LUNAFEST: ladies’ night out

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Patty

Girls, y’all got one
A night that’s special everywhere
From New York to Hollywood
It’s ladies night and girl the feeling’s good
– Kool & The Gang, from Ladies Night

Today is Galentine’s Day, a day where you meet up with your girlfriends at a restaurant and have a gals-only leisurely breakfast. No cooking or baking. No clean-up. Much-needed R&R. Who needs Valentine’s Day when you have Galentine’s Day? But once this special occasion day is over, it doesn’t mean you have to wait until February 13th to have an annual get-together with your girlfriends.

Think ahead to March 19th, and start planning a fabulous Ladies’ Night Out. Make a long list. Pick up the phone. Blast an e-mail. Send out a text. Gather all of your girlfriends and tell them about LUNAFEST – a traveling film festival of award-winning short films “by, for and about women.” LUNAFEST seeks to “connect women through film,” which makes it the perfect destination for you and your women friends.

LUNAFEST premiere, September 2013. An awesome women filmmakers’ night!

But the film festival is more than just a fun night out, though there is a lot of emphasis on fun. Established in 2000 by LUNA, makers of the Whole Nutrition Bar for Women, the film festival raises funds for its main beneficiary, The Breast Cancer Fund, a national organization dedicated to “preventing breast cancer by eliminating our exposure to toxic chemicals and radiation linked to the disease.” When organizations across the country host their LUNAFEST film festival, they also support local nonprofit groups. So when you attend, you’re supporting a community-wide fundraising event. The LUNAFEST East Bay Organizing Committee, in its ninth year, is raising funds for the El Cerrito Community Foundation and El Cerrito High School’s Information Technology Academy (ITA), a small learning community supported by the nonprofit organization, TechFutures. ITA integrates core academic classes with the technology field, comprising digital art, web design, and computer systems management.

LUNAFEST ladies' night at the 2014 premiere in San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts.

LUNAFEST East Bay Committee’s ladies’ night at the 2014 premiere in San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts.

For the third straight year, we’re hosting a dessert circle after the film screening. Local small-business Braxtons’ Boxes will be tempting you and your friends with cookies and cupcakes. Well-Grounded Tea & Coffee Bar (6925 Stockton Avenue, El Cerrito, CA) is graciously donating complimentary decaffeinated and regular coffee, completing the local community aspect of LUNAFEST in the East Bay.

Get inspired by the filmmakers’ unique visions and artistry. Support worthy causes and organizations. Seek elimination of breast cancer. Commune with your girlfriends. Meet new friends. Be a part of the local and larger community. Prepare to be delighted, touched, and engaged. All in one magical evening.

Women filmmakers and performers at the 2014 LUNAFEST premiere in San Francisco.

Doors open at 7pm, with the event starting at 7:30pm, at the El Cerrito High School’s Performing Arts Center, 540 Ashbury Avenue, El Cerrito, CA 94530. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Sarah Feeley: opening people’s minds through film

Posted on February 8, 2016 by Patty

A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.
– Alan Rickman, British actor and director

Sarah Feeley at Well Grounded Tea & Coffee Bar, El Cerrito, CA.

In 2010, reporting of LGTBQ (lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual, queer) suicides in the U.S. spiked in the media. The following year, a National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that a staggering 41 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming people had attempted suicide, compared to a national average of 4.6 percent. Furthermore, more than 50 percent of transgender youth will have had at least one suicide attempt by their 20^th birthday, according to the national Youth Suicide Prevention Program. “It [the phenomenon] was so heartbreaking, that I really wanted to do something about it,” filmmaker Sarah Feeley told me in a recent interview. She wanted to know where the positive stories were, finding answers to the question: “Where are the parents who are lovingly and supportively raising LGBTQ youth?”

Still from Raising Ryland (photo credit: Mile Marker Entertainment).

So Sarah went in search of these parents and these families. Among the “amazing group of parents” she met, Hillary Whittington came forward, wanting to share her story, along with her husband, Jeff, and their child. Thus began Sarah’s journey to make the documentary short, Raising Ryland, which was chosen as one of six films for this year’s LUNAFEST film festival. When Sarah set out to make the film, she wanted to “make a difference in one child’s life,” which would define the ultimate success of the film.

The Whittington family (photo credit: Vikki Dinh).

A year and a half into the project, CNN Films contacted Sarah. CNN Films and its partner CNN Digital Studios were looking to support new, original short-documentary content for their new programming effort. Raising Ryland was among the first three films released on CNN.com as part of the program. “CNN Films is very filmmaker-centric,” Sarah explained. “They supported my vision for the film through the entire process and were fantastic partners.” CNN shared the film internally and excitement spread across the organization, with the news department wanting to write a feature article on Raising Ryland. “It shows how powerful sharing a story like this can be,” Sarah pointed out. “We saw it happening right there at CNN.” On the film’s online launch date, March 18, 2015, CNN interviewed Sarah, and an article accompanied the film on the home page.

Seeing our reflection in the universe
The reaction to the film was “overwhelmingly positive,” according to Sarah. “In making this film, I recognized the emotional risk the family was taking and just how vulnerable they are by sharing their story,” she said. “What the Whittingtons did, by sharing their story, takes a tremendous amount of courage.”

Ryland’s self-portrait of himself before he could talk (photo credit: Mile Marker Entertainment).

Sarah was worried that the Whittingtons would be attacked for sharing their story. “I really wanted the audience to feel like it was a positive story that honored Ryland’s identity and Hillary and Jeff’s support,” she said. Some members of the transgender community, however, felt that Ryland’s parents had “outed” him to the world and thus endangered him, and questioned whether the film was in Ryland’s best interest. “One of the reasons Hillary wanted to share this story,” Sarah emphasized, “is because Ryland wanted to share his story.” When the family attended The Transgender Day of Empowerment in San Diego, Ryland, who was five years old at the time, asked his mother if he could go up and tell his story like the other speakers on stage did. “He’s just a remarkable, amazing child,” Sarah said, of Ryland.

A happy Ryland in sunshine (photo credit: Mile Marker Entertainment).

Ryland was born “profoundly deaf,” but wasn’t diagnosed until he was 13 months old. While some members of the deaf community may disagree with parents who choose cochlear implants for their children, Sarah explained, “Hillary and Jeff are a hearing family, and when they found out that Ryland was a candidate for cochlear implants, they wanted him to be able to have access to sound.” Interestingly, people with cochlear implants have reached out in support of the family’s decision, including trans-people with cochlear implants. At the heart of it, Sarah noted, “Everybody wants to see themselves reflected out there in the universe, and for people who have less mainstream identities, it can really be hard to find. That’s why stories like these are vitally important.”

Sarah on Mt. Hood.

A production company of her own: sharing stories, opening minds
In 2014, Sarah founded her production company, Mile Marker Entertainment, which grew out of her last two projects, My Side of the Sky and Raising Ryland. My Side of the Sky, which she sold to Hulu, was a six-episode television show profiling six teenagers who attend Windells Academy, a unique boarding school for skaters, skiers, and snowboarders. When My Side of the Sky was released on Hulu, she began setting up Raising Ryland with CNN Films. Sarah noted that she’s been fortunate to bring in work either with projects like Raising Ryland or more client-based work to keep her company thriving. Meanwhile, Raising Ryland has been making the rounds at film festivals, including Atlanta, Barcelona, Helsinki, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Melbourne. And Hillary’s book by the same name of the film is being published by HarperCollins this month.

Sarah Feeley.

At heart, Sarah says, “I’m a dreamer. I do think it’s possible if we raise our voices, we can make real and lasting change. The key is that you have to share your stories. As a filmmaker, I get the chance to work with people who are brave enough to do that. I hope that the stories that we tell make a lasting impact.” If the reception to Raising Ryland is any indication, Sarah’s hope will surely become a reality. “When people get a chance to experience a story or perspective that’s different from their own, it opens minds,” she said, with a nod to her short film. “On a very basic level, as humans, we all crave the desire to be wholly and authentically known for who we truly are. The world is a better place when all people can live open and honest lives.”

Note: You can see Sarah’s short film at LUNAFEST East Bay’s screening on Saturday, March 19^th, 7:30pm, at the El Cerrito High School’s Performing Arts Theater. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Hanna Maylett: creating films from the ‘margin’

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Patty

I remember my overwhelming sense of anticipation and excitement at the world – the world being My Place by the fallen birch log, with the grass, the insects in the grass, the sky, the sheep and cows and rabbits, the wax-eyes and hawks – everything Outside . . . and the way I was filled with longing for it.
– Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist, short story writer, and poet, from her autobiography, To the Is-Land

Hanna Maylett

When Hanna Maylett was 13 years old, she announced to her mother that she wanted to become a film director. Her three younger siblings were child actors in films and television movies in their homeland of Finland. Although she, too, auditioned for roles, she didn’t get any parts. “I guess the only option for me was to get behind the camera!” Hanna joked. She chose well, given her rich filmography spanning 20 years, which includes seven short and feature-length films and several television mini-series. At the time of her announcement, she also told her mother that she couldn’t go to film school right after high school because “a film director needs life experience.” So she took a year off after graduation to travel before attending UIAH Helsinki (now Aalto University) to study film and graduating in 2000. “I always knew I wanted to tell stories and in a visual way, so cinematic storytelling was really the only option for me,” Hanna let me know in an email interview.

While in high school, Hanna saw Jane Campion’s film, An Angel at My Table (1990), a luminous film based on the three-book autobiography of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, who grew up impoverished, suffered numerous tragedies during her childhood, and was misdiagnosed and committed to a mental institution for eight years before winning a national writing award that literally set her free. The film was, as Hanna relates, her “greatest inspiration professionally.” “I realized it was possible to create worlds and characters that are meaningful and personal to me,” she said. “I have never seen anything as insightful, powerful, and intimate on-screen before. Campion’s film told about a woman’s vulnerability as a creative strength.” Hanna came to realize later that it was the first film that she saw that had “female protagonists taking an action.”

A scene from the television series, The Limit.

A scene from the television mini-series, The Limit.

Hanna’s filmography
Of her television mini-series, her most successful is The Limit (2014), a story of three women at different ages at the turning point of their lives, which was short-listed for Prix Italia (2014) and Prix Europa (2015). Of Hanna’s seven films – including her graduation film Good Girls (2000), Suburban Virgin (2003), Sisters Apart (2008), and First World Problems (2015), the latter having been chosen for this year’s LUNAFEST – two are autobiographical. The silent short The Rose of the Railroad (1996) tells of her grandmother’s choice between two suitors who came from the front of the same train. The feature-length documentary 100 Clocks (1998) focuses on her grandfather’s voluntary enlistment as a 17-year-old in the German army during WWII. In this “very private film” about her and her grandfather, whom she never got along with very well, Hanna related that he was never the same after the experience. He was a watchmaker by trade, and Hanna had childhood memories of the 100 clocks ticking in his office, where she slept when she visited. Clocks served as a metaphor in the film of her grandfather’s “neurotic need for precision,” which Hanna believed was a result of his time served in the German army. “It was my journey into his past, trying to understand him,” she said, of the making of 100 Clocks, which won the Prix Europa prize in Berlin in 2000.

A still from 100 Clocks – Hanna’s brother trying on their grandfather’s uniform – from the IDFA Festival site.

Exploring societal ills
I was intrigued by Helping Mihaela (2012), a feature documentary about Hanna trying to help a 16-year-old Romanian Roma beggar with, as the movie trailer hints, “unexpected results.” With a population of 10 million, the Roma is one of Europe’s largest minority groups, spanning a broad range of communities, tribes, and clans. As a disadvantaged group, it has become the convenient scapegoat for societal ills. Hanna read a newspaper article about a Romanian Roma teenaged beggar, Mihaela, who gave birth at the Helsinki railway station in the middle of winter and, as a result, was deported to Romania. “Her situation really shocked me,” Hanna related. In an interview at the Astra Film Festival Sibiu in Romania in 2012, she said of the deportation, “I thought it was racist. I didn’t think it could happen in Finland.” Like many European countries experiencing cultural, political, and socio-economic upheaval resulting from immigration, Finland was grappling with the recent influx of Romanian Roma beggars coming to Helsinki and facing outright bigotry.

A pensive Mihaela in her home country of Romania.

While a friend suggested that Hanna make a film about Mihaela, Hanna knew that wanted to investigate the events surrounding the girl’s situation. During the filming in Romania, she discovered that she was only seeing the proverbial tip of the iceberg: “The issue isn’t about one group – it’s so much more,” she pointed out in the Astra interview. One of the biggest problems is the “criminality and corruption” of the entrenched “social hierarchical structures” in central and eastern Europe, which adds to the already complex issue surrounding the Roma, according to Hanna. “Every time there is a poor man, there is always someone who takes advantage of him,” she recounted in the interview, “and there is always someone who is poorer than that man.”

The Romanian Roma landscape.

The reaction to the film in her homeland was “diverse,” according to Hanna. The “ordinary” movie-goer sympathized with Mihaela’s struggles, although audience members said they would stop giving money to the Roma beggars as a result of having seen her film. Some journalists, however, took Hanna to task. Offended, they felt Hanna should have “known” the solution and incorporated it into her film to give it a “happy ending.” Responding to critics, Hanna pointed out, “There’s no easy solution.”

Setting up filming Helping Mihaela in Romania.

The filmmaker’s role: defining identity by digging deeper
When I asked her what themes run through her films, she said, “All my films seem to be about defining one’s identity by finding new, deeper or broader layers in who one really is.” More pointedly, Hanna’s films present situations in which “a woman is not fitting in the expected role anymore.” This theme references her inspiration – Campion’s An Angel at My Table. But it is especially true in First World Problems, in which a middle-aged Finnish woman breaks down after losing her car in a car park and has a surprising encounter with a trolley (shopping cart) collector.

A scene from First World Problems.

“In most of my films, the expectations of one’s social role/identity comes from within the character, not from outside,” she went on. “I find this subject endlessly inspiring. You are your biggest obstacle.” Thus far, most of Hanna’s protagonists are female, which perhaps is not accidental. “One seems to make films about those whom they feel emotionally closest, and maybe that’s the reason,” she revealed.

The idea for First World Problems came about when a friend posted on Facebook her failed attempt at unlocking the wrong car in a car park. Hanna went beyond the initial premise when she and her crew realized that “a car park is like a small universe, with all the aspects of a welfare society,” which thematically circles back to the issues Hanna addresses in Helping Mihaela.

A scene from First World Problems.

Whether she explores familial territory or universal social issues, Hanna’s goal as a filmmaker is to elicit a response from the audience – whether it is laughter, tears, confusion, anger, disgust, and/or an understanding – and have the audience connect with her characters. She also hopes audiences “recognize something new and surprising about the world around them.” With First World Problems, for example, Hanna challenges people to “see the ever-so-invisible trolley collectors in a car park as persons with backgrounds.” To Hanna, film is an “empowering form of art: films can soothe, support, comfort, and challenge the audience.” The film has to speak directly to the audience member – “This is what I look for as a filmmaker,” she said.

On being a woman filmmaker: rejecting the gatekeepers and fighting back
In film school, 50 percent of her classmates were women. “I thought we were even with the fellow boys as directors,” she recalled, looking back. But in her 20 years, Hanna admitted that the career path for female directors is “much longer and more frustrating” than for male directors. It took her eight years to make her first feature-length film. Eight years later, Hanna is still working on the financing of her second feature film. In that time, she has also endured rejections for five other projects. To date, her male classmates are working on their sixth or seventh feature, even though, she pointed out, not all of their films have been successful. “I was not aware of the equality issue as a beginning filmmaker,” she confessed. “I naively thought we all have the same chances in the competitive business no matter your gender.”

The wide open spaces - a scene from Helping Mihaela.

The wide open spaces of freedom – a scene from Helping Mihaela.

In a recent bid to obtain financing for her project, a financier said to Hanna, “I think what now happens is that you go home, cry a little, and have a glass of red wine.” Her response was pointedly a different scenario: “I did not cry. I did not drink my wine. Instead, I furiously created a new strategy to get my film financed.” In another instance, Hanna was hired for a project, which featured boy protagonists, but a week later, the producer took it back because she had not experienced a boy’s childhood herself, which he found to be “a big problem.” For female filmmakers, she said, the unwritten rule is that women can make children’s movies and documentaries, but feature films are the domain of male filmmakers.

While Hanna admitted that she hasn’t personally overcome the treatment of women in the film industry, she vowed, “I have not given up. I fight against it every day by making films and having a strong women’s network.” Given that her success and recognition of her films have come from outside of Finland, her strategy has included cultivating an international career. “I try to look for all possible options,” she explained. “If one door gets shut, I knock on the next one.”

A scene from First World Problems.

Being true to yourself
And that’s the advice she metes out to young women who aspire to become filmmakers. “Go for it!” she entreated. “If you need to make films, then you have to make them.” While the industry isn’t evolving fast enough, it is evolving, Hanna said, and at some point women filmmakers won’t have to endure some of the pushback that she endured. “Try to recognize those people who wish you good – hold on to them,” she said. “Make films that look like you, and don’t ever make coffee for guys just because. Don’t fool yourself by being one of the guys in order to be accepted. It will never happen, or if it does, it is not you anymore.”

In a nod to all of her filmmaking efforts, but particularly First World Problems and Helping Mihaela, Hanna said, “Most original stories will come from the margin, so be proud if you come from the margin. If you stay true to your artistic ambition, your films will deliver your soul and message. It will be a bumpy road, but it will be really worth it.”

Note: You can see Hanna’s short film First World Problems at LUNAFEST East Bay’s screening on Saturday, March 19^th, 7:30pm, at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Theater.

Sarah Saidan: embracing the freedom and magic of animation

Posted on January 5, 2016 by Patty

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.
― Rosa Luxemburg, Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist, and activist

When filmmaker Sarah Saidan was in her last year of Graphic Design at Azad University in Tehran, she took her first course in animation. In an interview via email, she told me that at the time she didn’t know what to expect from the class, but by the end of the semester, she discovered what she wanted to do “forever.” “I saw my drawings move and become alive,” she enthused. “Animation is magic. It contains illustration, film, and music all together. Animation gives you the freedom to tell any story, express any feeling, and experience something new.” Sarah’s short film Beach Flags was chosen for this year’s LUNAFEST film festival and is the only one of the six films that is animated.

Beach Flags poster.

One of the benefits of being an animator is that it allows Sarah to make a film by herself and in her own workspace. “I know the production can be exhausting sometimes, but you know it is always worth it in the end,” she noted. Her technique is usually 2D drawn animation. When Sarah was in La Poudrière in Valence, France, where she studied animation, she experimented with stop-motion (see footnote 1), cutout animation (see footnote 2) for two projects. “I absolutely loved doing that; it was so much fun,” she said. “But at the same time, stop motion has its limitations. You have to think about those limitations beforehand, when you are doing your storyboard.” While Sarah is more comfortable with drawn animation, many of her favorite films are cut-out animation, particularly the works of Yuri Norstein.

Sarah at work on A Foreign Genie, a one-minute, stop-motion, cutout film she made while studying in La Poudrière in 2011.

Working on her stop-motion, cutout film.

Sarah doesn’t take on many commissioned assignments, but despite working within a tight budget and timeframe, she happily accepted a TED Ed short film project because the topic – What are Human Rights? – was of great interest to her. “First of all, I have to say that I love what the TED Ed team is doing!” she said. Sarah and her fellow animator friend Amin Haghshenas worked off of a voiceover of the lesson, which was written by Professor Benedetta Berti, who is a TED Fellow and human security and foreign policy consultant, and recorded by the TED Ed team. Within eight weeks, Sarah created the storyboards and graphics, while Amin did the animation and composition for the video. “You can create a short film in a day, and you can make another one in two years, like my film Beach Flags,” Sarah pointed out. “It depends on so many things – the budget, deadline, complexity of the work, writing, and so on – so each project is different and has its own conditions.”

Sarah working on her graduation film, Quand le chat est là, in La Poudrière in 2011.

A close-up of her work.

Production time.

An image from Quand le chat est la.

Animation: the ideal platform for Beach Flags
Although the last few years Sarah has been working in France, she has lived most of her life in Iran. In her country, women athletes cannot participate in international games. Furthermore, female swimmers cannot be seen in public in swimsuits. Sarah was preoccupied with this inequity, and she related, “I really needed to talk to these women and hear them.” When she interviewed them, they told her about beach flags, a lifeguard game that is played on the sand and doesn’t require females to wear swimsuits, which then allows them to participate in international games. It was also a game at which Iranian girls have historically excelled and won many prizes.

Pre-production of Beach Flags in Folimage in 2013.

Sarah in pre-production of Beach Flags, doing storyboard and animation.

“I was so happy to hear that, but suddenly I had this ironic feeling – imagining swimmers running on the beach by the sea, but not having the right to go into the water,” Sarah said. “That image really drove me to write a story about it.” Animation was also the perfect vehicle for making Beach Flags into a film; it enabled her to go into places where the camera is not allowed or restricted – the women’s swimming pool and the women’s beach, in this case. “Animation gave me the freedom to tell a story without any obstacles,” Sarah noted.

Sarah at work on the production of Beach Flags in Ciclic (Chateau Renault) in 2013.

Sarah at work on the post-production of Beach Flags in Folimage (Valence) in 2013.

An image from Beach Flags.

Beach Flags, which was produced by Sacrebleu Productions in Paris and co-produced with Folimage in Valence, has been officially selected by more than 80 festivals around the world. The short film has amassed numerous prizes along the festival route, including the Amnesty International Prize at the Giffoni International Film Festival in Italy; Grand Prize at the BIAF Animation Festival in Korea; Grand Jury Prize at ANIMA, Córdoba International Animation Festival in Argentina; Grand Prize at the Tindirindis Animation Festival in Lithuania; Jury Prize at the International Festival Séquence Court-Métrage in France; Best Film Award at the International Animé awards in Japan; Best Screenplay at the International Animayo Festival in Spain; and Best of the Show at the Animation Block Party film festival in Brooklyn. Clearly, Beach Flags’ message has resonated around the world.

Inspiring work ahead
At this point in her career, Sarah doesn’t have plans to make a feature-length film, partly because of the financial burden and time investment required to make such a film. Referencing one of her friends who spent nine years working on a feature film, she said, “I don’t know if I want to do that yet! But upon reflection, she added, “I think I need to gain some more trust in myself for such responsibility.”

Sarah collaborating with her colleagues.

In the meantime, Sarah is currently “writing something very personal but at the same time very universal.” She tackles another feminist topic but from a different point of view. “It is a challenge. I am very excited about it,” she said. Sarah was also commissioned to produce two videos. Despite not usually taking on commissioned work, she was offered “such amazing and inspiring projects that it was impossible not to accept them.” The two videos are for a project that promotes reading aloud to children in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan. “I really hope these videos help. That would be the biggest gift,” she said, referring to the crisis of refugees fleeing Syria in record numbers.

An image from Beach Flags.

I asked Sarah what advice she would give to girls and young women interested in pursuing filmmaking, and her response reflects the themes in her work: “Believe in yourselves and never let anyone make you feel unworthy. Becoming a filmmaker is not just about learning the techniques of filmmaking; a good filmmaker is someone who knows exactly what they want and what they believe in, and most of all someone who doesn’t surrender to anything less than their expectations of themselves and their team.”

Note: While we wait for Sarah’s next project to come to the screen, you can see the trailer to Beach Flags here, and then see her short film in its entirety at LUNAFEST East Bay’s March 19^th screening, 7:30pm, at El Cerrito High School’s Performing Arts Theater, 540 Ashbury Avenue, El Cerrito, CA.

Footnotes (courtesy of Wikipedia):
Footnote 1: Stop-motion animation is a technique that physically manipulates an object that appears to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.

Footnote 2: Cutout animation is a technique for producing stop-animations by using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric, or even photographs.

FAEAC Conference: Incorporating FilAm contributions to California history in our schools

Posted on November 15, 2015 by Patty

As you can see, there are quite a number of things taught in school that one has to unlearn or at least correct.
– Ambeth R. Ocampo, Filipino historian, academic, journalist, and author, from Rizal without the Overcoat

On October 30th and 31st, I attended the Filipino American Educators Association of California (FAEAC) Conference, held at the Citizens Hotel in downtown Sacramento. While I am not an educator, one of the subjects of the biannual conference for 2015 was relevant for me – how to implement AB123, a bill authored by Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) that requires California schools to include Filipino-American contributions to the farm labor movement in their social-sciences curriculum.

Patricio Urbi, FAEAC President noted in his welcome to fellow educators: “In order for us to teach for our future, we must continue to learn about the past and the many accomplishments our forefathers and foremothers contributed to history. As Educators, we must answer the call to action, remember, tell, and write the stories.” That was an important goal of the conference.

Mona Pasquil giving a stirring opening keynote address.

Happily, I got to hear Mona Pasquil, Appointments Secretary under Gov. Brown, speak for the second evening in a row. She was the keynote speaker at the Philippine National Day Association’s 25th Anniversary Gala on October 29th. At the FAEAC conference, she was the opening keynote speaker. Before the evening officially began, I gave her a copy of my novel, which was exciting for me because she was genuinely excited and made sure that I autographed the copy for her. She told me she had left her speech notes in her car and didn’t think she had time to retrieve them. We got on this discussion of being accepted by a new group of Filipinos who aren’t the community you grew up with. She agreed that as a Filipino American community we oftentimes don’t come together because we stick to our immediate community or group, defined by our dialect, geographic location, and even recent immigrant versus second and third generation Filipino American! So that became the backbone of her keynote speech.

Mona Pasquil’s keynote speech: Come together
Mona grew up in nearby Walnut Grove as a third-generation Filipino American. The manongs lived on the second floor of her home. Her grandmother not only picked in the fields but was also the cook for the farm laborers. As an infant, Mona was in a box next to her family in the fields while they worked. Growing up, Mona understood from an early age that her family’s sacrifices were done so she could go to college. She faced discrimination as a child. When she told her father about being bullied, his response to her was: “Tell them who you are. Remain true to who you are.” She did; she reported that she got beaten up, but that was a small price to pay for standing up for herself. Mona went to college in the Midwest, where her mother went to school. Even there, in the 1980s, she faced discrimination and ignorance; when students asked who she was and she responded that she was Filipino, they demanded to know what that was.

When she returned to California, she said she joined every Filipino organization that she could, but she related that she still didn’t belong. She was told that she was born here and didn’t have the right accent; therefore, she wasn’t really Filipino. Mona entreated us all to put our differences aside and come together. There’s a reason, according to Mona, that we are “absent” from the table – be it in politics and other powerful positions: “Our community never came together,” she revealed. We need to “take care of each other, share our stories, and appreciate the differences in our stories,” she pointed out. She invoked the spirit of the manongs and told us to “stand up for yourself and remember who came before us – the manongs – who couldn’t speak up for themselves.”

Mona related an “ah-ha moment” she encountered when she was working on the Clinton campaign. She was at the White House and one of the valets came up to her. He was an older Filipino man. He told her how they have always been “behind the curtain.” “Nobody knew our name,” he explained to her. His mandate to her: “Make us proud.” Mona took that to heart. When the Los Angeles Jewish Community shooting occurred on August 10th, 1999, and then-Vice President Al Gore was preparing a statement to make to the press, Mona had an important request. She asked that Gore say the name of the USPS mailman who was fatally shot nine times by a white supremacist and that he was Filipino American. The killer had told authorities he shot Ileto because he “looked Latino or Asian” and was a federal employee. Gore asked her if it was important, and Mona, who told us that “this is personal,” gave him a resounding yes. When she watched him on the television monitor mention Joseph Ileto‘s name and his ethnicity, she realized what an “amazing opportunity” she had to “make a difference.” No longer did she want Filipino Americans to be invisible, to be “behind the curtain.”

But in order to do that as a community, she stressed, we have to work together. We have to “understand our story and understand the richness of our community.” She entreated all of us to “push our people forward every day.” “We will only grow in numbers if we work together,” she told us. She pointed out that there are 2,700 positions on boards and commissions and 300-500 staff positions. Few are women, few are minorities. Mona ended her inspiring keynote address with a challenge to us all: “My commitment is if you want to participate, I will help you get there.” Mona Pasquil is my new hero!

A lunchtime panel discusses Filipino American Studies challenges and opportunities: Mel Orpilla, president of the Filipino American National Historical Society; Joi Barrios, professor, UC Berkeley; Mary Rose Peralta, CTFLC; Pyxie Cstillo, MA student, Asian American Studies, SFSU; and Robyn Magalit Rodriquez, professor at UC Davis.

Project Welga! and AB123
FAEAC’s Saturday agenda was full and I didn’t get to attend all the afternoon breakout sessions that were of interest to me. Thankfully the morning sessions, which were under the umbrella theme of “building shared knowledge,” did not compete. Dr. Amanda Solomon Amorao, who is a professor at the University of California, San Diego, gave a workshop on the Kuya Ate Mentorship Program (KAMP), which helps mentor San Diego middle school and high school students on Filipino American culture, identity, and history. The goal is to empower students in their own learning and bring ethnic studies analyses of race, class, gender, and other issues of social different into secondary education. (It turns out that my cousin Leila Eleccion Pereira knows Amanda and her family well.) Glenn Phillip Martinez Aquino, who is a student at San Francisco State University, gave a talk on The Moving Filipino Image: Cinema and Education, the seemingly invisibility of Filipinos in mainstream American media.

Robyn presents Welga! to the audience of educators.

What was most relevant for me was the session on AB123 and Project Welga! led by Project Welga’s Director, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, of the University of California at Davis. Robyn read my novel pre-publication and wrote a very nice blurb for my book. As we crossed paths in the women’s bathroom before her talk, she jokingly told her newborn son that he’s seen a lot of me in his short life! So true – in Delano for Bold Step: the 50th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike and in San Francisco for the 3rd Filipino American International Book Festival! Robyn introduced the educators to a resource guide that draws from the materials in the digital archive that she created to support the grassroots implementation of AB123, the bill that Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) authored and was signed into law in 2013.

I can't tell you what an honor it is to be next to Philip Vera Cruz's name. His memoir was one of the primary texts I used for research for my novel.

I can’t tell you what an honor it is to be next to Carlos Bulosan’s name. And on the same page as Philip Vera Cruz. His memoir was one of the primary texts I used for research for my novel.

As Robyn pointed out, the language of AB123 states that “this act shall not be implemented unless funds are appropriated by the Legislature in the annual Budget Act.” There’s the rub! AB123 is an unfunded bill. So it is up to educators to incorporate it into their teachings. No small feat! Thanks to Robyn’s hard work, the Welga! Digital Archive aims to bring Filipinos’ leadership and engagement in the 1965 Delano grape strike to light through the acquisition and digital archiving of strike-related material, as well as the collection of oral histories of strike participants and supporters. I stumbled upon the website while searching for photos for my book cover, and I am happy to say that the two photos are from Welga! A fortuitous find for me. In turn, I donated to Welga! a letter labor leader Andy Imutan wrote to me and other materials related to the grape strike.

I am added to the schedule at the last minute, speaking before the closing keynote. Before reading an excerpt, I let everyone know how important taking Asian American Studies classes was for me when I was at UC Davis. It literally changed my life. (Photo courtesy of Linda Canlas)

I was added to the schedule and spoke before the closing keynote. Before reading an excerpt, I let everyone know how important taking Asian American Studies classes was for me when I was at UC Davis. It literally changed my life. (Photo courtesy of Linda Canlas)

When Robyn brought up brainstorming, how to incorporate AB123 and cultural competency into the classroom, she cited my novel as sample literature to use. She pointed me out in the audience and generously gave a plug for my book. I was very honored that she recommended my novel for the classroom and tied it in with AB123. Perhaps this helped with the late addition of my reading an excerpt from my novel before the closing keynote by West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon that evening. At any rate, I welcome the possibility of my novel being read at the high-school level. I always knew I would be working to get the book into Asian American Studies courses at the college/university level. Given the anecdotal stories of college professors highlighting the fact that their Filipino American freshmen haven’t read any Filipino-American authors before coming to their classrooms, I welcome the opportunity and challenge. An additional goal is to make inroads with high-school students. Now that would be very exciting.

A stirring closing keynote by West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon, who turned his city around and made its residents proud. Cabaldon is half Filipino.

I met some great educators while at the conference. An elementary school teacher at San Francisco Unified School District asked if I would be willing to give a talk at her school. Of course! A professor from the Ethnic Studies Department at Cal Berkeley let me know that she would use my novel in her Asian American Studies class. Great! People were kind and enthusiastic as they bought my book.

Not everyone stayed for the closing keynote and dinner Saturday evening, but for those of us who did, it was group picture time!

It was a long, exhausting day – fittingly ending the busy Filipino American History Month of October. For every person I met and meet, potential and possibility exist. Or not. I have no way of knowing until something comes of it. What I’ve been doing these last couple of months has been part of this journey. At times, it seems as if everything that occurred in September and October happened in a stretch of half a year – that’s how compressed everything had been these past two months. I logged a tremendous amount of work that is finally catching up with me in terms of energy to keep going and time to devote. This word-of-mouth journey is labor-intensive and so necessary when one has to do the job largely alone. Thank goodness I am finding my community, and one by one, my community members are embracing me and lifting me up as I continue my way.

Celebrating Philippine National Day Association’s 25th year

Posted on November 14, 2015 by Patty

History is a living and lively account of what we were and are; it could and should be as real to each of us as stories about family or about recent and past events. If all of that makes us understand humanity better, so does history make us understand ourselves, and our country infinitely better, in the context of our culture and our society.
Doreen Fernandez’ foreword to Ambeth R. Ocampo’s Rizal Without the Overcoat

I spent the last weekend in October in Sacramento for a couple of events related to the novel. My cousin, Leila Eleccion Pereira, who has been such a champion for my book, invited me to the Philippine National Day Association’s Annual Gala (PNDA), which was celebrating its 25th anniversary this year in nearly Elk Grove on Thursday, October 29th. Leila is on the board of directors of the nonprofit PNDA, which was established in 1994 to promote three main projects: its Outstanding Filipino Youth Awards (OFYA), a recognition and scholarship program (OFYA has dispersed $100,000 in scholarships to graduating seniors since 2000); Filipino American Youth Leadership Conference (FAYLC), which empowers FilAm youths to gain skills and education needed for leadership positions; and LahiARTS, an arts empowerment program.

In Elk Grove, celebrating PNDA’s 25 years in the community.

An impressive legacy.

Leila coordinated a group of us to secure a table on behalf of the San Esteban Schools Alumni Association, Inc. (SESAA) at the gala event. Over Labor Day Weekend in Terra Bella, at the Sunday evening event sponsored by SESAA, which is the spin-off organization of the original San Esteban Circle, Leila had done a phenomenal job of promoting my book. One of the perks of sponsoring a table was getting a business-sized advertisement in the gala event’s program. And once again, Leila promoted my book by including it in the SESAA advertisement. Thank you, Leila! She’s incredibly involved in the Filipino-American community in the Sacramento area, and she’s been so helpful in getting the word out about my book. At Leila’s suggestion for one of the gala event’s silent auction items, I donated a copy of my novel, which was paired up with an “Honor Our Story” Philip Vera Cruz t-shirt and advertised as a “Delano Grape Strike” package.

PNDA program.

The ad Leila and I put together.

I dragged my sister Joyce, who lives in nearby Folsom, to the event, and we were pleasantly surprised to have one of our cousins, Jane, at our table. Another cousin, Douglas, whom I haven’t seen in years, was also at our table. Remember that in our community, everyone is related somehow – one of Douglas’s parents is an Enrado – and all the kids in our generation are called “cousins” and their parents are our “aunts” and “uncles.” So it was nice to catch up on the last 30 years with Douglas.

Silent auction donation with a Philip Vera Cruz t-shirt. I met the woman who won the auction item. She owns a museum in the Philippines and let me know that my book would be a nice addition to her museum.

One of the highlights of the evening was hearing the keynote address given by Mona Pasquil, who serves as Appointments Secretary for Governor Brown and is responsible for helping him build his administration by recruiting top candidates to serve the state. She is the first Filipino-American in California history to serve as the Appointments Secretary.

More on Mona: Prior to her appointment, she served as Chief of Staff to California Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi and as Acting Lieutenant Governor, after Garamendi was elected to Congress. As such, she holds the distinction of being the first woman and Asian Pacific Islander or Filipino-American to serve as Lieutenant Governor of California. As a veteran political advisor and strategist, she directed presidential, gubernatorial, and local campaigns across the country. She served as political director for twice-elected California Governor Gray Davis, Deputy CEO for the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California political director for the Gore/Lieberman campaign, western political director for the White House Office of Political Affairs under President Bill Clinton, and member of the Democratic National Committee from 2003 to 2009. In addition to working with California and Washington DC’s heaviest political hitters, Mona also worked as a strategic consultant for IBM’s national, state and local government sales team.

A rousing speech by Mona Pasquil. Go, Mona!

Mona is most proud of her work mentoring California’s youth to become more active in their communities. This work includes founding the Asian Pacific Youth Leadership Project of California, an organization dedicated to boosting Asian and Pacific Islander youth involvement in California policy.

An aside: I confess that I didn’t know much about Mona going into this dinner. I later realized – with the help of Leila – that her parents are Connie and the late Cornelio Pasquil, who had engineered a fundraiser dinner back in 2004, which David and I, as a member of the Stockton chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), attended. The Daguhoy Lodge in Stockton, which was founded in 1926 and in the process of being restored at the time, was the beneficiary. Through the Pasquils, Hollywood celebrities Lou Diamond Philips, Tia Carrera, Dean Devlin (producer), Fritz Freedman (senior vice president of Sony Pictures), and no-show Rob Schneider were flown in for the event to receive community awards. I was in the midst of finishing a version of my novel, and was telling the Pasquils about my novel at the event. Before dinner was served, in a generous act of kindness, they moved David and me from our table to the celebrity table. During dinner, I brought up my novel, and Lou Diamond Philips, whose grandmother is Filipino, told us a story about how she didn’t want him to march with Cesar Chavez because she was of the common Filipino mindset that you “don’t rock the boat,” which was my parents’ philosophy. We talked about that polar opposite Filipino mentality of either remaining silent or being militant (per the labor leaders such as Larry Itliong and the Filipino American farm workers who struck often in the fields). They all congratulated me on soon finishing the book. Little did I know that it would be another 10 years before I would truly finish it!

David and me at the 2004 fundraiser. Wow, we sure looked young back then!

Fritz Freedman, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Tia Carrera, Lou Diamond Philips, and Dean Devlin.

Back to the gala event, Mona gave an inspirational speech about public service and our duty to our FilAm community and larger community. She spoke of growing up and living among the manongs, who came in the 1920s and worked the crops up and down the state. They took care of her and her family, and she noted that it’s our responsibility to take care of them and continue the tradition of taking care of one another. She also honored their sacrifices and contributions to our community, and again, told us that we need to take up the mantle. Mona is incredibly down to earth and humble amidst all of her achievements. Sprinkled throughout the evening were dances, songs, and other speeches by local legislators, including Rob Bonta (D-Alameda), the first Filipino-American legislator in California. The manongs and their contributions to the farm labor movement was a key theme in the songs and dances, so I felt at home at this event, even though I didn’t know most of the Filipino Americans in attendance.

Assemblyman Rob Bonta takes the floor.

After the event, I gave Cynthia Bonta, mother of Rob Bonta, a copy of my novel, as she had mentioned at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center event the previous week that she was hoping to win the book at the PNDA event. Leila introduced me to one of the evening’s emcees, a local attorney, who then introduced me to Assemblyman Bonta. My cousin Jane later introduced me to Mona Pasquil. I told Mona about the 2004 dinner and the kindness of her parents, and also mentioned my book (of course!). When she got excited and expressed interest, I told her I’d give her a copy, knowing that she was going to be the opening keynote at the Filipino American Educators Association of California (FAEAC) Conference the following evening in Sacramento.

Meeting Mona – what an honor! She told me to tag her if I was going to post on Facebook, which I did!

I didn’t know what to expect from the PNDA gala event. I came away with happy, pleasant surprises – seeing more cousins and being introduced to Assemblyman Bonta and Mona. I was also impressed with PNDA, which is an entirely volunteer organization of professionals giving to the FilAm community. I embrace the focus of their programs on growing the FilAm youth to become leaders in the FilAm and larger communities and to pursue higher education and their dreams. Can I squeeze one more volunteer opportunity? Not at the present, but it’s something to aspire to in the near future.

My cousins Jane and Leila, who do so much for the FilAm community and our larger community. Such inspirations!

The Dress at 50

Live the creative, meaningful, and full life

Category Archives: Amazing Women

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Celebrating Philippine National Day Association’s 25th year

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