Screening: Works by the Winter 2024 Cohort!

Media makers from the Winter 2024 cohort are sharing their work with us at this screening. Join us to celebrate their work and watch projects from Portland's next wave of filmmakers!

Featuring:

• Jiayang Li — Hunpo: Ancient Non-Material Consciousness System

Jiayang, also known as Guada, loves discussing deep, key, yet fun terms of Chinese philosophy and medicine. She has noticed that people's thoughts are often constrained by the languages they use. The Chinese language, with its thousands of years of continuity, has developed a unique non-dual system of nouns that enriches understanding of both the macrocosmos and microcosms.

This video is a small part of her series on Funky Chinese Medicine and the process of after-death. By understanding Hun and Po, you will gain deeper insights into our bodies, the human experience, and the after-death process. She believes that these videos will help more people find their roots and inner enthusiasm in this real but illusory world.

• Kim Hill — Downtown Portland - Today’s Crisis or Beautiful Metropolis

Documentary examining downtown Portland, Oregon in 2024. Are the effects of the pandemic still with us? Who are the people who live and work within its confines? What is the downtown crisis really about? Is there a way forward that provides dignity for its citizens, housed and otherwise?

• Svetlana Dedova — Friends of Refugees

An inspiring short video about a nonprofit organization «Friends of Refugees» which aims to help refugees. I want to tell the audience about its goals and discover the opportunities to become a part of this undertaking and help people who were forced to leave their motherland to find themself in the local community. Simultaneously, it’s important to spread the information among the refugees about their options for getting adopted in Oregon and being smoothly involved in a new life.

• Bre DePriest/Midnite Melons — Forgotten Fables

Our project is about pain - physical, bodily pain and intergenerational trauma. About the reality of dispossession, and the hope of rematriation for marginalized groups. We have seen land and culture stolen time and time again - this film will also explore how we can take back what has been taken.

• Simon Sotelo — WFTDA Video Rulebook: Facilitating > Enforcing

Roller derby's rules are complex and require interpretation when penalty calls arise. The resource that everyone relies on is a dense rule book that lacks substantial visual aids. Even seasoned referees are uncertain of rules and procedures because written descriptions are both complicated and ambiguous. This failure to leverage new media for instruction means that roller derby is less accessible and inclusive. People who might otherwise be great referees are intimidated by obtuse rule books that cannot offer what a detailed video course could.

• Bethlehem Daniel — God Created Everyone

My close friend is a brilliant DIY journalist who was born and raised in Nensebo, Ethiopia. She grew up ina a coffee farmer family. She is now the part owner of Vision Entertainment, a music video production company from Ethiopia, but is overshadowed by the male dominance and misogyny in the company’s culture. She has a whole bunch of cool footage , particularly interviews, on various topics, from religion, harvesting food, marriage, and even an interview of a man’s underground hotel that he dug himself over the last 25 years. I really want to introduce her as a journalist and an artist through a short film. She has this beautiful ASMR reminiscent type of voice and lovely footage of the homeland. We have a lot of ideas for collaborating, as I am Eritrean, to heal interethnic ties through film work that is centered around the horn of a africa. We want to translate in multiple languages of the region rather than just English, including Somali, Amharic, and Tigrinya.

• Kipp Kruger — The Bridge

Skateboarders have traditionally been outcasted, Burnside skatepark is open to all populations and often blends with much of the houseless community. It highlights how skateboarding brings people together regardless of social class, etc.

• Yolanda Clay — The Heights of Advocacy

In a world where weight and self-worth are often tandem measured, Advocacy empowers an Advocate and those they are Advocating for, and this is The Heights of Advocacy.

• Syon Davis — Era of Transmission

This film features Ayesha Ali, a Black lesbian Buddhist elder based in Baltimore, Maryland. This film is a part of a part of a series that explores the ways in which Black American queer femmes are indigenating to place by way of connecting with spirit and land. 

Sponsored by:

Dates