katherinepertuso@bavc.org
Celebrating BAVC Media at Big Sky 2026
Entering its 23rd year, the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival remains a vital platform for non-fiction filmmaking in the American West and is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short documentaries. The 2026 festival runs February 13-22, and we’re thrilled to be celebrating a strong lineup of films from the BAVC Media community. These projects span a wide range of stories and perspectives. Read on to learn more about the films and find details on showtimes and tickets. Wood Street *World Premiere* Directed by Caron Creighton (2024 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship project) See showtimes and get tickets ANIKOOBIJIGAN [ancestor / great-grandparent / [...]
Presenting Mapping the Magnetic Media Landscape
Research & Development Manager, Kailen Sallander, reflects on presenting Mapping the Magnetic Media Landscape at archivist conferences around the world, a fitting culmination of years of research, collaboration, and community knowledge-sharing. Today is Kailen's last day after five years at BAVC Media. We’re honored to have supported this work alongside her and are excited to share her reflections as her time with us comes to a close. Her work has strengthened BAVC Media’s impact and relationships across the media preservation landscape, and we’re excited to see her step into her next role as Grants/Institutional Funding Manager at Women’s Audio Mission (WAM). In the [...]
2025 Membership Recap
Since joining BAVC Media this spring, Membership & Programs Assistant Zander Constien has helped reshape how members connect and collaborate. Here’s a look at what changed in 2025 and what’s ahead for our members. I joined BAVC Media as the new Membership and Programs Assistant this March and I couldn’t be more proud of the work the marketing team and I have done in such a short time. This year, our membership program fostered BAVC Media's mission to serve our community of independent artists by bringing people together and sparking creativity in new and exciting ways. Though the discounts to [...]
Celebrating the 2025 BAVC MediaMaker Fellows
We can’t believe we’re already closing out the 2025 BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship! On Wednesday, December 10, friends, collaborators, and supporters gathered at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco to watch the 2025 Fellows present their films and celebrate the culmination of their time together as a cohort over 9 months. With the steadfast support of our incomparable pitch coach, Maria Santos, the fellows had their pitches dialed in. We heard from audience members that they were not only impressed by the caliber of the filmmakers' presentations but moved by the beauty and sincerity of each of the films. We’re so [...]
World Premiere of TRACES OF HOME by Colette Ghunim
Colette Ghunim, a 2020 BAVC MediaMaker Fellow, will premiere her feature documentary Traces of Home at DocNYC on Friday, November 14. The film represents the culmination of a nine-year production, exploring belonging and identity across generations. In our conversation, Ghunim reflected on the process of bringing the film to life, the importance of intentional audience outreach, and the impact of building an advisory board of more than 200 nonprofit partners. Traces of Home follows Ghunim as she joins her parents in searching for the ancestral homes they were forced to flee as children in Mexico and Palestine. What begins as [...]
2025 MediaMakers at 21st Camden International Film Festival
Earlier this month, our 2025 MediaMaker Fellows gathered at the 21st Camden International Film Festival (CIFF). Brittany Réaume, BAVC Media's Associate Director of Artist Development, shared a behind-the-scenes look at the Fellows’ time at the festival, where several MediaMaker alums also screened their work. We also caught up with Paige Bethman, director of Remaining Native, and producer Jess Epstein about their screening experience and the community-building fun run they organized around the film. Brittney’s Recap: What a special year at CIFF! Between seeing films and pitches from MediaMaker alum in packed houses, gathering with supporters and friends new and old [...]
World Premiere of LIBERTAD by Brenda Ávila-Hanna
We recently caught up with Brenda Ávila-Hanna, a 2019 BAVC MediaMaker fellow and independent filmmaker, about her film Libertad, having its world premiere at the 25th New York Latino Festival on September 17 as well as her experience as a filmmaker in the Bay Area. The documentary focuses on Alejandra’s story as an indigenous transgender woman on a lifelong quest for a safe place to call home is told through a combination slice-of-life moments shot over the course of 7 years with animated sequences based on Alejandra’s original artwork. The result is a film that doubly serves as an intimate [...]
Announcing Fall 2025 Editing Fellows in Partnership with PG&E
We're excited to announce BAVC Media’s 2025 cohort of Better Together Fellows in partnership with PG&E: Our Media Producer cohort fellows include DeAndre Waters, Arlly Abarientos and Alana Walker and our Assistant Editor cohort fellows are Kelly Chen, Lily Shannon-Sutter and Angelica Castro. Award-winning professional editors and filmmakers, Jessica Jones and Kristina Motwani, are returning as editing mentors for Fellows in this third cohort of the fellowship, and they're joined by Sean Havey and Caron Creighton who will serve as media producer mentors. A unique opportunity to build the production and post-production workforce in San Francisco, the Fellowship aims to [...]
Meet Zander Constien, BAVC Media’s Membership & Programs Assistant
Zander Constien recently joined the BAVC Media team as our Membership and Programs Assistant, where they’re helping foster meaningful connections with our members and supporting the day-to-day rhythm of our public programs. If you have any questions about membership email him at membership@bavc.org and learn more about membership here. Working alongside the Marketing Department, Zander also plays a key role in strengthening BAVC Media’s outreach and community engagement efforts. Originally from Colorado, he brings a rich background in cinema and language studies, along with hands-on experience supporting independent filmmakers at both BAVC and the Roxie Theater. When they’re not busy [...]
Remaining Native SXSW Premiere
Remaining Native follows Ku Stevens as he retraces his great-grandfather’s 50-mile escape from an Indian boarding school, a journey that explores memory, resilience, and the ongoing impact of this history on Native communities. For director Paige Bethmann, the story was personal—her great-grandmother attended a Catholic-run boarding school in New York, shaping her family’s history in ways that still resonate today. With the support of the BAVC MediaMaker Fellowship, Bethmann navigated the challenges of independent filmmaking, finding mentorship and a network of peers to help bring Remaining Native to life. In this interview, producer Jess Epstein discusses the collaborative process, the [...]
