Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Dannie Delvos, BAVC Education Recruiter

The second installment of ROHSTOFF [raw material] is almost here and BAVC’s San Francisco office is buzzing with excitement: walls are being painted, artists are working in the labs, the audio suite, the sound booth, and the innovation lab. The new flat screen TV in the lobby is being installed and artwork hung on the walls.

This Thursday, 5/15/08, from 6-8PM six Bay Area artists will present their latest video pieces, all united under the theme “Site Specific.” Rebeca Bollinger and Anthony Discenza teamed up and created a piece using BAVC’s resources over the past few weeks. Their video is also accompanied by a an installation of 22 frames in BAVC’s hallway. Visitors will be able to get very intimate with this piece, which will be shown in BAVC’s smallest room: the sound booth. (more…)

by Robert Collins, Manager, BUMP Records

Our third day in NYC allowed us to recharge….a little. We didn’t have any screenings or performances scheduled, but we did have a little networking to do. Two of the “Going on 13” funders, Chicken & Egg Pictures and Working Films, held a reception for 3 films they produced that were part of the festival. The whole crew attended and got a chance to rub elbows with some big wigs. After dinner I had to make sure I kept my promise to Ryah to take her to Times Square. Lets just say she was on top of the world!

On the fourth day, we found ourselves back in the mix. We had a short screening and performance on the agenda. We were scheduled to visit the Lower East Side Girls Club(a very cool place BTW) and have Ryah participate in their weekly performance workshop with local female musicians. The LESGC also had a private screening of the movie trailer and film shorts that were produced by the some of the young ladies in the film.

The LESGC is an awesome space where the girls learn entrepreneurship by running a cafe, can work in a multi-media lab, and learn about environmental awareness and leadership. Ryah was asked to participate in a workshop where the girls would ask questions about her performance experience and background as an artist. Ryah was joined by Eagle Nebula and Erika Rose, both of whom are well regarded independent artists. Once the talk ended it was time to ‘Rock the Mic’ as they say. As the opening artist I wasn’t sure if Ryah was nervous about her first “show” in New York City. But, like the consummate professional that she is, she stepped up to the plate and hit it out of the park.

(more…)

by Robert Collins, Manager of BUMP Records

Arriving in New York City always seems to give me goosebumps. Having been there, to many times to count, I never really know why I get so excited. Is it the anticipation of how much fun I’m GOING to have? Is it the natural energy of the city? Or, is it just my own nerves getting the best of me. Who knows, and who cares. I love New York.

I was especially excited to go on this trip because I was going to have a chance to take one of my youth(Ryah Nikole) with me. Our trip was centered around the much heralded Tribeca Film Festival. Ryah wrote, produced and performed a song for a film called “Going on 13” which was being screened at the festival and they asked Ryah to perform. I would argue that it’s one of the top 5 film festivals in the US. So, the opportunity to not only attend, but also have a chance to perform is major.

The group stayed in a really cool apartment in the lower east side not far from Soho. After arriving at the crash pad the young ladies in the group had one thing on their minds……”SHOPPING.” I won’t get in the nasty details but lets just say that Canal Street received a real dose of Bay Area swap meet negotiating skills ;).

The director/producers(Dawn & Kristy who are awesome BTW) of the film had some friends that were from NYC and hosted a BBQ in my favorite borough(BROOKLYN), so the youth got to experience the New York Subway. It was a day of firsts and it was great to know that we had so much more to experience throughout the week.

More about our trip to come soon . . .

by Alicia Schmidt, Marketing Strategist

Jennifer joins BAVC after spending the last two years earning her Master’s Degree from San Francisco State University in Women’s Studies with a focus on Performance. Prior to moving to San Francisco, she lived in San Antonio, Texas, where she attended the University of Texas. Wanting to take a break from academia, we’re thrilled that Jenn has decided to get her hands non-profit “dirty” here at BAVC. As the new Office Manager, she will be responsible for making all our office systems hum including facility and supply management, some human resource management, and a little bit of accounting thrown in for good measure. (more…)

By Mindy Aronoff, Director of Training & Resources

Does meeting director Morgan Spurlock in person help one like the movie more? Hell yes. Well, let’s put it this way: about 13 minutes into the screening at SXSW in Austin where Mr. Spurlock was in attendance, a spring thunderstorm knocked all the power out. When the lights came back on, the projectionist was having a hell of a time re-booting the digital projector, so Mr. Spurlock–oh, let’s call him Morgan, shall we?–shouted out, “drinks for everyone on me!” Sure enough, 10 uniformed ushers began passing out cold cans of Tecate to the entire theatre (thank you, Texas liquor laws).

If you saw SUPERSIZE ME, you know Spurlock has the same kind of fun Michael Moore does (but he’s a lot cuter). In this doc, which premiered at Sundance in January, he shleps us through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jerusalem and other colorful Middle Eastern sites, shoving the mic in people’s faces and querying them about bin Laden’s whereabouts like he’s asking if the food is good at Moti’s Falafel Stand.

Is the movie a joke? Not really, although I did laugh a lot. True to character, Spurlock comes across as the guy next door, an everyman who tells it like we would if we had the cajones. We see him, pre-trip, going through a rigorous faux-FBI training program aimed at teaching rookies when to duck and how to avoid being blown up into shwarma bits. It really is silly at times—outside of a Tora Bora cave he sings out “yoo hoo! Osama bin LAH-den…!” Ridiculous. But isn’t that kinda what you would want to do? (more…)

by Alicia Schmidt, BAVC Marketing Strategist

Okay, to be honest, this blog is going to be all over the place. That’s cause truthfully I can’t really wrap my head around all of this just yet, but here goes . . .

NPR recently reported that the world’s largest database on reproductive health (POPLINE, run by Johns Hopkins School of Public Health), has been blocking searches using the term “abortion” since late February.

Apparently a medical librarian at UCSF discovered the fact and contacted POPLINE. The folks at POPLINE told her that they had indeed turned “abortion” into a “stop” word – a word that is ignored by search engines – because they are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (hello George Bush?) and they cannot by law support “abortion activities.”

The UCSF librarian then complained to the POPLINE administrators AND sent out warning messages to her colleagues through a mighty librarian list-serv. After word spread, the administrators quickly restored the search term. (more…)

By Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming

With continued support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies will happen May 30 – June 8 here at BAVC in San Francisco. The new crop of projects coming into this year’s Institute are part of a documentary-driven conversation focused on finding and engaging diverse audiences, creating social and political networks of participation, the notion of global community, the viability of Web 2.0 social change, emerging mobile media applications, games for change, and interactive strategies for multi-platform storytelling.

Check out full project descriptions from the recent press release: http://bavc.org/meet/news/press_releases/pr_apr_08.htm

The first panel of the Producers Institute will be open to the public this year, and it revolves around marketing social justice media. The always dynamic and uber-literate B. Ruby Rich will moderate. I’ll follow up with details of the where and when, but here’s the panel description. We are hoping to see if its possible for change-the-world stories to expand You Tube sensibilities, to rock CreateSpace, to shock iTunes, to blow out XBOX. And, of course, we want to know if you can actually make money while making a difference?

SOURCING THE FUTURE: MARKETING AND SUSTAINABILITY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE MEDIA ONLINE

This panel discussion will unpack how documentary, advocacy, art, and entertainment fit together, how producers can catalyze and scale participation in dynamic, interactive sites that integrate with and support their long-form public media projects, and the kind of partnerships and collaborations that must be made to support this work. What is the lifespan of public media online? How do we help funders seed and sustain these projects? What should we be doing now to insure the legacy and impact of digital media and video art for the public good? In a time when audiences are supporting documentaries more than ever before, can Darfur is Dying capture the market share of Grand Theft Auto?

We also have some fantastic mentors coming this year to work with participants. Check out the newest piece by Second Life Reporter Bernard Drax. Last year, he did a great piece of reportage on the virtual Guantanamo prison we built at the Institute (actually Nonny de la Pena, Peggy Weil, and Ben Cunningham built it).

This year, he’ll be teaching machinima, talking about community building in virtual worlds, and reporting on Producers Institute projects in Second Life.

Check back here for more updates on the Institute and blog from the participants as we move forward . . .

by A. Schmidt, BAVC Marketing Strategist

Ok, I’ll admit it. When I first heard about Twitter early in 2007 from Mindy Aronoff (BAVC’s Director of Training and Resources), I thought, SO WHAT. Sigh. Here is another ridiculous waste of time created by techies looking to create a new nugget of nothing special in hopes of getting snapped up by Yahoo, Rupert Murdock or Amazon.

Mindy and Andy (her partner in crime) twittered for about two days, and then the novelty wore off. At that time, I assumed that was going to be the way of Twitter – a passing fancy that would end when everyone got tired of drunk twittering. Then came an award at 2007 SXSW, and then the stories of how the news media and even the LA Fire Department were using Twitter during the California wildfires last year to send and receive immediate emergency updates from residents and firefighters. Fine. I admit it. I didn’t get it. I was naive, thinking inside the box, refusing to jump on the bandwagon for fear of the bandwagon.

(more…)

by Angelo Sacerdote, TIMA Manager and Senior Preservation Specialist

This past March 13th, I was fortunate enough to go to the opening of California Video at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles with BAVC’s Development Director, Carol Varney.

We arrived early and were given a tour of the Getty Research Institute’s video vaults and preservation set-up by Jonathan Furmanski, who does all of the video preservation work for the Institute. About half of the exhibit came from the Getty Research Institute’s acquisition of the Long Beach Museum of Art Video Archive in 2006. Jonathan came up to BAVC around then and was given an intensive training by our former preservation specialist, Jon Selsley. Jonathan said he modeled their preservation lab after ours and used their preservation lab to work on many of the pieces in the show.

We met all kinds of people including our host, Glenn Phillip—the exhibition’s curator and senior projects specialist and consulting curator in the Department of Contemporary Programs and Research at the Institute. We also met Bill Viola and Kira Perov (whose work BAVC preserves), Skip Manning, Chip Lord and Doug Hall of Ant Farm. There was a re-creation of Ant Farm’s original video installation “Eternal Frame” which included Heather Weaver’s restoration of the video (which was featured in our preservation DVD, PLAYBACK: Preserving Analog Video). (more…)

by Connie Hwong, BAVC Grants Manager

I firmly believe that the Nintendo Wii is primarily designed to make game players look like flailing idiots. This suspicion was confirmed at the annual Game Developer’s Conference, which filled the Moscone Center this past February 18 -21 with summits, panels, tutorials, and lectures, as well as a career pavilion and an expo that allowed gaming companies to show off the latest and greatest in technophile gadgetry. There was, of course, heavy representation from large and small game companies and dot-coms from Silicon Valley and SF, as well as a surprisingly strong Canadian presence; Manitoba is heavily marketing itself as the next new Northern hub for game development studios, following in the footsteps of Quebec and British Columbia. Flashy video footage glorifying Winnipeg’s charming riverfront district, packed with grinning rollerbladers and hip café-goers (and surely shot during the only 2 weeks of the year when it’s not freezing cold) were projected everywhere. Nice try, Manitoba, but you’re not fooling me – I know my Canadian geography, and your province is the North Dakota of your country. But maybe the US’s game developers don’t know that . . .

My reasons for attending the GDC were mostly job-related: I attended part of the Serious Games Summit, a two-day mini conference that featured speakers from various universities, think tanks, government agencies, and private game development companies discussing games created around a social cause or an academic/learning environments. There was also a heated debate between academia (researchers USC and U Wisconsin-Madison) and the industry (Stormfront Studios and area/code) over whether there is an actual way to measure or evaluate what or how much people can learn from games. I saw many things and took pages and pages of notes, but for the sake of you, dear reader, I’ll spare you the full regurgitation and instead focus on a few key moments that arose during the week. (more…)