How do we (re)define Impact? What can Impact look like through a lens of cultural strategy, political education and the various ways documentary film/storytelling can inspire and catalyze change? This 5-part Impact Speaker Series will explore different strategies of Impact — narrative shift, youth and grassroots organizing, policy change, healing justice — and act as a prelude to the launch of A-Doc’s inaugural Impact Fellowship program. The Impact Speaker Series will provide the A-Doc network with a shared understanding and analysis of how film and storytelling can support and create social change for our communities. Watch the playbacks below!
By: Neha Aziz
Impact Speaker Series #1: Narrative Shift / Cultural Change
How does film fit within the larger ecosystem of social justice, cultural strategy, and structural change? How can we leverage storytelling to support on-the-ground work that is already happening on many different levels and fronts? At the intersection of political organizing and narrative creation, this session will provide a deeper analysis of how we can position our cultural production alongside current movement work.
Join Adamu Chan (WHAT THESE WALLS WON’T HOLD), Ligaiya Romero (THE ARGUS PROJECT, BECOMING THE MOON), and Color Congress’s Sonya Childress for this discussion.
Impact Speaker Series #2: Youth and Grassroots Organizing
What are the ways that film can further engage and inspire the leaders of tomorrow? How can our work center and cultivate the next generation of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) leaders? This session will focus on the belief that power emanates from the ground up, led by youth and grassroots organizers.
Join Bhawin Suchak (Youth FX, OUTTA THE MUCK) and Jessica Jin (COME & TAKE IT) in a conversation moderated by Kalani Van Meter (Asians 4 Abolition, animator at School of Visual Arts).
Impact Speaker Series #3: Policy Change
How can we better advocate and challenge policies and structures that perpetuate harm and discrimination for our communities? How can film be a catalyst towards systemic change? This session will focus on ways that we can leverage our efforts towards elected officials and lawmakers to create policy change.
Join Wynton Wong in conversation with Amritpal Kaur (Undocumented Filmmakers Collective), Yin Q (FLY IN POWER) and Natalie Pattillo (AND SO I STAYED).
Impact Speaker Series #4: AAPI Movements Past and Present
In the current moment of anti-Asian rhetoric and AAPI hate, how can we reflect on movements and leaders who’ve helped pave the way forward for our current work? When we think about creating impact within AAPI communities, whose voices do we need to include to create an intergenerational, international dialogue? This session brings a historical materialist analysis to a discussion about our past, present and future.
Join Rohan Zhou-Lee (Blasian March) in conversation with Betty Yu (Chinatown Art Brigade, CAAAV), Sanjna Selva (CALL ME ANYTIME, I’M NOT LEAVING THE HOUSE), and Suneil Sanzgiri (GOLDEN JUBILEE, LETTER FROM YOUR FAR-OFF COUNTRY).
Impact Speaker Series #5: Healing Justice / Collective Liberation
As our AAPI community seeks to combat generational trauma, exceptionalism and the model minority myth – there is a lot of healing that our AAPI community can lean on one another to support and acknowledge. This session will center the AAPI perspective in the ways that we are working together to heal and build community both across the Asian diaspora as well as with other communities through solidarity, transformative justice, and collective liberation.
Join Jaime Sunwoo (SPECIALLY PROCESSED AMERICAN ME) in conversation with Andrew Nadkarni (BETWEEN EARTH & SKY), So Yun Um (LIQUOR STORE DREAMS) and Geeta Gandbhir (THROUGH OUR EYES).
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