A Conversation on Collaboration
for BIPOC Filmmakers in the Bay Area
“It's rare and precious to actually explore and create in a BIPOC community…
to me it was like medicine for a lot of the white supremacy culture,
which we do find even in independent filmmaking.”
- Kirthi Nath, filmmaker
The Bay Area is home to diverse communities but also the institutional imbalances that continue to affect those who are marginalized. How do BIPOC documentary filmmakers navigate these challenges?
We spoke with Re-Present Media director Jennifer Crystal Chien and filmmaker Kirthi Nath to discuss Re-Present Media’s work and how to build support for BIPOC filmmakers in the Bay Area.
Re-Present Media is an organization whose purpose is to humanize media representations of underrepresented communities through a focus on personal stories from those communities in documentary film and nonfiction media.
Kirthi Nath is a filmmaker who participated in Re-Present Media’s Re-Take Oakland program and is currently working on Paramita, a poetic personal documentary bearing testament to the story of Prajna Paramita Choudhury, a first generaton queer South Asian American woman, as she comes out to her family and steps onto a spiritual journey that embodies Buddhist liberation practices, earth based mysticism and connection to nature as a pathway for collective healing.
Filmmakers Collaborative SF is proud to serve as the fiscal sponsor for Re-Present Media and Paramita.
How did Re-Present Media start?
Jennifer: Re-Present Media was founded in 2017 by myself and another woman of color filmmaker in Oakland. Our work came out of a group of women of color who started meeting to support each other around our documentary film projects. We realized that a number of us were working on films that had to do with personal storytelling, which is not just films about our own lives or stories, but can just be the personal stories of people in communities that we relate to—stories of individuals and families that aren't social issue focused films.
What kind of programming does Re-Present Media do?
Jennifer: In 2019, we started Re-Take Oakland, a two year program to mentor and provide professional development for emerging BIPOC filmmakers. We focus on some communities that we felt were underrepresented in media: Asian Americans, queer people of color and people of mixed race. We wanted to make sure it was a place-based program, so everyone had to live in the Bay Area or work in the Bay Area and then also have a specific connection to Oakland in particular.
Kirthi, can you tell us about yourself and your relationship with Re-Present Media?
Kirthi: I like to position myself as a queer South Asian American woman of color filmmaker. I think the positionality matters because it informs the kinds of stories I'm interested in, the way I tell stories and the ways I don't tell stories. A lot of my films merge from these multiple roots of artistic practices that have the foundation of collaboration, uplifting marginalized voices and art as activism. I'm actively engaging the living question of what does decolonized women of color feminist storytelling look like? I was part of Re-Present Media’s inaugural fellowship in 2019. The COVID pandemic started during our fellowship.The structure of the program was intimate and immersive to begin with, and being connected to community was like a lifeline when there was so much isolation and adaptation in that first pandemic year.
Why do BIPOC filmmakers have a need for the type of programming that Re-Present Media offers?
Jennifer: I think there's a need for programs like the ones that we develop because of a couple things. One is that our professional development is place based, so that means that it develops a geographically connected cohort of people. There's a strength in the proximity of having community members who are actually physically, tangibly nearby and connected to each other. That actually comes out of the model of the group of women who formed some of the ideas that helped to create Re-Present Media. The connections that we formed over meeting and connecting with each other in person was a really powerful thing to help collaboration.
The other thing is that I think that there are a lot of programs that do professional development, but don't necessarily have all the people who are guest speakers, mentors, and other people who are working with a filmmaker, come from underrepresented communities. So it's really about trying to model for people that whatever skill or expertise you're trying to develop, there's somebody who is connected to your community or who can relate to your community who has done it before you. It's so powerful for people to see people like themselves who have accomplished and achieved a lot and moved on to that next level.
Kirthi: It's rare and precious to actually explore and create in a BIPOC community. I feel this invites the experience and representation of what is possible and also offers some respite from being in a white-centering culture, even if for a moment. We can have different kinds of conversations and also have different ways of being supported for what we need. I found that incredibly powerful and also to me it was like medicine for a lot of the white supremacy culture, which we do find even in independent filmmaking—where it's not just about having a person of color tell a story, because they can be telling it with a white-centering lens.
Even in BIPOC communities and institutions, there's a certain kind of gatekeeping of what qualifies someone as 'successful' and I feel like this was a really important space that helped disrupt a little of that. There was room for what we feel is our own success. We had access to mentors and that was an invaluable resource, because sometimes you're feeling overwhelmed with your project and it means so much to have someone who gets your project and is like, “I see your vision and I'm here with you.”
How do you think your identity has impacted your relationship to filmmaking? What kind of obstacles has it presented?
Jennifer: As Kirthi was saying, if you're a filmmaker who's not working within the context of the white dominant narrative, it's really difficult to actually get support for your work. In the documentary field, there's this perspective on what stories are important to tell so that has a huge influence on not only what's seen, but what gets made. If you want to tell different narratives, it's going to be really difficult to get that story out there.
Kirthi: I always say that if we want to change our culture, we have to change our stories and who tells the stories matter. I'm working on a film titled Paramita right now, and it centers a South Asian woman and her coming out story, but it's also her spiritual story. And in this case it’s leaning back to ancestral practices of Buddhism and earth based practices. It's baffling and frustrating that there are multiple well-funded films about Yoga and/or Buddhism, featuring white teachers and it's mostly white people speaking. The erasure of South Asian people and appropriation of our ancestral traditions runs deep and is systemic. I find it again and again, white people get the funding to tell our stories. My traditions have been appropriated and then sold back to me by white people. It's sad that my film is radical because it features a South Asian woman. We're open to people like Chantal Akerman or Chris Marker, but for me to tell a poetic, lyrical story, some people will say, “I don't get it.”
Because there are these obstacles and gatekeeping, how have you had to adapt as an underrepresented filmmaker?
Kirthi: I have to be someone who's very resourceful and make certain choices with the resources I have. In the Re-Take program, we had access to some limited production funds, which I invested in hiring a sound designer. Jennifer gave me the advice that the sound design could make a significant difference and impact on my work sample. Previously, I had applied for a grant that I had gotten close to every time and for a combination of reasons, I got it this year. Also, as a filmmaker, I have to look at my time and energy as a resource and know that I'm not gonna run after every grant. If they do not know how to see someone like me, it's not worth my energy and time.
Jennifer: The most practical thing I would say is that it helps to understand what generates revenue in the documentary industry and what doesn't, even though that may not be fair or equitable. It helps to be realistic about what kinds of support and revenue a film can generate and then making a plan accordingly. It can be frustrating and disappointing not to get certain types of recognition or support in the industry, but it’s important to not let that be a reason why people's stories can't be told. Resources aren’t just money, it’s other people, so having a community of people that we can rely upon and turn to who understand our work is a huge resource.
What are your thoughts on being a filmmaker in the Bay Area specifically?
Jennifer: It's definitely a challenge because people need to make sure that their basic living expenses are covered, which is a practical concern. It makes it difficult to have time and energy to be able to do other things that maybe aren't the primary source of your income. The other thing is that the Bay Area doesn't have some of the same institutions and stronger industry connections as in other regions. It makes it much more difficult if you don't have access to very specific and limited opportunities here to really be able to develop your connections in your career. It's also kind of a circular problem because if people get really successful, they generally tend to leave for LA or another area that is more connected to the larger film industry. But I think the beauty of the Bay Area is that people stay for other reasons. They stay because they believe in the values, the culture here of many cultures, and the different communities.
Kirthi: Speaking as someone who's been in the Bay Area more than half my life, I would say that maybe the film scene is catching up to my experience in some of the other communities. I feel like I'm seeing tiny steps of change, like saying white supremacy is not too scary to say anymore. I gravitate towards spaces where people are ready for transformational work. It comes back to why a program like Re-Take is so important.
What do you think the Bay Area needs more of?
Jennifer: We have this concentration of billionaires here and people who have privileges. If you have a lot of privileges or advantages or at least more than other people that you see around you, consider giving your time, money and resources to people who have less in a substantial way. I think if we had more of that kind of generosity of spirit and giving, that in itself could transform the Bay Area film industry.
Kirthi: There are ways where we can be more progressive and revolutionary and I think the film community can also step up that kind of innovation. There are communities and filmmakers that are reimagining and reclaiming how success is defined. It doesn't have to just be premiering at this festival or that one. To make a difference in someone's mindset or with and within a community, however small or large, is also really powerful and sometimes that's undervalued.
Jennifer: Back in the day, when film was an incredibly expensive endeavor, the people who had the most wealth and privilege were the ones who were able to do it. That is the foundation of the entire documentary industry even here in the Bay Area. So there's a legacy to that and if people want to change that legacy, they have to think about their positionality in relation to that.
Kirthi: It'd be really dreamy if there were funding to pay a BIPOC filmmaker who has experience to mentor someone who is still traversing a certain phase of the journey. Oftentimes there’s this idea of helping out someone who's younger or newer, but that doesn't mean someone who's been in the industry for a while doesn't need support too. If someone's had to produce their projects on a shoestring or self-funded budget, they can use support also.
Jennifer: Yes, it shouldn’t always be about helping young people because filmmakers can be in the middle of their career and still be struggling. There are people who are BIPOC and who come from tremendous wealth, so it's not strictly about race, but it’s important to keep in mind that there is a disproportionate amount of people of color who are financially at a multi-generational disadvantage.
What’s your advice for other underrepresented filmmakers?
Kirthi: Find the relationships where you can mutually bolster each other up. Find people to be in community with, where you can really support each other—whether it's with a pep talk or having someone who gets your vision so when you feel down, you can remind each other, “Hey, you've got this, your vision's important.” Also, to figure out what it means to not just have good intentions, but to work together and to create better circumstances for people working in film.
Jennifer: Remember that people get into documentary because they want to have some positive impact on the world, whether it's with people, the environment, or a social issue they care about, which is not the case for every type of work in every industry. The reality is that there are things that are inequitable or problematic in the industry, but I try to put my attention and energy into the fact that people choose to work in documentaries because we all want to do something positive in the world.
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