The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), in partnership with WORLD Channel, present “The Road to Decolonization,” an interactive conversation with Marya Bangee (Harness), Tilane Jones (ARRAY), Abigail E. Disney (Level Forward), Karim Amer (The Great Hack), and moderated by David Magdael (David Magdael & Associates).
“The Road to Decolonization” panel originally took place on Sunday, January 27, 2019 during the Sundance Film Festival as part of the 15th annual Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience in Park City.
Moderated by David Magdael, a seasoned publicist (founder and CEO of David Magdael & Associates) and supporter of Asian Pacific American media, “The Road to Decolonization” brought together a diverse collective of minds into the Kimball Arts Center.
Karim Amer, director of the Sundance 2019 film, The Great Hack; Marya Bangee, the executive director of Harness; Abigail Disney, chair and co-founder of Level Forward; and Tilane Jones, Vice President of ARRAY, took over the stage for 90 minutes of hard hitting, intense conversation. The room was filled to capacity with many sectors of the independent film world, including filmmakers, artists, activists, community leaders, philanthropists, and colleagues from the media arts community.
“We’re in a moment where we have to embrace who we are, but we also have to understand that we come from a lot of great places and a lot of great cultures and stories and races. We don’t really have to prove anything to anybody…I want to be respected for my heritage and who I am,” Amer said.
A year ago at the Sundance Film Festival, Disney co-founded Level Forward. “We’re trying to get a critical mass of women and people of color, and everybody else who’s been left out of the picture on the screen, off the screen, behind the camera and every other way represented in telling their own stories.”
As ethnic, gender, and power dynamics become redefined throughout American culture and society at large, independent film faces similar challenges in finding its way forward.
Asian Americans and our allies present thought-provoking dialogue on solutions in the context of filmmaking, and to ensure filmmakers of color remain independent.
Award-winning filmmakers, media executives, and leaders are leading the conversation about the importance of decolonizing the filmmaking landscape.
Watch the full panel below, on Facebook, and on WORLD Channel and PBS! Share your thoughts on social media using #CAAMxSundance!
About CAAM
CAAM (Center for Asian American Media) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting stories that convey the richness and diversity of Asian American experiences to the broadest audience possible. CAAM does this by funding, producing, distributing, and exhibiting works in film, television, and digital media. For more information on CAAM, please visit www.caamedia.org.
About WORLD Channel
WORLD Channel tells stories that humanize complex issues. WORLD shares the best of public media in news, documentaries and fact-based informational programming that helps us understand conflicts, movements and cultures that may be distinct from our own.
WORLD’s original content offers national broadcast, online and social media platforms to makers examining issues too often ignored by mainstream media. These emerging and master filmmakers spotlight a diversity of voices, telling stories not heard elsewhere. WORLD has won a Peabody Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and numerous national honors—including 1st & 2nd place National Native Media Awards, a Media for a Just Society Award, two Lesbian & Gay Journalist Awards, a Gracie and an Asian American Journalists Award.
Carried by 157 partner stations in markets representing 64% of US TV Households, WORLD can also be experienced via www.worldchannel.org, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook Watch. Major funding for WORLD has been provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Additional funding provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
