Best of Bernal
MISSION CULTURAL CENTER FOR LATINO ARTS
2868 Mission Street
7:00 to 9:30 pm
Entry is free. Suggested donation of $10 at the door gratefully accepted.
7:00 pm FILMS and Q&A with the Filmmakers
Encore presentation of the three award-winning films of the 2015 season, the Best of Bernal, Spirit of Bernal and Good Life Audience Awards. Join with filmmakers and fellow film lovers in a Q&A and reception following the screening.
Best of Bernal Award
ALL THINGS CONSIDERED by Amir Jaffer 12 mins
Amir Jaffer began exploring the world of filmmaking with his father’s video camera at the age of thirteen. He realized his childhood dream when he began working as an independent producer, cinematographer and editor in San Francisco in 2005. Influenced by filmmakers Rainer Ferner Fasbinder, Pedro Almodovar and Deepa Mehta, Amir focused on social issues that intrigued him and which ranged from gender identity to domestic violence to sexuality. After watching Orson Welles’ classic CITIZEN KANE, Amir was inspired to play with images using camera angles, lighting techniques and shadows. Amir’s artistic vision continues to evolve, as he incorporates the aesthetics of the mainstream and merges it with elements of New Wave Cinema.
The artistic journey of photographer extraordinaire Philip Rossetti is documented in this beautiful film that exemplifies Rossetti’s mantra, “art is where one finds it.” ALL THINGS CONSIDERED offers a slice of Rossetti’s talent, his humor and his passion as he stalks the grungy back alleys and wrong sides of the track to find striking images of things abandoned and decayed. Rossetti lingers in the back corners of trashy dollar stores and dingy Chinese markets to capture consumerist scenes abounding with cheap plastics and stinking fish — diurnal images made stunning through his lens.
Spirit of Bernal Award
TOUCHING THE UNTOUCHABLE by Chihiro Wimbush
and Meena Srinivasan 8 mins
Chihiro Wimbush is an Oakland-based Filmmaker, most recently he edited the documentary Changing Season about the Masumoto peach farming family. Meena Srinivasan is a thought leader in the field of Social Emotional Learning. Her first book, Teach, Breathe, Learn: Mindfulness In and Out of the Classroom, was recently featured on Edutopia. Bringing together their passion for education, media, mindfulness and social justice, Meena and Chihiro started A Lens Inside in 2013, a non-profit program that develops multimedia and films to create curriculum and educational programs promoting social emotional learning, peace, and understanding through the exploration of social issues. Learn more at alensinside.org
TOUCHING THE UNTOUCHABLE is the story of the empowerment of a Dalit, Untouchable, community in Tamil Nadu, India. Long shunned inside India’s rigid caste system and denied basic human rights and amenities, the new generation of Dalits are taking matters in their own hands and creating a community where clean water, food, education, sanitation and health are accessible to all. Their leader, Dalit activist Gauthama Prabhu, reaches out to a kindred soul: Venerable Pannavati, an African-American Buddhist who understands the plight of the disenfranchised. Together, they work to empower and uplift the Untouchables.
Good Life Audience Award
I HATE THE COLOR RED by Jazmin Jamias 19 mins
Jazmin Jamias recently graduated from SFSU with a degree in Cinema with an emphasis in fictional filmmaking. Her short documentary THE ALTERED LIVES OF LAVONNE SALLEE won the Good Life Audience Award in 2013. She is currently writing her next short film which is about a female ticket scalper.
A comedy about a sister and a brother who having inherited a video store from their parents, struggle to keep it a viable business. However thanks to “red boxes” and “red envelopes,” they realize that their store will soon become obsolete. How they reconcile themselves to this realization, or don’t, will leave you chuckling and charmed.
8:30 pm RECEPTION
Enjoy music by 6Roses as you mingle with filmmakers and film lovers in the upstairs Gallery.
6Roses Jazz Duo
6Roses — Michael Cavaseno (guitar, electronics) and David Boyce (tenor/soprano sax, electronics) play jazz, blues, tangos, son cubanos, RnB/Soul ballads, experimental audio horizons and pop songs with a conception that is firmly rooted in the past but exists in the now, looking forward to the future.