katherinepertuso@bavc.org
BAVC Media at Sheffield DocFest 2026 with Dawn Valadez
Last month, Dawn Valadez, BAVC Media Director of Workforce & Artist Development, traveled to Sheffield DocFest, one of the world's leading documentary film festivals. Her latest film, Querida Fátima, co-directed with Rodrigo Reyes as part of Colectiva Varinia, screened for international audiences. While there, Dawn also represented BAVC Media's MediaMaker Fellowship at the MeetMarket, connecting with emerging filmmakers, funders, and industry leaders from around the world. We caught up with Dawn after the festival to hear about the projects and conversations that stood out, the advice she has for filmmakers attending the MeetMarket, and how the connections made at Sheffield [...]
From U-matic Tapes to the Big Screen: Preserving Lavender Lounge Archives
Earlier this summer, the BAVC Media Preservation team attended the Frameline50 screening of Here, Queer, and On TV. The documentary short explores the legacy of Lavender Lounge, a San Francisco public access television show that aired throughout the 1990s. This groundbreaking queer variety show captured everything from dance parties to San Francisco's first Dyke March and the first official Pride video. As part of the project, BAVC Preservation Director Tim Lake digitized the show's original U-matic tapes, helping ensure this remarkable archive could be preserved for future generations. After digitizing the Lavender Lounge archive, Tim reflects on how this preservation [...]
Meet Meru Sharma: Reel Stories Program Manager
Meet Meru Sharma, BAVC Media's newest team member and Reel Stories Program Manager. Meru is a South Asian filmmaker and educator from Mexico City, currently based in Oakland, CA. They have an MFA in Social Documentation from UC Santa Cruz and a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from DePauw University. As a Teaching Artist, Meru develops and leads media arts enrichment and after-school programming for youth in the Bay Area. Their background in artist support includes work with the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Producers Program, where they contributed to the 2023 Feature Film Producers Lab and Summit as an intern. [...]
IMAG Re-Granting to the Field 2026
This May 2026, BAVC Media re-granted $10,000 to regional independent media initiatives across the US. A call for proposals was issued to members of the Independent Film & Media Arts Group (IMAG) to redistribute $10,000 in support of organizations across the national indie media field. Sixteen proposals were selected. “We were so thrilled to hear from recipients of our 2025 contracts about the incredible projects they worked on. We knew we wanted to do what we could to continue supporting small regional projects across our network, making it an ongoing part of the IMAG initiative, even if we had to [...]
Bay Area Premiere of WOOD STREET Directed by Caron Creighton
Caron Creighton's (BAVC Media 2024 MediaMaker Fellow ) feature documentary, Wood Street, is having its Bay Area premiere at the 25th San Francisco Documentary Festival at the Roxie Theater on Sunday, May 31. The screening is currently sold out, but follow Wood Street on Instagram to stay updated on new screenings. The film follows a year in the life of Oakland’s largest unhoused encampment as residents fight against an imminent eviction threatening to dismantle their community. Told through immersive verité, the documentary captures the urgency, resilience, and emotional toll of collective resistance through the experiences of John and LaMonté. Their [...]
50th Anniversary Gala – Thank you from Paula Smith Arrigoni
Dear Friends of BAVC Media, Last Wednesday was an epic milestone for us. We celebrated BAVC Media’s 50th anniversary with many of you at SOMArts! It felt like a big warm family reunion - with supported artists, staff, board members, students, interns and apprentices, and supporters from across the generations. People who took their first class, got their first grant, learned their craft, and got their foot in the door, at BAVC. Clay Go, Media Specialist, helped kick off the evening with a video recounting BAVC's legacy that remixed a 1980’s era video, with one from today. It captures how [...]
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 [...]
