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.

Ringing in the New Year, welcome 2016

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Patty

The beginning is the most important part of the work.
– Plato, philosopher and mathematician

Looking back
When 2015 began, I would never have guessed how the year would turn out. I would not have anticipated that I would find a home for my novel, A Village in the Fields. A friend’s kindness in trying to help find that home became the seed that led to meeting people who would be instrumental in and champions of getting the novel published. Revising the novel, squeezing an eight-month process of publishing it into a three-month window, and learning how to market and promote pretty much summed up most of my energies for the year. Along the way, I have met amazing people, and so many doors and windows were opened. The novel couldn’t have been released at a more appropriate time – the 50th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike.

In Delano, September 6th, where the novel had its welcome into the world.

Of course, other milestones were welcomed – I turned 53, David turned 50, Isabella turned 13, and Jacob turned 15 (in Naples, so he gets the prize for having spent his birthday in the most desirable place among the four of us). As part of the LUNAFEST East Bay Committee, we put on a wonderful film festival, which included having Jeanne Rizzo, CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund, give a rousing and inspiring talk about being strong and resilient. Jacob got his braces removed and finally got his black belt in tae kwondo. Isabella got promoted from elementary school and is now in middle school. Our family established a needs-based scholarship at Jacob’s high school and awarded two deserving young women financial support to follow their dreams, which will help make the world a better and more inclusive place to be. After one year on the high school’s Investing in Academic Excellence committee, I assumed co-chair duties in the fall. We had an amazing summer vacation in Italy and shared memories with our friends, Raissa and Mike, and their kids along the way. We adopt two rabbits for Isabella, named Pudding and Maybelline, and sadly, we lost our beloved 15-year-old dog, Rex, before Thanksgiving.

Family portrait on our gondola.

Rex’s last night with us.

Looking forward
It was an incredibly busy year for me, and when you have too many things on your plate and not enough time, things fall by the wayside. That happened to be my blog this past year. I’m amazed that I posted three times a week for quite some time. Posting once or twice a month became the norm. And while I like recording my thoughts on a regular basis because it became a diary of sorts, which I used to keep faithfully in my early years, I am content to check in twice a month. Life is short and time keeps slipping through my fingers. It’s time to look forward to 2016 and what to imagine and make real in the coming year. I’m excited.

After Christmas, we went down to Porterville for a little visit, and we ended up having an evening of singing with our cousin Debi.

New Year’s Day and New Year’s Day weekend
In order to set up the year for wonder and magic, you have to begin the New Year in good stead, which we did. We kept our tradition of having my cousin Janet and her husband, Tim, come up for a visit. They have this enormous avocado tree and it’s a tradition for them to bring up a laundry basket full of avocados. David makes a bowl of guacamole to bring to the New Year’s Eve and birthday party of our friends Raissa and Mike. On New Year’s Day we have gone to Point Reyes for a long hike the last two years. But this year, being a year older, and having slept in, we decided to stay local and hike in Tilden Park, up to Inspiration Point, where it was clear enough this New Year’s Day to see the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island, and San Francisco.

On a clear day, you can see forever – Inspiration Point’s view of the bridges, Treasure Island, and the City.

At Inspiration Point.

Janet and Tim at Inspiration Point.

A good beginning to the New Year: the San Pablo reservoir is full behind the tree and hills.

This exhibit closes January 9th.

The next day we ventured into San Francisco to see the WWII in the Philippines exhibit at the San Francisco Public Library. The exhibit is ending next weekend, and for months I’d been meaning to see it before it closed. I missed the all-day symposium that was held in October because I was in Los Angeles at the time. One of the panels included a photo of the First Filipino Infantry Regiment, of which my father was a member. I pored over the photo, but I didn’t see him. We also spent time in the Filipino American Center, which is a room dedicated to Filipino American books and the brainchild of retired San Francisco Public Library librarian Estella Marina. I found books helpful for my next novel, and Janet found some information about her hometown of Ketchikan, Alaska.

The Filipino American Center at the San Francisco Public Library.

After lunch at the recently reopened Sam Wo restaurant in Chinatown, we trekked to the I-Hotel on Kearney Street, but it was closed. We did appreciate the mural, painted by Johanna Poethig in 2010, which commemorates “the history of the International Hotel’s decades-long struggle for low-income housing at this site, honoring the Filipino and Chinese elders and all those who lived, worked, fought and created a home together in the I-Hotel. Annually, on August 4th, the night of the eviction in 1977, this story is passed on from one generation to the next.”

The I Hotel mural with the Transamerica Pyramid in the background.

A close-up of the mural.

When we got home, we continued our Filipino American heritage weekend and watched the documentary Harana, the “search for the lost art of serenade” in the Philippines. It’s a wonderful documentary with beautiful music and endearing haranistas. We had a last dinner of turkey and mashed potatoes, and so we concluded a wonderful long weekend celebrating the New Year with Janet and Tim. What better way to welcome than to continue to explore my heritage with my family, immediate and extended, in 2016.

There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind – C.S. Lewis. Here’s to 2016: Scatter joy, sow peace, and love big.

Family – in front of the mural.

LUNAFEST 2015-2016: supporting diverse voices and visions

Posted on October 12, 2015 by Patty

One of the common themes you will read in interview after interview is the call to keep fighting for your vision. This is a message to women directors, producers, writers – anyone who wants to work in the business. Your voice counts. Your vision matters.
― Melissa Silverstein, American writer and founder and director of Women and Hollywood, from In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing

When October sneaks up on us, we realize that the light has been changing ever so subtly and the leaves on the trees have been turning colors seemingly right before our eyes. The month also signals the start of the LUNAFEST film festival with the worldwide premiere in San Francisco. The lovely Herbst Theater hosted this year’s event. It’s been years since I’ve set foot in the theater, which features panels of murals painted by Frank Brangwyn for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. It’s a beautiful and cozy venue for such a special event.

The beautiful Herbst Theater.

Kit Crawford, co-owner and co-chief visionary officer of Clif Bar & Company and strategic advisor to LUNAFEST, welcomed the full house to the 15^th year of the film festival, “by, for, and about women.” Four of the six filmmakers made the premiere, coming from Paris and London and Los Angeles and our own backyard of Oakland.

Looking up at the balcony and murals.

Along the side walls of the Herbst Theater.

And the ceiling.

Two years ago, at my first LUNAFEST premiere, Dr. Stacy L. Smith, PhD, director of the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, was invited to discuss the state of women filmmakers in the industry. This year, Dr. Smith was invited back to talk about Gender & Short Films: Emerging Female Filmmakers and the Barriers Surrounding their Careers. With a grant from LUNAFEST, Dr. Smith and her team gathered data from the 10 top film festivals worldwide – Cannes, Sundance, Venice, Berlin, Telluride, TIFF, SXSW, IDFA, IFFR, and NYFF – from 2010 to 2015, and also gathered data from LUNAFEST filmmakers from 2002 to 2014.

Dr. Stacy Smith telling it like it is.

Women filmmakers: an empirically sobering reality
From the top film festivals worldwide, Dr. Smith and her team focused on short films that were relevant to mainstream directing careers in television and film. Of the 3,933 short films, females filled almost a third of the directing pipeline in short films (32 percent women versus 68 percent men), which is a gender ratio of 2.13 male directors to every 1 female director. Dr. Smith also wanted to determine if storytelling genre was related to gender, which she categorized under narrative, documentary, animated or other. She and her team discovered that females are more likely to direct documentaries (37 percent versus 63 percent of men), but female directors are least likely to direct narrative shorts (28 percent versus 72 percent). Given the activism and interest in women filmmakers over the past several years, Smith and her team wanted to find out if an increase in female directors had occurred. “I’m just going to give you the data plain and simple – there has been no change over the last five years,” Smith revealed.

The data she and her team gathered, which included data from the Directors Guild of America, empirically showed a 10-percent drop in women directing short films to directing independent dramatic features, a 12-percent drop in women directing short films to directing episodic television, and a 24-percent drop in women directing short films to directing studio-level or top-grossing films. “I refer to this deep descent [the career pipeline of female directors from shorts to studio films] as the fiscal cliff,” Smith said matter-of-factly.

An illuminating study.

LUNAFEST directors rock
The other major part of the study, however, was determining how LUNAFEST directors fared in this gender terrain and what the career trajectories looked like for the LUNAFEST alumnae – to date, 115 directors. “The results reveal that the pedigree of LUNAFEST directors is actually very impressive,” Dr. Smith was happy to report. Seventy-two percent have attended film school or a film program, 36 percent have had their films shown at one of the top film festivals worldwide, 72 percent have won awards or accolades for their work, 24 percent have made a narrative or documentary feature, and 25 percent have directed, produced, or written for television.

Where do LUNAFEST directors land in terms of career paths: 25 percent go on to work onscreen or behind the camera in film and television, 27 percent are entrepreneurs, starting their own businesses and freelance enterprises, 20 percent are employees working for a variety of organizations, 11 percent are on faculty at post-secondary institutions, and 16 percent were not apparent from online sources. “Together, 75 percent of the alums are moving into industries and spaces outside of mainstream Hollywood storytelling. Clearly, this is a problem,” Smith noted. “Why? Because women directors, like the ones participating in LUNAFEST from 2002 to all the way to tonight, may actually be the solution to the lack of diversity onscreen that we see in Hollywood film.”

Furthermore, Dr. Smith and her team looked at the demographic profile of characters in the 115 LUNAFEST films and compared them to 2014’s 100 top-grossing films at U.S. box offices. They catalogued every speaking character (at least one word to be included in the analysis – which is, Smith pointed out, “a very low bar”). They measured each character according to demographics characteristics (age, gender, race/ethnicity), domesticity traits (parental status, relational standing), LGBT status, and hypersexualization (sexually revealing clothing, nudity). They compared the top 100 grossing films of 2014 to the 115 LUNAFEST films from 2002 to 2014. Dr. Smith and her team discovered two major findings. In the category of onscreen gender prevalence, 28 percent (4,610) of speaking characters are females in the top-grossing films, only 21 percent of the leads or co-leads are girls and women, and 21 percent are narrators. “This is surprising because the last time I checked women were 50 percent of the population and 50 percent bought tickets at U.S. box offices,” Smith remarked.

Diverse voices for a diverse population
As expected, LUNAFEST films fared better: 63 percent of onscreen-speaking characters are girls and women, 81 percent of the leads or co-leads are girls and women, and 79 percent are female narrators. “LUNAFEST short films feature women onscreen in abundance,” she concluded. But the kicker, according to Smith, is the data revelation outside of gender: 27 percent of the top 100 grossing films were from underrepresented ethnic or racial groups and only 17 percent of leads or co-leaders were from an ethnic or racial group. In LUNAFEST films, however, 38 percent of speaking characters were from underrepresented ethnic or racial groups and 37 percent of leads or co-leads are of minority status. These findings are important, Smith emphasized, because 37 percent of the U.S. population can be classified as coming from an underrepresented racial or ethnic group and these individuals bought 45 percent of the tickets at the U.S. box office. Additionally, approximately half of the zero to five age population in this country are not white. “When females are behind the camera, they not only increase the depiction of girls and women onscreen, but they take other groups that are marginalized and make them move from invisible to visible,” Smith noted.

We learned a few things from the study. “We now know where the career pipeline starts for female directors and we know what it means to their career trajectories,” Smith said. “We also know how female directors’ content is unique from what we see in mainstream storytelling. Together, we understand more where problems start for female directors and why it’s so important to support them, especially financially and early in their careers. In doing so, as the data illuminates, diverse voices working behind the camera can change the landscape of what we see on the screen.”

Jeanne walking off stage after her talk, as Kit Crawford asks for and is easily obliged with a round of applause for Jeanne.

Turning on the ‘advocacy gene’
Dr. Smith is a tough act to follow on stage, but when Jeanne Rizzo, RN, president and CEO of the Breast Cancer Fund, takes the stage, you know you’re in good hands. I had the honor and privilege of interviewing Jeanne last year for my blog (in two parts, no less, because she’s such a wonderful and inspiring role model), as she was a special guest at LUNAFEST East Bay 2015. So I knew we the audience were going to be treated to a rousing narrative. “Tonight is a perfect example of women expressing their own form of advocacy and being nurtured and supported in telling their stories, our stories,” she began.

Jeanne talked about her Aunt Minnie as a nurturing and supportive role model for her when she was growing up and the advocacy gene that was inherent in the both of them. When Jeanne was a child, she wanted to play Little League with the boys, whom she played with in the neighborhood. When she was told she couldn’t, Aunt Minnie told her to start her own team and give a piece of her mind to those who said no to her. “Give ’em hell,” Aunt Minnie advocated. So Jeanne cheered the momentous event when the first girl was admitted to Little League and with the passage of Title IX, which states in part that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Jeanne and Pali Cooper’s advocacy genes were turned on when they had to fight for the right to be married in California. Fittingly, it was Aunt Minnie who was the first in Jeanne’s large Italian Catholic clan to welcome her partner, Pali, into the family. After Jeanne helped to make a documentary film about a women’s climbing expedition in Denali, AK, and helped to establish subsequent climbing expeditions on Mt. Shasta, she continues to honor her Aunt Minnie. Every year, she asks one of the women climbers to carry her Aunt Minnie’s wedding ring. “I want her to know that it [the ring] goes as high as it can, carried by a strong woman, one step at a time, to remind us all that we have power and strength and we have both the privilege and the obligation to help carry each other,” Jeanne said.

“We stepped up, channeling the rights in Women’s Voting rights, the women who pushed corporate ceilings to try and get into the film industry,” she went on. “LUNAFEST embraces the advocacy work of the Breast Cancer Fund and our work on behalf of women and women’s health and environmental health through LUNAFEST and its proceeds.” She paused and took in the room full of people who gave her their rapt attention. “Aunt Minnie could never have imagined a film festival by, for, and about women. Consider what else we all can imagine together, and let’s do it,” she entreated.

And now for 6 inspiring stories
I won’t say too much about the fantastic lineup of movies this year because we want everyone to come to our March 19^th screening. But I will give a brief intro to each film:

Anna by her poster.

Finding June by Anna Schumacher of Los Angeles. “Through the eyes of a deaf woman just diagnosed with breast cancer, communication’s role in understanding one another is explored.” Anna is the daughter of our fellow committee member, Laurie Schumacher, and we are just as excited and proud as Laurie is!

Balsa Wood by Dominique Lecchi of London. “A lighthearted slice of life about two mixed-race siblings visiting their extended Filipino family for lunch.”

Boxeadora by Meg Smaker of Oakland. “One woman defies Fidel Castro’s ban on female boxing to follow her dreams of Olympic glory and become Cuba’s first female boxer.”

Raising Ryland by Sarah Feeley of Los Angeles. “An intimate look at parenting with no strings attached – a journey inside the transgender experience as lived by a six-year-old boy and his two loving parents.”

First World Problems by Hanna Maylett of Helsinki. “A tired housewife loses her car in a shopping mall – sometimes problems can open a door to a whole new world.”

Beach Flags by Sarah Saidan of Paris. “A young Iranian lifeguard, determined to participate in an international competition in Australia, experiences an unexpected obstacle when a new team member arrives.”

City Hall at twilight.

Interest piqued? Save it and save the date! It’s going to be an even better LUNAFEST film festival this year.

City Hall at night, across from the Herbst Theater.

Long road to Delano: A Village in the Fields comes home

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Patty

No history, no self; know history, know self. – José Rizal, Filipino patriot and national hero, physician, and man of letters

All these past months – a blur to me now – all came down to this Labor Day Weekend, the 50^th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike. My novel, A Village in the Fields, came out the Friday before – no small feat. My publisher, Eastwind Books of Berkeley, and I worked hard the last five months to get the novel out in time for this historic event, Bold Step: A Celebration of the 50^th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike. It was worth the sleep deprivation.

The Filipino Community Cultural Center of Delano, home of Bold Step: A Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Delano Grape Strike.

I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive about the weekend because I’d spent most of those five months focused on editing, production, and then marketing and promotion activities. There was no moment of stepping back and enjoying the moment or thinking about the reception in Delano. As we packed up the van, which our friends Raissa and Mike lent us, with 20 boxes of my novel, I told myself I wouldn’t bring any work with me. I needed to decompress, enjoy the moment, and anticipate what I would say or do up on the stage during the open-mike evening and with anyone who came to our table to inquire about the book. As we drove down Interstate 5 in bumper-to-bumper traffic Friday early evening, I wondered whether I should practice reading the chosen excerpt or choose another passage. I was already stressed that we weren’t leaving when I had hoped to leave.

On Filipino time
If there is one overarching theme, it is that we were on Filipino time even before we left for Terra Bella/Porterville/Delano! I was looking forward to a leisurely dinner to celebrate my cousin Janet and her husband Tim’s anniversary. They ended up getting Mexican takeout and having it ready for us when we pulled up at 10:30pm. After dinner, Janet and I stayed up till past 1 in the morning catching up, even though David and I had to be in Delano before 10am on Saturday.

FANHS Delano Chapter president Alex Edillor welcoming everyone to Bold Step.

The festivities begin
We were late, but so were the festivities. The welcome and keynote address was held at the Filipino Community Center on Glenwood Street, which was a meeting place for Filipinos made historic during the grape strikes. Alex Edillor, president of the newly formed Delano chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), welcomed the audience who hailed from cities and towns up and down the state. Other dignitaries included Paul Chavez, son of Cesar Chavez and president of the Chavez Foundation, the mayor of Delano, and keynote speaker, Rob Bonta, California State Assemblyman Rob Bonta of Alameda. Bonta is the first Filipino-American elected to the California legislature and author of AB123, which requires California schools to teach Filipino-American contributions to the farm labor movement in social science curriculum, and AB 7, which requires the Governor to proclaim Larry Itliong Day in California on his birthdate of October 25^th and encourage public schools to teach about Itliong’s life and contributions to California.

State Assemblyman Rob Bonita giving the keynote address.

State Assemblyman Rob Bonta giving the keynote address.

From the Filipino Community Center, we set up shop at Robert F. Kennedy High School, along with other vendors at the campus food court for the lunch break. The dance troupe Kayamanan Ng Lahi, adorned in beautiful and colorful traditional dress, put on a wonderful performance, which included the tinikling and a dance to the classic Filipino love song, Dahil Sa Iyo.

A fancier tinikling dance than I’m used to seeing.

Tinikling dance gets livelier.

During the lunch hour, we cultivated relevant contacts, including an executive committee member of the National Education Association who was a contemporary of the farm labor movement. I talked with Dr. Oliver Rosales, who teaches history at Bakersfield College and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was part of a terrific panel, which included Dr. Dawn Mabalon of San Francisco State and Dr. Robyn Rodriguez of UC Davis – she read an advance copy of my novel and blurbed me. During that panel, Dr. Rosales emphasized that he wanted to include Filipino-American courses and materials to his teachings because his Filipino-American students were thirsty for more knowledge about their heritage.

Dr. Oliver Rosales.

Once the symposium started, everyone moved over to the learning center auditorium, which was across campus. I wanted to watch and listen, so David stayed behind, only to pack up shop in a little while because everyone had gone in. By this time, Janet and Tim and the kids joined us. It was really wonderful for Janet and Tim to be here with me and learn about the part of our Filipino American history that has been obscured for so long. The rest of the panels included a personal film by John Armington – a tribute to his immigrant father Bob Armington, a discussion of what had preceded and paved the way for the grape strikes, and historical legacies and new activism, the latter a necessity because sadly we still see exploitation and discrimination in the labor force.

Dr. Mabalon and Dr. Rodriguez on historical legacies.

A mom moment
At the evening event, a reception and open-mike, we were treated to young slam poets who impressed me with their mastery of their poems and the passion in their voice and their artistic ability to express their experiences as “other.” I read the first chapter of the novel when it was my turn. In retrospect, David and I agreed that I should have read a section from the strike, and that the first chapter is more in line with any other crowd. I wasn’t nervous, mostly because the event was outdoors and I couldn’t really see anyone’s face. I confess that I didn’t read the Ilocano sentences or phrases for obvious reasons; rather, I read them in English. I was already anxious about incorrectly pronouncing the word “manong” because I’d been pronouncing it a different way. (I want to call out and give thanks to my cousin Annie who explained to me that the accents change when you address someone using the term versus when you are referring to the group as a whole or using the historic reference to them.)

My first public reading from A Village in the Fields, Delano, Calif. Master of ceremonies Herb Delute kindly held the flashlight for me.

The next day, a few people who came up to the table and bought my book told me that they had listened to me at the open-mike event and said they were impressed and that I read very well. My ease is in part from having to do public speaking in my profession, which has been an invaluable experience. Also, through the years of working on this book, late at night, I would often read revised passages in my head or out loud and transform myself into an unabashed thespian. I was a little more restrained Saturday evening, but my heart was in it. The biggest thrill for me, however, was when I walked off the stage and Isabella and then Jacob came up and gave me a hug. Later, I found out that Jacob had posted on Instagram and wrote: “My mom, reading a part of her novel at the Filipino Community Cultural Center of Delano. Her novel came out yesterday. It took her a long time to accomplish her goal, and I’m so happy for her!” That was all the validation I needed at that moment and now.

Selfie with Marissa Aroy.

I was honored to sit with Marissa Aroy during Saturday’s sessions and chat in-between the session breaks selling our respective DVDs and books. I met Professor Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, who is using my novel in her Filipino/a American literature class this fall. I talked at length with Johnny Itliong, son of labor leader Larry Itliong. I connected with two Filipino-American librarians from San Jose Public Library, who were interested in a reading at the library. I gained more knowledge about the strike and unions of the past and of today from veteran labor leader Al Rojas. And I met wonderful people like Dale, a student from my alma mater UC Davis, who was just as thrilled as I was about the Aggie connection and the enthusiasm for my book. I’ll admit to enjoying my celebrity moments when people asked if they could have their picture taken with me.

Book signing with a smile!

We missed the luncheon at the Terra Bella Veterans Memorial Building for the 60^th anniversary of the San Esteban Circle – and I missed catching up with my cousins and seeing other relatives. We were late to the dance, though we were able to see my cousin Annie and her mother, my Auntie Berta, who at age 93 was being honored for her work with the San Esteban Circle. She is not only a pioneer with the club, but she is the only one left of my father’s generation. We stopped by another cousin’s house to catch up with four more cousins, and we stayed up past midnight talking about Ilocano translations and the book.

Agbayani sign.

The interior of Agbayani Village.

After the Sunday events concluded, since we missed the bus tour of historic sites, we drove to Agbayani Village, which wasn’t that far away from RFK High School. Growth had indeed come to Delano because the last time I was here in 2004, Agbayani Village was isolated from the rest of the town. The village is still operational and clean and tidy; it is being rented out to retired farm workers. The kitchen and recreation room building was locked up, but we could peer inside and see the photographic displays still up for the tours. The garden, line of trees and cacti, goats in their pens, and vacant rabbit hutches, however, were gone. What stood was a vast empty field of cracked earth with a layer of powdery topsoil. I was sad to see that part of the village gone. But I was excited to share the village with Janet and Tim, and especially Jacob and Isabella.

Vineyards across the street from Agbayani Village.

As we walked through the village one last time and headed out through the main entryway, we came upon an elderly Filipino man who sat on a chair facing out. It seemed as if he was waiting for us, so we stopped to talk to him. His name was Edmundo. He told us he came to Agbayani Village in 1982. When we mentioned that Janet and I were related to Fred Abad, his face lit up. Fred was a good friend of his, and he said he was so happy to know that somebody else knew his good friend. He laughed and smiled and walked us out to the parking lot. That meeting touched my heart.

Resident Edmundo at Agbayani Village.

Because the Sunday afternoon sessions ran late, we were late getting back to Porterville. Our anniversary dinner out for Janet and Tim ended up at Super Burgers on Olive Avenue. We hurriedly ate and then David, Tim, and I headed back to the Veterans Memorial Building for the San Esteban Schools Alumni Association event, while Janet took the kids home. I sat with Annie and her mom. While we waited for my introduction, Annie and I surfed through her family photos, which she has been slowly digitizing. What a wonderful walk through nostalgia.

One of Annie’s photos from the 1960s: roasting a pig in her family’s backyard. I recognize many of my relatives here and recognize my dad’s red sweater. He’s holding onto me. I’m guessing the terror on my sister Joyce’s and my face is from watching a pig being roasted. Vegetarian friends, look away!

Kudos go to my cousin Leila Eleccion Pereira: During the awards and recognition ceremony for the community’s student scholars, Leila presented my book to the top scholar, who was attending UC San Diego and wanted to become a pediatrician. She gave a brief introduction and had me come up to address the audience. I talked about my mom and dad, the backstory to the novel, and how I wanted to learn more about our history and contributions to the farm labor movement and share that not only with our community but the global community. When I told everyone that our young generation needs to learn about and embrace their history, I was heartened to see some of the students nodding their heads – such a satisfying moment for me. We sold many books, and I give Leila all the credit for her introduction, her enthusiasm, her pride.

My cousin Leila and me.

Addressing the audience: telling them about the book’s origins, dedicating the novel to my parents and our community, and waxing poetic about remembering and honoring our history.

I was touched by the request by two moms who wanted to take a picture of me with her sons, who were holding up my book. Two college students, one a recent graduate from UCLA, the other still at Loma Linda University, bought a book. We chatted for a bit, and they understood the need to remember our history, which made me hopeful for the next generation’s convictions. We left as the evening concluded and retired to Porterville, the last of our Delano activities for the weekend. Wanting to capture more cousin time, Janet and I stayed up again.

Author hawking my book at RFK High School.

The best way to cap the long weekend, which seemed to zoom by, was to have a leisurely breakfast with Janet and Tim and our cousin Debi, who played her guitar and entertained us with all of these wonderful stories from our childhood and from her incredibly rich and complex life. As we left, knowing that we left late and will encounter bumper-to-bumper traffic when we hit the Bay area, I made a note that we’d connect again so I could write down her stories. We made plans to get the cousins together to compare photographs, share stories, and talk about a San Esteban Circle archiving project. So much to do. So much history back home. And overall, so much to be grateful for.

Towering cypress trees at Agbayani Village.

Sunset over Agbayani Village. Most of these photos courtesy of David Rossi.

Venezia day 2: Murano glass, gondolas, and one last meal

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Patty

Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go.
– Truman Capote, American writer

I woke up Tuesday morning before 6am thinking to myself, this is our last day in Italy. The sun was up already and I wanted to go out with a bang – live as fully as I could and make the most of this final day.

Watching the gondoliers while waiting for the vaporetta at the San Marco Basin.

Watching the gondoliers while waiting for the vaporetto at San Marco Basin.

Heron fishing for breakfast below our vaporetto dock.

A heron successfully fishes for breakfast below our vaporetto dock.

We took the vaparetto to Murano Island and spent a leisurely morning walking the quiet – thankfully, no tourist groups – streets of the famous place where beautiful glass works are made. The sun was very hot by late morning, but we had a nice snack of croissants, or cornetti, by the waterfront.

Boat docked on the island of Murano.

One euro for the accordion player.

A quiet morning on Murano.

I had a personal mission to find a necklace that wasn’t like all the necklaces we had seen in Venezia and Murano – the glass balls or overly ornate, heavy pieces. I saw two that were distinctive, but when it came time to choose one, I couldn’t find the other store (it was likely closed for the siesta hours) and settled upon a lariat-style necklace that was unique. We made a return trip to Venezia via the vaparetto and took a little siesta before heading back out for more meanderings on the streets and canals of the city.

Daily life in Venetia.

Internet access was spotty once again; such was the case in all three hotels. The afternoon hotel desk clerk was apologetic and kind enough to give us the private network and password, but it could only be used on the main floor. While we sat in the lounge area next to the breakfast room and caught up on emails and or putting up a blog post, our hotel desk clerk had turned up the volume so that Pink Floyd blared from the speakers. Another staffer, upon seeing us, promptly scolded him for his indiscretion, but as we left to return to our room, David let him know that we like Pink Floyd. He smiled and enthusiastically thanked us. Pink Floyd clearly puts a spring in his step.

The anecdote about our hotel clerk made me remember another story of the ticket seller at the front desk of the Museo Correr. As we completed the transaction, he was listening to music and completely engrossed in singing along. He reminded me of the Italian actor Roberto Benigni but with Tourette Syndrome, the way that he was thrumming his fingers on the counter and spontaneously spouting off to himself, so full of energy. He told us that he loved the song that was playing in the main hall, which was called You Belong to Me. And then added that he asked his wife to sing the song with him, but she refused because she said she did not belong to him or to anybody else for that matter. With a mock pained expression, he shrugged his shoulders to David and said women were so difficult. Then he looked me in the eye and announced that at the same time, men could not live without women. He glanced at me when he made the latter pronouncement, as if to include me in on the grand truth.

Gently rocking boats further down the Grand Canal.

After taking our siesta, we sprung from our tiny hotel room in search of the Rialto Bridge, which spans the Grand Canal, but along the way, we spied a gondolier tucked away on a quiet canal, looking for riders. It was midday and I figured we might as well take advantage of the ride now, something the kids wanted to do while in Venezia. Part of me was afraid that if we didn’t do it now, we might very well get sidetracked, lose sense of time, which is easy to do with the maze of streets and canals, and then wind up running out of time on our last day. We thought it was too expensive to take a gondola ride 18 years ago, but, despite it being a touristy thing to do, I was all (sans the accordion playing and singing, however, which would have cost a total of 120 euros). I wanted to give the kids a memorable time through the canals of Venezia. It was such a pleasure to hear them say that they enjoyed the ride, and Isabella confided to me that Venezia was her favorite city on our trip, which I had predicted would be the case leading up to our vacation.

Family portrait on our gondola.

Reflections on a gondola.

Here we are again, 18 years later.

We learned some interesting things from our gondolier. Venezia comprises 117 small islands. There are 409 bridges, but only three cross the Grand Canal. Only Venetians can be gondoliers, which number some 430 in all. Gondoliers have to go through training, not unlike driving school, and they own their own boats, which they can decorate as they choose but also abide by strict codes. They traverse some 150 canals throughout the city. Our guide pointed out various churches and famous buildings where poets and other notables lived. I lost track of how long the ride was, but we opted for the day ride instead of the evening ride, which I think will be on the next must-do list of things upon our return to this city.

A grand view of the Grand Canal.

After the gondola ride, we finally found, after much zigzagging and meeting dead ends to steps leading into the green waters of the canals, the Rialto Bridge over the Grand Canal. Of course, as fate would have it, the bridge was in restoration, although the shops along the bridge were open for business. I’ve come to conclude that in Italy many famous structures will be in various states of restoration, so I got over the disappointment by telling myself that I’ll return to see in its full glory whatever was covered up before. Such will be the case with this famous bridge. We hung over the bridge and watched gondolas and vaporettos glide and motor by, respectively.

We continued our walk aimlessly around the city, poking in and out of mask and glass shops, not quite finding anything that really spoke to us. We did find Vespa t-shirts, which was on my list of what I’d like to get if I came across them again. By late afternoon, we decided to rely on Rick Steves to guide us to our final meal in Venezia and, indeed, our final meal in Italy. We were the first patrons of Trattoria da Bepi (Cannaregio, 1372), which didn’t open until 7pm. (We wandered around the charming neighborhood of Campo Santo Apostolic on Salizada Pistor the kill time.) But within an hour of our arrival, British tourists and locals alike filled the place up.

Trattoria da Bali before it opened, before candles and crisp tablecloths adorned the tables on the street side.

Trattoria da Bepi before it opened, before candles and crisp tablecloths adorned the tables on the street side.

Local tiny scallops for appetizers.

Tagliatelle with claim sauce.

Jacob’s spaghetti with clams.

The seafood was amazing – simple, with butter and herbs. The appetizer, local small scallops, was tasty, as was our tagliatelle and clam sauce. We did not find adequate gelato, which I figured as much, given the abundance of tourists, so we indulged in the dolci – a lava cake for Isabella, biscotti and sweet wine for David, and an almond-chocolate cake and sweet wine for me. The meal was molto buono, and we let our appreciative server know.

Artichoke hearts in a patty.

Dessert time!

Almond-chocolate cake.

After dinner, we wandered around city streets again, something I’m quite fond of doing in any city but particularly Venezia because you never know what you’ll find (without a map, of course) – blind alley, opening to quiet residential streets or bustling shops or piazza, or a drop-off to the canal. That’s what makes strolling the city so enchanting. On our way back to our hotel, we stopped by Piazza San Marco for serenades under the near full moon.

And the band played on at Piazza San Marco.

An appreciative crowd.

The next band played their music two restaurants away from the first band on Piazza San Marco.

Another beautiful evening.

Goodnight San Marco Basin!

We had to get up early Wednesday morning to catch our flight – a water taxi straight from our hotel to the Marco Polo airport at 7:15am. David got dressed earlier and took to the streets with his camera for a last rendezvous of Piazza San Marco. All was quiet except for street cleaners and Asian brides and grooms posing for portrait photographers. David caught a fisherman casting off in San Marco Basin and docked, covered gondolas being swayed by the waters of the Adriatic Sea.

Early Wednesday morning quiet scene.

Looking across the serene San Marcos Basin early in the morning.

All’s quiet at Piazza San Marco.

As we watched the city skyline recede from our view as the water taxi whisked us away, we told the kids we’d be back again. Sooner than 18 years, but just not sure when. While I’ll admit I got only a few days of a full night’s sleep, this vacation was just what I needed. It was alternately invigorating and restful when I needed it to be.

Only early in the morning can you get a people-less view off of Piazza San Marco.

Column detail with seagull.

Best time to fish – early in the morning.

While she had a great time during the entire trip, Isabella has been anxious to get back to her rabbits and Rex. Jacob was genuinely sad for our holiday to end. While I have my novel to return to finish off with its impending August publish date as well as numerous responsibilities to attend to, I’m sad, too. I’ll admit to being tired of living out of a suitcase and I’m also anxious to return to family and friends, Rex and rabbits, the garden, and the routine of El Cerrito life, but I’m sad for this family and friends time to come to a close. It was truly a wonderful vacation that brought me back to places I’d missed and new adventures that I could never have imagined. I’m reinvigorated and understand how time is short and we must live life to its fullest, whether it be on vacation or in everyday life. But no matter where, life is around us to enjoy and celebrate. Arrivederci Venezia and Italia! I look forward to adventures at home as well as plans for our next vacation.

Good-bye Hotel Nuovo Teson.

The Dress at 50

Live the creative, meaningful, and full life

Category Archives: Arts

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Long road to Delano: A Village in the Fields comes home

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Venezia day 2: Murano glass, gondolas, and one last meal

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