katherinepertuso@bavc.org
Meet Jhesie Mungues: Community Media Intern
This summer, we were thrilled to welcome Jhesie Mungues as our Community Media Intern. Jhesie is double majoring in Media Production and Business Administration with a concentration in Entrepreneurship, and brought his interests in media and sports to his work with us. During his time at BAVC Media and SF COMMONS, he helped build our new podcast studio, which we’ll be sharing more about soon. Jhesie brought curiosity, creativity, and a great attitude to everything he worked on. He somehow made building a podcast studio look easy! We loved having him on the team and are looking forward to seeing [...]
Meet Sophie Mayer: Preservation Intern
It’s no secret that there exists a deep well of personal and cultural memory, carried by tape and film, that is quickly vanishing to time. What may be less clear to most, however, is how to navigate the complex, grueling, often costly path to learn the necessary skills of preservation. New York University’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program (MIAP) has partnered with BAVC Preservation for several years to offer students the opportunity to discover, develop, and refine these skills at our lab in San Francisco. This summer, we had the pleasure of welcoming Sophie Mayer as our Preservation Intern. [...]
BAVC Media at IDA’s Getting Real
Earlier this summer, members of the BAVC Media team, including Paula Smith Arrigoni, Executive Director, Jin Yoo-Kim, Co-Director of the MediaMaker Fellowship, Dawn D Valadez, Director of Workforce & Artist Development, and Tim Lake, Director of Preservation, had the opportunity to attend IDA’s Getting Real conference in Los Angeles. As an Industry Partner for Getting Real, BAVC Media joined documentary filmmakers and nonfiction storytellers from across the field for a week of conversations, learning, and connection. Throughout the conference, attendees had several opportunities to connect with our team, including Ask an Archivist, where Tim Lake met with attendees for free [...]
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 / [...]
