CAAM at New Orleans Film Festival 2018

CAAM staff and our funded filmmakers featured at NOFF.

CAAM is thrilled to be a part of the 2018 New Orleans Film Festival (October 17-25, 2018). Catch our Talent Development & Special Projects Manager, Sapana Sakya, on a panel about documentary funders.

We are also excited to have CAAM-funded filmmakers and one of our National Minority Consortia fellows premiering or featuring their work at the festival and speaking on panels: Adele Free Pham (Nailed It), Nadia Shihab (World Premiere of Jaddoland), Felicia Lowe (Pacific Gateway: Angel Island VR, produced by CAAM), P.J. Raval, Matthew Hashiguchi (VR project and short film, American Dreaming), and Quyên Nguyen-Le (Ongoing/Memory). See the festival website for screening times. Stay tuned for a feature on Pham and Shihab on our website!

In addition to the scheduled events below, CAAM staff will be meeting with Southern filmmakers to continue the work we’re doing on the American South project and supporting filmmakers from diverse parts of the U.S.

First-Person Futures: Virtual Reality Filmmakers Discuss the Viewer’s Role in their Films

Greater New Orleans Foundation
Saturday October 20 | 1:00 – 2:00pm
The virtual reality revolution is testing the limits of what is possible in “first person” storytelling. How can VR enhance, filter, manipulate, or warp a viewer’s perspective? Does the message of a VR film linger longer than for a flat film? In this panel discussion, we’re going to take a deep dive into the evolving meaning of first-person storytelling. How does embodying a main character of a different race, culture, or gender affect your experience of the story? Immersive filmmakers will discuss the process of how to tell stories from the vantage point of a participant, rather than an onlooker, and will share the reactions to their films from viewers so far. Join us in a conversation with the filmmakers shaping, imagining, and leading new first-person futures. This panel is presented with support from the Center for Asian American Media and Black Public Media.

Amanda Shelby (moderator) is a VR producer specializing in both documentary and futuristic VR; after a decade in broadcast entertainment, she had a successful tenure as Head of VR Production at Radiant Images
Gabriela Arp is an independent film director and VR creator. She was a Knight fellow at the Sundance Institute and her most recent film premiered at Tribeca Film Festival Courtney Cogburn is an assistant professor at the Columbia School of Social Work and co-director of the VR film “1000 Cut Journey”
Felicia Lowe is an independent producer, director, and writer whose films focus on the unique history of the Chinese in America.
Matthew Hashiguchi is a documentary filmmaker and assistant professor at Georgia Southern University.

Documentary Funders

Saturday October 20 | 2:00 – 3:00pm
Representatives from some of the most respected names in documentary sit down to talk about funding opportunities.

Leslie Fields-Cruz is Executive Director at Black Public Media
June Jennings is Impact and Partnerships Manager at Field of Vision
Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs is Director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Fund
Sapana Sakya is Special Projects Manager at the Center for Asian American Media
Chloe Walters-Wallace is the Documentary Lab Manager at Firelight Media

Cinematic Sanctuaries: Reimagining Identity in Documentary

Greater New Orleans Foundation
Sunday October 21 | 1:30 – 2:30pm
The history of the documentary film is linked with the making of “Others,” the creation of images of non-Western cultures for Western consumption. When documentarians flip this dynamic and create films about their own communities, what new possibilities and new responsibilities arise? In this session, we convene four filmmakers who are looking past dominant narratives in search of new visions of their own identities, using documentary to re- envision their cultures and rethink their place within them. This panel is presented with support from the Center for Asian American Media.

Chloe Walters-Wallace (moderator) is the Documentary Lab Manager at Firelight Media
PJ Raval is a filmmaker whose work explores the overlooked subcultures and identities within the LGBTQ+ community
Karen Rossi is a director from Puerto Rico. Her documentaries Scrap Island (2008) and It’s Your Right (2014) both received Emmy Awards
Nadia Shihab began making films in order to explore her connections to the places she calls home. Jaddoland is her feature-length debut
Hao Zhang is an emerging filmmaker originally from China