound during most songs. The eruption of sound within songs was filled with a great deal of ferocity. This sudden shift of sound within individual songs created surprise amongst listers and a feeling of excitment. Erik Davis calls this form of music, "casaic" considered to be violent gestures that shift expectations while allowing something new to happen in the mind of listeners. Their unique quality of range created style.

LISTEN TO THE RECORDING OF THE TALK:



READ MORE AT SHAUN BRIDEAU AND MORGAN UNGER'S BLOG POST HERE.

Women's Empowerment Film Series: The Little Mermaid

Women's Empowerment Film Series

On October 18, 2007 the first Women's Empowerment Film Series Program took place in USF's Phelan Glass Lounge. The program engaged students in Disney films (i.e. viewing) as well as a discussion regarding Disney's use of stereotypical gender role issues. The program was not intended to destroy one's childhood memories/feelings about Disney movies, but rather to recognize that symbolic messages regarding gender existed.


The first meeting, engaged approximately 11 students (the majority were women) in the viewing and discussion of the Disney animated film The Little Mermaid. The film animated 16 year-old mermaid, Ariel's, life under the sea and her wish to become human. Ariel's wish to become and experience humanity overpowered her duty as a mermaid princess. Ariel, constantly, disobeyed her father and friends (Flounder and Sabastein). Ariel let her love of a human, Prince Eric, and her desire to be human overwhelm her to the point in which she contracted her voice away to the evil sea-witch Ursula.




Students viewed the film, watching out for gender issues. Students recognized issues as widely spread throughout many Disney movies (i.e. Pocahontas, Beauty and the Beast, Mulan). Issues that were recognized in The Little Mermaid, regarding women's oppression, were as follows:

• Women viewed as distressed


• Women continuously changed to please a man


• Lack of motherly figures


• "Beauty" is to be skinny


• Women tend to depend on others to survive


• Women are the enemies (i.e. Ursula)


• No diversity

Students also argued that though Disney's films are targeted towards prepubescent viewers who somewhat unaware of these messages, one has to recognize that Disney films are created by adults who are aware of such issues. The women viewers all agreed that Disney movies tend to knock women down as a whole.

The Women's Empowerment Film Series Committee holds viewings and discussions once a month. The next movie viewing and discussion will be held in November.

Posted by Chelsie-Jean Fernandez

Lin + Lam talk

UPCOMING TALK

ABOUT THEIR TALK

For the past seven years, Lin + Lam (Lin plus Lam) has produced interdisciplinary projects that examine the ramifications of the past on the current socio-political moment. They have made work that has looked at immigration, sites of residual trauma, nationalism and national identity, historical memory, and the problems of translation. They will discuss their work, collaborative process and critical strategies.

H. Lan Thao Lam received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and was an Assistant Professor at Middle State Tennessee University and faculty of Goddard College, MFA program.

Currently faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts, Lana Lin holds an MFA from Bard College and has taught at the City College of New York and Massachusetts College of Art.

SCREENING

Departure
48 min. video, 2006
directed by Lin + Lam (Lin plus Lam)

Synopsis:
This video essay looks at the impact of modernization and foreign intervention through different modes of transportation. Shot from the exploratory perspective of a moving car, cyclo, and trains, the video travels through three former colonial Asian cities: Taipei, Shanghai, and Hanoi. The transformation of a road, a bridge, and railways, show
an evolution of different powers.

Five women narrate the interrelated histories of these transforming urban environments in their native languages: Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese, English, Shanghainese, and Vietnamese.

MORE INFO: www.linpluslam.com

Introduction to New Media

More information forthcoming...

If you're interested, but couldn't enroll, please post a comment with your name and email address, and I'll put you on the waiting list.

Posted by John Kim

Excuse this random test:

Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Mylene Martin

On October 1st, 2007, I went to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on Market Street to attend a lecture named Women who light the dark. This was in honor of the fourth book published by the photojournalist Paola Gianturco. She went over 30 countries and followed the life of 30 women. She made a book with pictures of those women and about the issues those women face. So she told stories to bring those pictures she showed us to life. But she was not the only woman at the lecture. The President of Global Fund for Women, an international grantmaking foundation in favor of women's rights, Kavita N.Ramdas, was also here. She sponsors, as the President of Global Fund for Women, Gianturco's lectures, book signings and other related events. They know each other well and Paola Gianturco is a really active member of the foundation. For the foundation's 20th anniversary, Paola Gianturco decided to give all the royalties to the Global Fund for Women. With 58 million dollars awarded to 3,450 women's groups in 166 countries, Global Fund for Women is the largest organization of its kind. Thanks to all this money, these different groups of men and women are able to ensure that women have their voices heard in decision making, or that they get the recognition that they deserve. They also help the countries in need as for instance in Cameroon where more than a million people were trained to know what to do and not to do when they have AIDS. This lecture was really moving and inspiring as a lot of people from the audience said afterwards. Posted by mylene

From Mylene Martin at:

http://mylene87.blogspot.com/2007/10/women-who-light-dark.html

San Francisco Film: Sean Uyehara

Media Studies Speaker Series – San Francisco Film: Sean Uyehara, Programming Associate at the San Francisco

Thursday, April 19
Time: 6:15 - 9:00pm
Location: ED 110

Curious about the inner workings of one of the country's premier film festivals? Sean Uyehara, Programming Associate at the San Francisco International Film Festival, will be on campus to discuss the idea of public programming and film festivals. Learn how a festival programmer decides which films to screen, and discover strategies for submitting your own work to festivals. Mr Uyehara will screen and discuss selections from this year's festival line-up.

Celebrating its 50th year, the San Francisco International Film Festival presents films from around the globe, special panels, and super parties. The festival runs at various venues throughout the Bay Area from April 26 - May 10, 2007.

Bernadette Barker- Plummer

Join us for the next Media Studies Colloquium:

April 11, 2007
3:30-5:00pm
UC 421 (where?)
presenter :: Bernadette Barker- Plummer, USF Department of Media Studies
title :: Fixing Gender: Transgender Discourses around the Araujo Murder Case
description :: This project is an analysis of the construction of transgender identity in public discourse surrounding the murder of Gwen Araujo and the subsequent trial and sentencing of her killers in California, a process that took place over four years, 2002-2006.

Upcoming talk: Eric Byler

More about the USF Media Studies Colloquia and Speakers Series

PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF LOCATION TO HARNEY 232

More information about Eric's upcoming talk

Media Studies Spring 07

The Media Studies events poster for Spring 2007 is now here. Check it out.

Upcoming

More about the USF Media Studies Colloquia and Speakers Series

NEXT EVENT:

How to add a zvents calendar

If you're interested in adding a USF Media Studies events calendar to your blog (the calendar on the right side of this blog). Here's the easier, copy-and-paste, do-as-I-do solution. For those with more technical abilities, more complex, customizeable instructions are here.

(Note: These instructions are for people who use Blogger only.)

In your blog, go to: Customize > Page Elements > Edit Layout > Add a Page Element

Add an 'HTML/Javascript' element.

Copy and paste all the text contained in this document in the body of the 'HTML/Javascript' element.

Film Series on Latino Immigrant Labor

(More information to come.)

I want to mark your calendar for the weekend of April 27-28.

Cine Accion and Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts is starting a new tradition of jointly sponsoring a exciting new film series featuring the best in Latino Cinema at MCCLA's intimate theater.

This new partnership will host it first film series focused on Immigrant Labor in the United States. Although there will be some of the finest documentaries presented, there will also be dramatic feature films on the same theme.

Classic documentaries such as the award-winning FIGHT IN THE FIELDS: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworker Struggle. This film is celebrating its 10th Anniversary and  Ray Telles and Rick Tejada-Flores, the writers/directors of this historic film have been invited to tell about the making of the film.

Other documentaries will include the 1954 classic SALT OF THE EARTH, the only film ever to be banned in the U.S. because of its subject matter and blacklisted writer and director. Chicano miners and their wives fight for justice and equality.

Three recent documentaries include Pepe Urquio's popular FRUIT OF LABOR about a uncommon man and his determination to become his own businessman in Oakland's Fruitvale District. Pepe is being invited to speak and may bring the star of the film with him.

A new documentary that the New York Times called "poetry on film".... Mark Becker's ROMANTICO about the music and life of a struggling musician that works the bars of the Mission District. The film portrays the humanity and dignity of the undocumented immigrant underscored by some of  Mexican music's most poignant songs. A beautiful film. Plans are being made to bring Mark Becker to the screening

Finally, there is THE SHORT LIFE OF JOSE ANTONIO GUTTIEREZ, a Sundance film festival audience winner about a young immigrant from Guatamala who makes it to the U.S., struggles to survive and decides to join the U.S. military. He becomes the first "American" to die in the war in Iraq. This is his story.

These filmmakers are being invited to talk about their films and we want to be the first to personally invite you, your friends, colleagues and especially your students to see their films, listen to their stories and ask questions of these exceptionally talented people.

In addition, some great feature films are on tap as well. The great British director Ken Loach's BREAD AND ROSES will be screened starring Academy Award Winner Adrien Brody. George Lopez, the comedian is featured in a dramatic role. The film takes place during the huge Janitors for Justice strike in the downtown highrises in Los Angeles. The story focuses on two sisters and a union organizer to bring fair wages to the forgotten janitors. Think of a Latino version of NORMA RAE...the film that got an oscar for Sally Fields.

Finally, a rare gem from the land of film noir, the 1948 BORDER INCIDENT starring Ricardo Montalban as a Mexican government agent who goes undercover as a undocumented farmworker to bust a greedy and callous American landowner and his thugs who abuse and murder farmworkers. A thriller with great cinematography. Don't miss it.

That is the line-up. Tickets will probably be no more than $5 a screening with discounts for students.

Please come and see some truly wonderful films and support CINE ACCION's new partnership with MCCLA. We need your support now more than ever!!

2007 ICA Film Program organized by USF

USF is organizing a Film Program at the upcoming International Communication Association (ICA) conference, May 27, 2007!

The Film Program will take place in connection with the 2007 ICA conference, focusing on films related to its theme: Creating Communication: Content, Control, and Critique. This one-day event will showcase productions by local independent Bay Area filmmakers and film collectives. These films, examples of alternative and democratizing communication, illustrate the diversification of content creation and distribution within diverse and complex communication environments. The program also highlights the relevance of film as a communication tool and how people, including marginalized voices, participate in the creative process.

Location: Hilton
Time: Sunday 9:30 AM-6:00 PM

Coordinated by Susana Kaiser and John Kim, Department of Media Studies, University of San Francisco.

More information about the event and films:

http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/icatheme/themefilm.html

Eric Byler

In association with the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival:

March 21, 2007
4:00 - 6:00 pm
Harney 232 (where?) (please note change of location)
presenter :: Eric Byler, Film Director of "Charlotte Sometimes" and "Americanese"
title :: Asian Pacific Americans in 2006-2008: Art, Media Representation, and Social Responsibility

Co-sponsored by Asian American Studies & Media Studies

Asian Pacific Americans in 2006-2008:
Art, Media Representation, and Social Responsibility

Award-winning writer/director Eric Byler (Charlotte Sometimes) will share clips from his upcoming theatrical release Americanese and his PBS television pilot My Life Disoriented, as well as YouTube videos he directed as a grassroots volunteer during 2006 Virginia Senate race (including Lost star Daniel Dae Kim’s response to the infamous “Macaca” incident).

Byler will talk about his film and television career, dedicated to transforming the way Asian Pacific Americans are represented in mainstream media, and explain why his endeavors in the arts are intimately connected to his work as a grassroots activist and community organizer. He will also discuss identity issues from the perspective of a Chinese American of mixed ancestry, and how early encounters with prejudice influenced his work as an artist and an activist.

Presentation will also include a preview of Byler’s upcoming documentary about APA political empowerment.

2006 VA Senate Race: Looking Back at Role of Asian Americans

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIQ5Nq1ApRQ

Daniel Dae Kim Calls Out the APA Community

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_6Jqv-9oMk

Democratic Party Acknowledges APA Role In Virginia Senate Victory

http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/12/huge_apa_turnou.php

======================================

“A m e r i c a n e s e “

COMING TO THEATERS FALL 2007
http://www.americanesethemovie.com/

Americanese Clip 1 (w/ Chris Tashima, Autumn Reeser, Joan Chen)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVa5R45NLA

Americanese Clip 2 (w/ Joan Chen, Chris Tashima)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqgnERxlA_Q

Americanese Clip 3 (w/ Sab Shimono, Chris Tashima)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ekmTgUHTfg

AMERICANESE REVIEW BY ROGER EBERT:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060330/REVIEWS/603300302

==============================

"MY LIFE DISORIENTED"

www.MyLifeDisoriented.com

www.MySpace.com/MyLifeDisoriented

YouTube Clip#1 (with Karin Anna Cheung, Autumn Reeser, Di Quon)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qk57L6LBPY

YouTube Clip#2 (with Tamlyn Tomita, Dennis Dunn, Phil Young)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jftiJIqIOL8

2007 HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL AT USF

More about the USF Media Studies Colloquia and Speakers Series

2007 HUMAN RIGHTS FILM FESTIVAL AT USF MARCH 19, 20, 21, 2007 For more about the films and the festival: http://www.usfca.edu/mediastudies/hrw/ (under construction) MONDAY 19 2:00 PM YAIPOTA ÑANDE IGÜI - QUEREMOS NUESTRA TIERRA (WE WANT OUR LAND), Argentina, 2006, Dir. Lorena Riposati, Grupo de Cine Insurgente, 74m 4:00 PM TOTAL DENIAL Bulgaria/Italy, 2006, Dir. Milena Kaneva, 65m (Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival) 5:30 PM SWITCH OFF (APAGA Y VAMONOS) Spain, 2005, Dir. Manel Mayol, 87m (Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival) 7:30 PM FOREST FOR THE TREES USA, 2006, Dir. Bernadine Mellis, 53m (Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival) TUESDAY 20 4:00 PM MAQUILAPOLIS [City of Factories], USA, 2006, Dir. Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre, 68m 5:30 PM WINTER IN BAGHDAD (INVIERNO EN BAGDAD) Spain, 2005, Dir. Javier Corcuera, 78m (Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival) 7:30 PM ROSITA US/Nicaragua, 2005, Dir. Barbara Attie and Janet Goldwater, 55m (Human Rights Watch Traveling Film Festival) WEDNESDAY 21 LGBTQ Caucus Sponsored Films “Queer 360°: Many Faces of Queer Civil Rights” 4:00 PM A CIVIL WAR 26m 5:00 PM ONE WEDDING AND A REVOLUTION USA, 2004, Dir. Debra Chasnoff, 20m 6:00 PM I EXIST USA, 2003, Dir. Peter Barbosa and Garrett Lenoir, 57m 7:30PM THROUGH THICK AND THIN USA, 2005, Dir. Sebastian Cordoba, 60m A discussion lead by director Sebastian Cordoba to immediately follow the film. For more information: http://www.usfca.edu/mediastudies/hrw/ (under construction)

Andrew Goodwin

More about the USF Media Studies Colloquia and Speakers Series

colloquia

February 21, 2007 4:30 - 6:00pm UC 421 (where?) presenter :: Andrew Goodwin, USF Department of Media Studies title :: Let Me Take You On A Trip: On Trying To Write Fiction (Whilst Not Jumping The Shark) In The Era Of Postmodern Media March 6, 2007 (tuesday) 4:15 - 5:30 pm UC 419 (where?) presenter :: Bill Brown, USF Department of Media Studies title :: The Next Best Place: Road Movies with Bill Brown March 21, 2007 4:00 - 6:00 pm (where?) Harney 232 presenter :: Eric Byler, Film Director of "Charlotte Sometimes" and "Americanese" title :: Asian Pacific Americans in 2006-2008: Art, Media Representation, and Social Responsibility [more information] April 11, 2007 3:30-5:00pm UC 421 (where?) presenter :: Bernadette Barker- Plummer, USF Department of Media Studies title :: Fixing Gender: Transgender Discourses around the Araujo Murder Case * * * COMING FALL 2007 presenter :: Susana Kasier, Department of Media Studies title :: Media, Memory, Oral History presenter :: Steven Runyon, Department of Media Studies title :: TBA

Davies Forum speakers Spring 2007

Davies Forum Events Spring 2007

More information
Campus map

Tuesday, February 27, 1:30-3:30 p.m., LM 365

Straight Eye for the Queer Guy: Reality Television, Shopping, and the New Gay Visibility.

Josh Gamson - University of San Francisco
Josh Gamson, USF Professor of Sociology, is the author of Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America (California, 1994); Freaks Talk Back: Tabloid Talk Shows and Sexual Nonconformity (Chicago, 1998); and The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, The Music, The Seventies in San Francisco (Henry Holt, 2005) as well as many articles and essays on sexualities, culture and media.

Tuesday, March 6, 1:30-4:15 p.m., LM 365

New Gay Visibility on Television: Business or Politics?

Dr. Katherine Sender - Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Sender, author of Business, Not Politics. The Making of the Gay Market (2005), Columbia University Press, and producer of Off the Straight and Narrow (1998), will screen and discuss her new documentary, Further Off the Straight and Narrow, New Gay Visibility on Television, 1998-2006, about the representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in current television. What is the meaning of the new LGBT visibility in popular culture? Sender investigates the politics and media economics of LGBT representation.

Monday, March 19, 6:30-9:00 p.m., HRN 232

Performing Gender

Sean Dorsey and Shawna Virago, Fresh Meat Productions

Sean Dorsey. Artistic Director of Fresh Meat Productions, is a San Francisco based choreographer whose work is carving new space for transgender and queer bodies and stories in modern dance. His work is a powerful fusion of modern dance, text, storytelling and theater. It focuses on aspects of coming out and living as transgender and queer. Dorsey and Virago will talk about their work with Fresh Meat and show video clips from recent productions. Dorsey was recently awarded a 2006 Isadora Duncan Dance Award for Ensemble Performance of his groundbreaking choreography and the 2006 Goldie Award for Performance. Dorsey is the first transgender artist to receive a SFAC Individual Artist Commission and was recently awarded a prestigious Wallace Alexander Gerbode Choreographer's Commission. Co-sponsored by: McCarthy Center, Gender and Sexualities Studies, Latin American Studies, Media Studies, Performance and Social Justice, Politics Department, Psychology, Department of Sociology, and the Department of Visual Arts.

Monday, April 2, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Maraschi Room, Fromm Hall

Animating Revolt/Revolting Animation: Penguin Love, Doll Sex and the Spectacle of the Queer Non-Human

Dr. Judith Halberstam – University of Southern California

Judith Halberstam, Professor of English, Director of The Center for Feminist Research at USC, and cultural critic, will talk about queerness in children’s animation. Many animated features for kids – Halberstam calls them “Pixarvolt” films -- focus on gender and sexualities thematics which would never appear in adult films but which are central to the success and emotional impact of the Pixar narrative. In this presentation Halberstam explores ideas about humanness, alterity, and alternative imaginaries in relation to two odd pieces of animation, one that presents itself as a nature film, and the other which features animated dolls. Halberstam is the author of In a Queer Time and Place (2005, New York University Press), Female Masculininty (1998, Duke University Press), The Drag King Book (1999, Serpents Tail), and Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and The Technology of Monsters (Duke University Press, 1995), as well as many essays and articles on gender, sexualities and culture.

Tuesday, April 10, 1:30-4:15 p.m., LM 365

Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture

Andi Zeisler (Founder) and Rachel Fudge (Editor) of Bitch Magazine

“It’s a noun, it’s a verb, it’s a magazine…Bitch is a print magazine that provides commentary on our media-driven world.” Andi Zeisler and Rachel Fudge will talk about how they created Bitch Magazine in 1996, its rationale and goals, its stories, writers and audience. They will answer questions and discuss the need for, and possibilities of, feminist media in contemporary culture. More about Bitch at: http://www.bitchmagazine.com/

Monday, April 16, 6:30-9:00 p.m., HRN 232

(H)Errata, Woman, Art and Revolution.

Lynn Hershman - Feminist film maker/new media artist

Lynn Hershman Leeson, San Francisco film maker and new media artist, will talk about feminist film art and about her own work, culminating in a screening of portions of her work-in-progress, (H)Errata, Woman, Art and Revolution, a film about feminist art. Hershman Leeson has worked in film, video, photography, and net based media art. Her work has won many awards and accolades including a tribute and retrospective from the San Francisco Film Festival (1994), the ZKM/Seimens Media Art Award (1995), a Sundance Institute Screenwriting Fellowship (1998), the Flintridge Foundation Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts (1998), the golden Nica in Interactive Arts from Ars Electronica (1999), and the World Technology Network Award for Innovation in the Visual Arts (2002), among others. She recently received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for a forthcoming documentary film on the history of feminist art. She will show portions of this work at USF. See examples of Hershman’s art at: http://lynnhershman.com/

Monday April 23, 6:30-9:00 p.m. HRN 232

SheWrite: A Documentary Screening and Discussion with the Directors

Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar - Center for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India

SheWrite weaves together the narratives and work of four Tamil women poets. Salma negotiates subversive expression within the tightly circumscribed space allotted to a woman in the small town of Thuvarankurichi. For Kuttirevathi, a Siddha doctor and researcher based in Chennai, solitude is a crucial creative space from where her work resonates. Malathy Maitri, who lives in Pondicherry, has been a Dalit and Marxist activist. Sukirtharani, a schoolteacher in Lalapet, writes of desire and longing, celebrating the body in a way that affirms feminine empowerment and a rejection of male-centered discourse. The film traverses these diverse modes of resistance, through images and sounds that evoke the universal experiences of pain, anger, desire and transcendence. SheWrite has won several awards, including Best documentary, Three Continents International Documentary Festival, Venezuela, 2005, and the Indian Documentary Producers Association award for sound design and cinematography, 2005. The film has also played at several film festivals including the 12th International Women’s Film Festival, Turin, 2005; Film South Asia, Katmandu 2005; Platforma 2005, Athens, and the Ethnographic Film Festival of Montreal, Canada. Co-sponsored by Global Women’s Rights Forum, and Gender and Sexualities Studies.

Tuesday April 24, 2:00-4:00 p.m., LM 365

Arts and Activism

Valentin Aguirre – San Francisco LGBT activist and video maker

Aguirre is a long time Latino LGBTQ activist in San Francisco, with many years experience working in arts, HIV, social justice and social service organizations. He is currently serving as Development Associate at LYRIC (Lavender Youth Recreation & Information Center). Aguirre is also a video maker and his film, Someday God, screened at Frameline Film Festival. He serves as Producer for Juana, an opera in development by Carla Lucero that focuses on the persecution of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz during the Spanish Inquisition. Aguirre will show examples of his video work and discuss its connections to LGBT politics.

More information at http://artsci.usfca.edu/daviesforum or contact Erin Smith (emsmith2@usfca.edu)