Success Story
Now Available On YouTube: Exploring the VSW Archive – Early Video Art & Community Media in Western NY
On August 5th, 2020, BAVC Media streamed a video event with Visual Studies Workshop (VSW), and we're happy to announce that the recording is now live on YouTube! Over the last two years BAVC Media has been working with VSW in Rochester, NY to preserve their archive of early video recordings. The VSW Film and Video Collection holds more than 4,000 video tapes, many of which were made between 1970-1990 by artists, activists and collectives throughout New York State. This fascinating collection includes over 1,500 ½” open reel recordings from community access programs such as Portable Channel, SYNAPSE, [...]
Meet Leah Simon: Preservation Intern
Meet Leah Simon: BAVC Media Preservation Intern Working with BAVC Media as a preservation intern was a real treat. Coming to video preservation and digitization as a graduate student studying Folklore and archival theory, I had never worked with tape collections before BAVC Media. Not only was I able to apprentice with knowledgeable mentors like Morgan Morel, trained at the University of Michigan's Information Studies Program, or Anne Smatla who graduated from the L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, but through their mentorship, I was given the training to work with a wide range of tape material that I [...]
Interviews with former Fellows Emelie Mahdavian and Kristina Motwani about 2019 Sundance Special Jury Prize Winner “Midnight Traveler”
When the Taliban puts a bounty on Afghan director Hassan Fazili’s head, he is forced to flee with his wife and two young daughters. Capturing their uncertain journey, Fazili shows firsthand the dangers facing refugees seeking asylum and the love shared between a family on the run. Emelie Mahdavian was a 2017 BAVC Mediamaker Fellow when “Midnight Traveler” was in production. The film won a Special Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Emilie, what is your our role/credit on the film? Producer/Writer/Editor How did you come to tell this story? Hassan Fazili and I met through [...]
An Interview with Jacqueline Olive: Director, Producer, & Writer of “Always in Season,” Winner of a Sundance 2019 Special Jury Prize
In the small town of Bladenboro, NC, seventeen-year-old Lennon Lacy, was found hanging from a swing set on August 29, 2014. Despite inconsistencies in the evidence, local officials quickly ruled Lennon’s death a suicide, but his mother, Claudia, believes Lennon was lynched. ALWAYS IN SEASON explores the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects this form of racial terrorism with racial violence today. At the height of their popularity, lynchings attracted thousands of white men, women, and children spectators. They were public events, complete with souvenirs and photographs. Train seats were even specially reserved [...]
Meet Emmanuel Te: Preservation Intern
At BAVC Media Preservation, I gained experience in video conversion of older video formats. I learned the basics in how to maintain playback equipment and handle client's tapes, document conversion progress on SalesForce, work with time based correctors to set audiovisual levels to maintain original video quality, and spot errors during quality control. While at BAVC Media, I always felt like I was working and walking among “living history,” at times flavored with some San Franciscan culture. Though the physical tapes and the equipment used to transfer them are still playable now, they are slowly moving towards their eventual obsolescence. [...]
Meet BAVC Media Student Danielle Bezalel!
Meet BAVC Media Student Danielle Bezalel!
Danielle Bezalel graduated from UC Berkeley (go bears!) in 2014 with a degree in Film and Media and a minor in Education. She's passionate about making media that matters, singing on stage with her band Happnstance, eating lots of chocolate, traveling the world, getting fit, and cracking jokes with her 18 year old brother. Email her at daniellebezalel@gmail.com to hear more about her story and to get involved with Sex Ed with DB!
Preservation Access Program Client: CET Films
Written by: Hannah Franklin, Preservation Department Intern, Summer 2017 My summer internship with BAVC Media’s Preservation Access Program has been a challenging yet incredibly rewarding experience. My tasks have centered around the digitization of works from the Center for Educational Telecommunications (CET), a small cultural heritage institution based in Berkeley, California. Now known as CET Films, the Center is a non-profit organization responsible for producing and distributing educational films, focusing on Asian American history. PAP is made possible by the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This year, CET Films has submitted [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz
Around 4am on the morning of December 12, 2016, nearly 30 men, women and children were swaddling themselves in their warmest winter shawls, preparing hot beans and hot cocoa, and scooping up candles, toddlers, and guitars to step out into the Central Valley pre-dawn frost to honor Our Lady of Guadalupe. A few miles north, at a hotel in the center of Stockton, two filmmakers had traveled a distance to line up their batteries and SD cards, slip on their coats, and map their way in the dark to the Artesi II Migrant Family Housing Center to record this ritual. For me. And I, 3,000 miles away, was [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Kevin D. Wong
The truth is, I was about ready to give up on the project when I was accepted to the BAVC Mediamaker Fellowship program. I had spent the previous year and a half submitting to funder after funder and the seemingly endless stream of "No's" was taking it's toll on me. Three days before the applications were due I got home from a job that had run into overtime, opened my computer to the half completed application and thought to myself “why bother? It’s just going to be another no.” I knew that I was going to be on a shoot [...]
2016 National MediaMaker: Jethro Patalinghug
I applied for BAVC Media’s MediaMaker Fellowship full of doubts that I would ever be picked. I had previously applied for grants and fellowships and had been rejected by all of them. I thought it might have something to do with my ethnicity: I’m Filipino. But I continued to apply. Navigating the filmmaking process is a very daunting and isolating experience. I really needed support, whether it was through funding or mentorship. I didn't have anyone to talk to about my film. I didn't have the necessary critical feedback that could bring my skills to the next level. I found [...]
