Persons
Alcee H. Walker
Alcee H. Walker, an acclaimed filmmaker and founder of a film production company, Chasing My Dreams Film Group. He is known for his thought-provoking films and is committed to empowering young talents in both the film and music spheres. Holding an MFA in Social Documentary and a MPS in Directing from the School of Visual Arts, Walker has garnered recognition for his compelling work, including his award-winning documentary "Pain of Love," honored by the Directors Guild of America. His films "Inferno" and "Child Support" have also earned accolades from the DGA. Through his unfiltered storytelling, Walker tackles diverse social issues, [...]
Robert Rooy
After working as an assistant director on more than forty Hollywood productions, filmmaker Robert Rooy formed his own production company Rooy Media LLC, which has created more than fifty film and video programs that engage and educate people about important human issues. RooyMedia also provides production services for socially responsible companies, government agencies and nonprofit organizations. Deej is the story of a “smart self’s walk down freedom’s trail.” Abandoned by his birth parents, abused in foster care, and labeled “retarded,” DJ Savarese (“Deej”) found not only a loving family but also a life in words, which he types out on a text-to-voice synthesizer. Advocating for [...]
Jethro Patalinghug
Jethro Patalinghug is a filmmaker based in San Francisco, California. His film My Revolutionary Mother was cited as the best documentary film in the Philippines for 2015 by a coalition of film critics at pinyorebyu.com. It also won Best Short Documentary Film at the Boston Asian American Film Festival, Singkwento International Film Festival, and Unofficial Google Film Festival 2013 among others. Patalinghug is also an experienced television and corporate video producer and has produced content for Google, MTV Philippines, Studio23 MYX, GMA7, QTV11 and ABC5. He completed a Bachelor of Science in Film and Video Production at the Art Institute of California [...]
Nico Opper
The F Word is a docu-comedy web series that will chronicle the journey of Nico and Kristan, a queer Bay Area couple who plan to become fost-adopt parents and are committed to learning everything they can about the troubled institution on which they are staking their dreams of parenthood. Determined to dispel the pervasive idea that the kids adopted from foster care are "damaged goods", they seek out a range of people working to change the system - from social workers, therapists, judges and advocates to the true experts, former foster youth themselves, some who were eventually adopted, others who [...]
Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz
Como Vivimos is an intimate, verite portrait of a year in the lives, working experiences, and educational trajectories of farmworking families who reside in a state-subsidized Migrant Family Housing Center in French Camp, CA. Through the textures of daily and seasonal routines, the film explores how farmworking families, many of whom are US citizens, frame a stable sense of belonging while living within an institution that mandates an annual transnational migration. Aggie Ebrahimi Bazaz is an award-winning, Iranian American documentary filmmaker (Inheritance, Mama Icha's House) and educator with a history of producing work that inquires into diasporic identity and the [...]
Erika Cohn
Erika Cohn has received numerous accolades for her work, including a Director’s Guild of America award for her film, When the Voices Fade, a narrative profile of the Lebanese-Israeli war of 2006, and recent admission into the CPB Producer’s Academy. Cohn recently co-directed/produced, In Football We Trust, a feature documentary about the unique faith and culture that ultimately drives young Pacific Islander men into the NFL, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was broadcast on Independent Lens in January, 2016. In 2008, she traveled to Cambodia where she shot Giant Steps, a documentary about the restitution of art after the [...]
Bridgette Auger
We Are Not Princesses follows a group of Syrian women living in refugee camps as they put on a production of Antigone. This ancient tragic saga is slowly revealed in parallel with the women’s own confrontations with bereavement and burial but the focus remains on the women themselves, resulting in a counter-intuitive vision of what a refugee is – a human being in three dimensions. Bridgette Auger is an independent media artist and journalist strongly committed to using art for social change who has primarily worked in the Middle East for over eight years. Currently part of the creative team of [...]
Raymond Larrett
Raymond Larrett is a Multimedia Designer who lives in San Francisco. About the Show: Talk Bubble is dedicated to documenting and promoting the work of Kinetech Arts. Founded by Artistic Directors Weidong Yang and Daiane Lopes da Silva in January 2013, Kinetech Arts is a collective of artists and scientists striving to challenge possibility through collaborative creativity, creating performances that combine dance, performance, painting, and sound with the newest interactive technology to create unique and beautiful experiences. Kinetech Arts has performed at ODC theatre, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, The Garage, KUNST-STOFF Arts, L.A.S.T Festival, Geekdom, Moscone Center, and Marine Headlands Center [...]
Kiilu Nyasha
Kiilu Nyasha, a revolutionary journalist, has been in the liberation struggle since leaving the so-called War on Poverty’s pilot program in New Haven as an organizer and joining the Black Panther Party in 1969. An internationalist, Kiilu, has been active on many fronts, including the independence struggles of Africans, Asians, Haitians, Latin Americans, and Palestinians. She has also been a long time supporter of political prisoners, as well as a prison and death penalty abolitionist. About the Show: Freedom Is A Constant Struggle is a cutting-edge, bimonthly show devoted to international and domestic news and the history of liberation movements. Before moving to SF Commons, [...]
Carla Laser
Carla Laser is a UW Madison BA English Literature graduate. She earned a digital design certificate from the SF Center for Electronic Arts. Her work focuses on design media for a worldwide clientele. In 1996, Carla Laser founded the San Francisco Bicycle Ballet. It continues to thrive as a philanthropic community gem. In 2000, Carla Laser joined the SFBMA Cognition and has now published up to the 103rd issue and counting. Carla Laser began providing weekly content on her Public Access Television show, Bicycles! East Coast West Coast Bike Stuff in February 2004. Laser holds Broadcast and Final Cut editing [...]
