2/21/2016

Sunday Feb 21th

SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT

Attendees

• Gerald
• Dennis
• Kwaku
• Liz
• Anka
• Angel
• Dre
• Josh
• Shirah
• Bryan

Announcements and cool stuff

Gunshots on Shattuck last night

First of all, here is the official communiqué to the neighbors about the incident last night:

   Hi all, We are writing to inform everyone that at approximately 11pm Saturday 2/20, shots were fired at the intersection of 48th & Shattuck, outside of the Omni Commons community resource center. As far as we know at this time, no one was struck, but at least one car on the corner was hit. The incident occurred at the end of an alcohol-free, family-run birthday party hosted in our community ballroom. There was no violence at the event itself or inside the building, and security personnel were present. As a community center established for the purpose of uniting Temescal and Oakland at large, we are committed to the safety and well-being of our community and our neighborhood. To this end we'd like to hold a neighborhood meeting to discuss issues of safety in the community, on Sunday 2/28, at 7pm in our ballroom at 4799 Shattuck Ave. In the interim, if anyone has any questions or concerns, please reach out to: neighbors@omnicommons.org

Some emails that need responding to

   Hey all! My name is Emilytricia and I am a coordinator at H.O.M.E.Y. (Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth). I just realized that we are both screening Black Power mixtape but about 2 weeks apart. Our youth chose to do this movie not only in honor of black history month, but to help them fund-raise for their first ever snowboarding trip. Luckily SkiDuck is an organization that focuses on providing the snowboarding experience for free to low-income and at risk youth.  I was wondering if you could show us some support on your event page and share our event so that those that are not able to attend your event could come support the youth. We would love to do the same, despite the short notice and coming across your event tonight. Here is our event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1055742437797261/ Just an fyi we have to raise about $1000 more to help us cover the lodging, transportation, and food costs.

Response?

• They seem legit. Jenny already added it to our event page, let's add it to the .announce email. Perhaps there will be opportunity for collaboration later.

   Hey film folks! Some Omni volunteers met with the new director of the Temescal BID the other week, and she mentioned that they're looking for someone(s) to take over organizing for the annual Temescal Street Cinema this summer. Is this something folks in Liberated Lens might be interested in doing? http://www.temescalstreetcinema.com/ Let me know and I can put you in touch with Shifra <3 Jenny

Response?

• Big responsibility, but also opportinity for development and meeting neighbors.
• Lead up to our FTP festival?
• It would be cool but a lot of work
• Get our name out further and expand our audience
• We might get a budget for it
• We have to be realistic. Logistically, may not be a good time
• If we can't fully commit as a group, do we know any other people who could help handle the work load?
  • Shirah does, but she needs more information
• Does this pertain to our mission statement?
  • Taking over a street to show movies seems up our alley
• Anka attended a few years ago, was not impressed by the lineup. If it's just for promoting Temescal businesses, she's not interested. We could change the direction of the festival

We can still email them and get more information. Questions to ask:

• Permitting issues?
• Do we get a budget?
• Are there sponsors? Who finds them?
• Communication lines for promotion?
• Who determines the programming? Can we change the focus?
• Can we use it to promote and raise funds for Liberated Lens?

Film nights

Look into incorporating other arts, like live music, art showings.

Reportback on Feb 16th: Black Power Mixtape.

• ≈30 non-LLC folks attended
• $103.80 in donations
• ≈10 sign-ups for the .announce list
• Kwaku and Dre facilitated some discussion afterwards
• We talked about showing Dennis' interview but on second thought, we'd like to finesse it some more with b-roll, music

Feb. 23rd: Skin. Who can attend?

• Set-up at 5:30: Liz, Angel, Gerald, Anka
• Foodstuffs: No food
• Clean-up: Bryan,
• Lead discussion? Kwaku
  • Lets get the wireless mic going then
• Bring in music? -(Dre)

Next month: Films by women

• What Happened Miss Simone? We need to get a copy, or stream it. Ramifications of screening a Netflix special at a public event? Risk of pissing off Netflix?
• Consensus: no blocks! Let's show it

Other suggestions for later:

• womeninfilm.org has a list of 52 films by women
• Fundi was suggested. Here is a description:

 FUNDI: THE STORY OF ELLA BAKER reveals the instrumental role that Ella Baker, a friend and advisor to Martin Luther King, played in shaping the American civil rights movement. The dynamic activist was affectionately known as the Fundi, a Swahili word for a person who passes skills from one generation to another. By looking at the 1960s from the perspective of Baker, the "godmother of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," FUNDI adds an essential understanding of the U.S. civil rights movement. [ http://icarusfilms.com/cat97/f-j/fundi45.html ]

• Anna Mae Aquash: documentary about her murder and the corruption between Hollywood and the American Indian movement. May need more research
• 3 Laura Poitras films: Citizen Four, <two other films>
• Biography of Rosa Luxembourg
• A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
• Persepolis

Other suggestions by audience members:

• Marcus garvey film
• Winter on Fire

TBD: When Justice Isn't Just

• Shirah will let us know when the director is in town so he can attend

TBD: The Waiting Room

• Bryan will let us know when the director is available, sometime in March or April

Liberty Hall

Reportback on their open house yesterday:

• Gerald and Liz attended
• They have a top-notch studio: estimated $5 million in mostly new gear that got donated to them. You won't find a setup like this outside of a mainstream television station. It's a very special resource
• They are looking for more volunteers and knowledgable film-folks
• Recommend that we organize a field trip to meet them, see the place, think about ways to collaborate
  • PICK A DAY: when2meet.com

Seeds of Struggle

Gail's request: an edited promo piece (00:30 to 01:00) for Freedom Farmer's Market. Does anyone have the time or interest to volunteer?

• We have her interview, we can use that to storyboard some b-roll to grab at a farmer's market.
• It would be good practice!
• Kwaku would like to be involved
• We have some photos, Liz will edit in AFX
  • Email: Anka, Kwaku, Gerald, Liz (add Dennis)

She also needs a trailer cut for her film, Rhythms of the Land.

• Gerald: We should jump at opportunities to work with local artists. I would certainly like to help with that.
• Anka: Trailers are a lot of work. It'd be great to work
• Kwaku: I would like to learn how to edit a trailer, and this is a good project to start on.
• When to work: Ask for Gail's availability, we need to work with her on the footage. email: jpmyers@farmstogrow.com
  • We also need to set a deadline

Next brainstorming session: Set a regular schedule - Friday nights 7pm. Followed by Karaoke!! Discuss crafting the story - Input from Shirah:

• Hey guys are we going to put something on the calendar for sitting down and hatching out the structure of the story and what information we hope to cull from the interviews?
• Additionally, I think in terms of focusing on the struggle of the bay area black food movement itself (as Dennis mentioned last week), some interesting people to interview would be Policylink's founder, Angela Glover Blackwell, and to discuss how to build a movement would be Alicia Garza, one of the founders of Black Lives Matter.

Reportback from editing & visioning session last Monday (Feb. 13):

• Liz, Dennis, Josh, Bryan attended.
• We re-ordered Mr. Scott's interview, trying to create a narrative that flows
• Bryan recommended a book called Documentary Storytelling: Creative Nonfiction on Screen, by Sheila Curran Bernard. It looked really good!
• Liz did some more technical fudging. Everything is now consolidated into one project file.
• We might want to re-do several sequences that were created in the wrong video resolution (they are 1440x1080 instead of 1920x1080, which means they're being cropped and they will require extra rendering when we drop them into other sequences of the proper resolution)

• Note to any editors: I'm not sure that nesting the synchronized sequences is what we want to do. For now I would recommend syncing and editing for content within the same sequence.

Internal operations

Workshops and equipment

Next budget/workshop meeting: Before Sunday meeting, at 5pm

   * Kwaku, Gerald, Angel, Brian, Dennis, Anka, Liz, Josh

To discuss at that meeting -

• Liz has been researching equipment again, starting a fourth draft of a budget here: [ https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U0badoGK9nqwJLwG9v-2o3Uz2CM2zIgAkaRzDJp-09c/edit?usp=sharing ]
• How to get equipment donated, discounted from sellers
  • Brainstorm other approaches to giving the workshops
  • Look up places we could advertise. See google doc: [ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TSC3ZiPJtGA8CfRnCLvxRmRwkhfy2WIXVe6kOVCQ8NY/edit ]
  • Research other film courses and see what they offer, what we could offer that's different
    • BAVC
    • Berkeley Community Media
    • Bryan Gibel's classes
    • OWH Studio

Finances

• Cash box: $425.36
• Savings: $90.01
• Checking: $4,592 (double check)

Action items

• Flyers for What Happened Miss Simone? ready by this Tuesday (Anka)
• update Patxu OS (Liz)
• email .announce list!
  • Include HOMEY event
• Respond to HOMEY
• Email Birdhouse
• When2meet for Liberty Hall field trip
• Email Gail about trailer
• Respond to Jenny about Temescal Street Cinema with questions
• Friday Nights at 7pm: SOS work and karaoke
• Sunday meetings at 5pm: discuss equipment and workshops
• Get a working printer by any means necessary... >_>