AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

The Best of BAVC 2007: Creative Programming - Bay Area Video Coalition

As Director of Creative Programming, the focus of my attention is bringing the most promising stories and media makers, new media projects and video archives into the world of BAVC; and creating partnerships and programs that impact the field of public media and independent filmmaking. 2007 was a big year at BAVC, full of opportunities for artists and institutions to explore innovative approaches to new work, and creative solutions to challenges in postproduction and preservation. These programs included: Producers Institute for New Media Technologies, Mediamaker & Mediamaker Advance Awards, and the Womens HD Artist-in-Residence.

Thanks to new funding from MacArthur Foundation, and partnerships with Adobe, MobiTV, & Google, BAVC hosted nine teams of independent producers and public broadcasters in San Francisco at the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies. The experience provided resources for the development of interactive, multiplatform projects based on significant documentary programs. Projects included the PBS series Not In Our Town (Director, Patrice O’Neill), the upcoming POV documentary Calavera Highway (Renee Tajima Pena and Evangeline Griego), and the highly-anticipated CPB and LPB-funded New Muslim Cool (Jennifer Taylor). Other projects included Return (Damani Baker) a beautiful exploration of indigenous healing in Africa; Mind Games (Phillip Daniels), an inventive Canadian doc about the history and culture of video games, Frontrunner, Virginia Williams’ new project (which premiered Monday 1/21 at Slamdance) about women in Afghanistan, Paperback Dreams, an ITVS-sponsored documentary by local producer Alex Beckstead about the closing of independent bookstores; the OPB series America’s History in the Making (Sam Ward), and Unconstitutional by Nonny de la Pena, who, along with Peggy Weil, transformed her award-winning documentary into a vibrant virtual Guantanamo Bay in Second Life. Expert technical and creative mentorship was provided to the production teams – and everyone prototyped an interactive, mobile, social networking or game development project – and pitched it to industry leaders and potential funders at the Adobe theater in SF at the end of the 10-day intensive workshop. Applications for the 2008 Producers Institute are due February 1st!

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