News
Leadership changes for BAVC Media in 2026
We’re excited to start our 50th year with a number of changes to the BAVC Media team, with leadership changes across a number of departments that promise to take us into 2026 with renewed energy and optimism. Executive Director, Paula Smith Arrigoni: “We are so fortunate at BAVC Media to be led by a dynamic team of new and experienced staff directors. They are piloting and scaling new models and partnerships, and expanding our membership program to include more community connections. This team is all about supporting media makers to thrive as artists, workers, and engaged citizens!” Among the changes [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Reel Stories Planning Brunch
Authors: Paula Smith Arrigoni (Executive Director), Dawn Valadez (Director of Youth Programs & Artist Development), Penny Krueger (Board President) & Morgan Lewis (Project Manager, Reel Stories) On October 18th, BAVC Media’s Reel Stories team gathered with supporters of the program for brunch and strategic planning at our Oakland hub, Oakstop. Attendees included several former Reel Stories board members and foundational leaders, such as Penny Krueger (current BAVC Media board president), Niema Jordan, and Heidi Cregge Cabra, program alumnae and current interns, media teachers, parents, and women and gender-expansive filmmakers at different stages of their careers. With so much change [...]
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 [...]
Mapping the Magnetic Media Landscape report
BAVC Media-led research project supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) [This announcement was first published by Documentary Magazine on September 8, 2025] SAN FRANCISCO, CA — September 9, 2025 — BAVC Media (Bay Area Video Coalition) has published Mapping the Magnetic Media Landscape, a nationwide research study designed to learn more about the state of magnetic preservation efforts happening across the country in our archives, libraries, community organizations, and historical organizations. Co-authored by Moriah Ulinskas, Kailen Sallander (Research & Development Manager, BAVC Media), and Kelli Shay Hix. Early findings from the Mapping the Magnetic Media Landscape [...]
BAMMS 2025: Latinx Filmmaking in the Bay Area
On Sunday, August 17th, we hosted the Latinx Filmmaking in the Bay Area event at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center screening room here in San Francisco as part of the 2025 Bay Area Media Maker Summit (BAMMS). Presented by CiNEOLA and BAVC Media, the day started with a morning mixer over cafe and conchas provided by our sponsors, local Latinx-owned businesses Florecita Panadería and Excelsior Coffee. Breakfast was followed by a conversation with a panel of local filmmakers moderated by CiNEOLA founder Daniel Díaz (BAVC Media's director of marketing & audience strategy), discussing their unique perspectives and experiences making [...]
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 [...]
