FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 25, 2008
Press Contact: Wendy Levy
(415) 558-2170

Bay Area Video Coalition Announces 2008 Mediamaker Award Winners
Four Bay Area Independent Filmmakers win $8,000 Grants

The BAVC Mediamaker Awards are competitive, in-kind grants of state-of-the-art post-production and new media services and certified training classes, awarded to independent producers each year to help them complete public media projects. These awards, valued at $8,000 each, provide the crucial resources and technical guidance needed to prepare these projects for national broadcast and multi-platform distribution.

The 2008 winners are: S. Leo Chiang for "A Village Called Versailles," Gabrielle Mullem, for "See What I'm Saying," Michele Turnure-Salleo for "The 'Free China' Junk," and Banker White for "We Own TV."

Projects were chosen by a panel including BAVC staff and: Sapana Sakya, Media Fund Director at the Center for Asian American Media, Kathryn Washington, Programming Manager for the Independent Television Service (ITVS), and Bonni Cohen, Founder of Actual Films and BAVC Board Member.

The BAVC Mediamaker Awards are funded by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, and the San Francisco Foundation.

For more than 30 years, BAVC has been a trusted source for the media arts community and a critical resource in the nation’s arts landscape, helping independent artists and arts organizations access new opportunities for making and distributing media art.  This year’s awardees:

"A Village Called Versailles" | S. Leo Chiang, Producer

"A Village Called Versailles" is a broadcast documentary about Versailles, an isolated community in eastern New Orleans originally settled by Vietnamese "boat people." In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Versailles residents rose to the challenge of being the first New Orleans neighborhood residents to return and rebuild, only to have their homes threatened by a new government-imposed toxic landfill two miles away. The film recounts the story of how this long-suffering group of people turn a devastating disaster into a catalyst for change and a chance for a new future. Leo Chiang is a member of New Day Films, and an experienced camera person and editor with numerous PBS credits.

"See What I'm Saying" | Gabrielle Mullem, Producer

"See What I'm Saying" follows a group of blind teenagers who journey to New Orleans to study with master musician Henry Butler at his Creative Music and Jazz camp. The film begins at the camp's inaugural 2003 session, and follows Henry and his campers as they use music lessons to navigate life's challenges. Gabrielle is a first-time filmmaker who studied at the Duke Center of Documentary Studies, and got field experience by working for producers she admired, including Tom Shepard on "Knocking," and Debra Koons Garcia on "The Future of Food."

"The Free China Junk" | Michele Turnure-Salleo, Producer

In 1955, five young men with no sailing experience set out to enter a yacht race in an attempt to leave Taiwan. The men find a Vice-Consul from California who issues US visas with one stipulation -- that he can film the voyage. With nothing more than an old junk boat called the "Free China," a 16mm camera, and their courage, the crew sets sail for California. After facing a host of near-deadly obstacles, the men arrive in San Francisco to a hero's welcome. "The Free China Junk" is the story of this incredible journey, as told through the first-person accounts of the aging crew members (a few have died since their interviews), and the original 1955 footage from the trip. Michele is the former Associate Director of Film Arts Foundation, Associate Producer for award-winning filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn ("Regret to Inform"), and a Television Producer at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

"We Own TV" | Banker White, Producer

The "We Own TV" project uses traditional documentary and community media approaches to tell the story of a group of teenagers, many of them ex-combatants, who have lived through the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone. "We Own TV" roughly translates in Sierra Leonean Krio to "Our Own TV." The goal of this project is to create a web portal to allow a global community of young people to explore issues such as wartime gender violence, the use of children as soldiers, the effects of being culturally and physically uprooted, and the daily trials and tribulations of refugee life. Banker White is the producer of the award-winning documentary "Refugee All-Stars." This project is the first Mediamaker Award supporting new media development and will be used for work in the Innovation Lab to support the interactive web portal, and edit and encode media for multiplatform distribution via the site.

The Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) was founded in 1976 to support freedom of expression by making advanced media technology accessible to independent media makers and nonprofits. We teach. We empower creative expression. We preserve the past. And we develop future media makers and innovators. BAVC’s mission is to be the nation's most advanced noncommercial media access and training center. Visit BAVC on-line at www.bavc.org.