From the Executive Director

I have not done enough to honor Women’s History Month this year. I have not paid tribute to the individual women in my life that have changed the course of it. I plan to thank them, and my ancestors, before this month is over. The history we are living through feels like so many stories waiting to be told. We may feel silenced, our voices and bodies policed and violated, our futures replaced by the fake souls of the new AI machines, by corrupt leaders waging arbitrary wars and by former heroes revealed as violent predators. We will survive this — and the stories, the films, the songs, the performances, and the archives will all hold the truth of it. This is the work that has to be done.

Last week, I attended a gathering in my new neighborhood at the border of South Orange and Newark, NJ. Yoruba Richen’s extraordinarily powerful short film Free Joan Little was shown and Yoruba was there to talk to the crowd of neighbors, artists, activists, educators and community volunteers. The film tells the story of the 1975 murder trial of the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted for using deadly force to resist sexual assault. At 20 years old, Joan Little was incarcerated in North Carolina when she killed a white jailer who she said tried to rape her. Her trial drew national attention, becoming a rallying point for civil rights, women’s rights and prison reform. The film passionately deploys archival footage and brings it to life so urgently, it feels like breaking news and we are rapt witnesses.

As readers of this eBulletin, many of you know that the work of the Alliance is building equity, access, abundance, and cultural impact for the media arts field. We work with nonprofits, creative agencies, studios, cultural organizations, and independent filmmakers all over the world to connect powerful stories into movements for change and justice. We connect emerging technologies, programs, and resources into communities so that creative workers can build sustainable, transformative careers and lives. 

As always, now is a really good time to join the Alliance, GIVE to support the programs you love, check out the amazingness of the organizations and artists in the Alliance network, and say thank you to the women in your life who tend your spirit.

~ Wendy

wendy@thealliance.media

Notes from the Field

Women’s Video Festival: A New Wave of Feminist Media Opens at Media Burn
Media Burn has announced the opening of its Women’s Video Festival Collection. This digital exhibition features work largely sourced from the collection of Women’s Video Festival co-founder Susan Milano. The collection focuses on women media artists and documentarians working during a renaissance in the field following the increased availability of video technology in the early 1970s. Featured artists include Susan Milano, Julie Gustafson, Nancy Cain, Louise Denver, Jane Aaron, Christine Noschese, and Eleanor Boyer, with many works made publicly available for the first time.

H2O (Hip-Hop Odyssey) Community Day & Archiving Lab at Maysles Documentary Center
This Saturday, March 28th, from 1 to 6 PM, the Maysles Documentary Center in Harlem, New York will host the H2O (Hip-Hop Odyssey) Community Day & Archiving Lab. The lab features film screenings, artist talks, archival activities, and workshops. Attendees are invited to bring their own physical media to digitize. The event is presented in partnership with Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, Third World Newsreel, and The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture.