Kick-Off Party for Dorothy Fadiman Month Here at the Media Center

On Saturday evening, June 6, 2009, the Media Center staff and crew double-feted local filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman and her most ardent fans. Media Center Production Manager Karen Adams organized the party and media event which celebrated Dorothy's 30 year documentary career as well as her 70th birthday. The party began with an hors d'oeuvre and wine reception in the lobby before moving into the studio. Media Center Executive Director Annie Folger invited us all to join her in celebrating the gift to the Media Center of all of Fadiman's twenty documentaries to the Media Center. The Media Center has been granted a perpetual license to cablecast Fadiman's lifework. Additionally the Media Center will make these films available to researchers who consult the Media Center library and archives.

After Annie Folger spoke, Dorothy's husband and mainstay throughout her career, Jim Fadiman introduced Dorothy. Long time colleague Danny McGuire (currently Operations Manager at CreaTV in San Jose) moderated a panel consisting of Dorothy and four distinguished guests who have worked with Dorothy in various capacities: Ekta Bhargava, an editor on "Stealing America Vote by Vote," Fadiman's investigation into voting fraud; Haeran Fisseha, an Ethiopian translator for the film series on HIV/AIDS; Tony Levelle, Co-author with Dorothy of the book PRODUCING WITH PASSION; and David Sobel, Concentric Media (Dorothy's production company) board member and long time advisor. After the panel discussion, a twenty minute screener about Dorothy's documentaries was shown and was followed by a Q&A session. The evening wrapped with a champagne and cake reception.

The program part of the evening was taped and will be cablecast in the next few weeks on Channel 27. As floor director I had the opportunity to particularly observe Dorothy throughout the evening. Dorothy is a pro whether she is working or not. In the midst of all the hustle and confusion of the ins and outs of taping the program, Dorothy was all serenity and in her element. And why not? She was surrounded by a panel of colleagues who hold the deepest respect and admiration for her. Additionally, the audience was full of her supporters come to cheer her on. I was reminded of the theme of the Capra movie "It's A Wonderful Life" so clearly stated in the final moments of the film: “No man is a failure who has friends.” Friday night, we were touting Dorothy's career to be sure, but we were also celebrating the powerful bond of friendship. Dorothy said several times during the course of the evening that her career would not have been possible without the support and faith of her friends and community.

Over her 30 year career Dorothy has attracted hundreds of patrons, colleagues and friends who have contributed their time, skills, energy, moral support and money to make possible Dorothy's vision. Dorothy has attacked with finesse a host of social issues that have made her unpopular with some while a hero for others. By letting the camera and her subjects tell the stories that she is passionate about, Dorothy has retained professional integrity and attracted and retained an international fan base.

And though Dorothy is internationally recognized and has an Oscar nomination to her credit, Dorothy has stayed rooted in the Bay Area and has focused on issues affecting her community as well as the larger issues affecting the nation and the world. Her emphasis on the grassroots is consistent with the significant gift of her films to her local cable access station. Her films are being shown through the month of June on Channel 27 from 3 pm Saturday to 9 am every Sunday morning, as well as on Monday evenings from 7-9 pm. Please check our schedule pages for more details.

Below is a partial list of the friends present at our event:

Joan Armer, Former Intern with Concentric Media

Paul Armer, Fund-raiser for the film Why Do These Kids Love School?, Fadiman's profile of Menlo Park's Peninsula School.

Belinda Brent, personal friend who helped Dorothy prepare for Oscar night

Phyllis Cole, worked on films including Radiance, When Abortion Was Illegal & World Peace is a Local Issue

Judith Dethlefs, Field Producer, From Danger to Dignity

Renee Fadiman, Visual and Performing Arts Chairperson, The Girls' Middle School

Molly Hale, the subject of the film Moment by Moment, Dorothy's profile of a miraculous journey of recovery from a devastation accident

Mary Ellen Hamilton, retired, Planned Parenthood of San Diego

Carla Henry, Co-Producer Stealing America

Linda Herreshof, Concentric Media Board Member

Ken Jenkins, Contributing Artist, Radiance

Bob Johnson, Cast member of work-in-progress Rainbowman

Graceann Johnson, Peninsula School faculty member

Peggy Kenny, Concentric Board Member

Kathy Kneer, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California

Clemencia Macias, worked on Why Do These Kids Love School? & other films

Steve Mangold, artistic contribution, Radiance

Kacy McClure, worked on Motherhood by Choice & Why Do These Kids Love School?

Dania Moss, led fund-raising efforts for several of Dorothy’s films

Mark Moulton, Concentric Media Board President

Victoria Nichols, Concentric Media visionary

Marian Slattery, persuaded Massachusetts Congressman Ed Markey to show World Peace is a Local Issue to Congress

The Flash Photo Contest Winners Announced

Thank you to all who voted in THE FLASH photo contest!!! Between our facebook voting and ballot voting at the Media Center, we had a total of 212 votes!!!

And the winners are...

9th/10th Grade Category
Winner: Sarah Jacobs "Bridge of Tears, Venice"

Runner up: Ofa Tuipulotu "Compact Image"

11th/12th Grade Category
Winner: Ashley Chu "Untitled"

Runner up: Katie Rockhold "To Become One with Nature"

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

The winners have won a free photography workshop at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto! Runners up and third prize winners will receive prizes as well!

Again, thank you for your support of our photo contest and we look forward to your continued participation next year!

The Media Center is about to begin a powerful collaboration with For Youth By Youth (FYBY), an agency dedicated to youth and to violence prevention in East Palo Alto. Five video profiles will be produced, featuring the stories of persons who have dealt with the tragic impact of violence in their lives, and have managed to forge a positive, peaceful pathway in its wake. Each profile will be produced by a three-person youth team to be trained by Media Center staff. The full FYBY youth community - 300 strong - will view and discuss the profiles and then there will be an opportunity for the creation of several spoken word and music pieces to be recorded in response to the profiles. Lastly, there will be two community events that will feature the video works along with a town-meeting-style discussion about violence prevention. The East Palo Alto police department will also participate in the community discussion events. All of the video profiles and arts responses will be available on the two organizations' web sites and will play on the cable community TV channels.

This project is made possible by support from the Cable Co-op Legacy Fund, the Palo Alto Community Fund, the Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund, and one private donor. The project will begin just after Labor Day and the community events will take place in April and early May, 2010.

Gala Kicks off "Dorothy Fadiman Month" Honoring Her Donation of Lifework to Media Center

The Media Center is proud to announce that award- winning documentary filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman has chosen the Media Center to be the community repository for her body of work. Menlo Park-based Fadiman has produced over twenty films in her thirty-year career. Her work has garnered more than 50 awards and honors, including an Oscar nomination and an Emmy. Fadiman's films have been shown internationally, as well as nationwide on PBS Stations. The subjects of her films cover a broad range of socially relevant topics from election fraud to HIV/AIDS in Africa to the challenges facing women in India to progressive education in the US to the fragility of reproductive rights to the universal truths in every faith. Fadiman has taken on each topic with a passion for reality. By stripping away rhetoric and ideology to divine the truth, she has earned a reputation for making consistently great films with heart.

With all her accolades and connections, why has Dorothy Fadiman chosen the Media Center for such a distinction? Although internationally acclaimed, she is a champion of the grassroots and has always been active in her community. She has been a passionate supporter of public access television going back to the days of the original Cable Coop and MPAC (Mid-Peninsula Access Corporation). She was a founding member of IMAGE, the Independent Media Artists Group, a collaboration of filmmakers which met here in Palo Alto.

Additionally, many of Fadiman's films have attracted the involvement of local activists and supporters and/or capture a distinctly local experience.

• World Peace follows the Palo Alto City Council meeting the night the Council passed a Nuclear Freeze Resolution.
  
• Why Do These Kids Love School? profiles the Peninsula School, an independent learning community in Menlo Park. The film, produced with PBS-affiliate KTEH in San Jose, had its premier in Palo Alto at the Cubberley Theatre.
• Seeds of Hope was made possible by the work and support of fifty members of the Peninsula Ethiopian community. Premiered at Gunn High School’s Spangenberg Theater,
• Woman By Woman was filmed in India and benefited Maitri (a local group helping abused Indian women) as well as AID (a local group providing aid to impoverished rural Indians).
  
• The Power of Choice was made with the cooperation and support of Planned Parenthood education teams in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
  
• Moment By Moment follows a Menlo Park resident’s recovery from a severe spinal cord injury.

Because many films in the collection have a local focus and are a product of Fadiman’s collaboration with Peninsula residents and organizations, the Media Center is especially eager to house these films. The Media Center will not only cablecast these films but will be able to make them available to the many researchers who access the Media Center archives. This legacy is the first of its kind given to the Media Center. The Media Center is proud to be the repository of the Dorothy Fadiman Film Collection.

Media Center to Host Community Event to Honor Filmmaker

To commemorate the historic gift of the Dorothy Fadiman Film Collection to the Media Center and to celebrate Dorothy Fadiman's 70th birthday, the Media Center will host a gala event. A Tribute to Dorothy Fadiman: 30 Years of Filmmaking will take place on Saturday, June 6, 2009 from 7 to 9:30 pm in the Media Center Studio. The evening will include pre-screening refreshments followed by a screening of excerpts from Fadiman’s films, a panel discussion moderated by former PBS Executive Producer Danny McGuire and Audience Q&A punctuated by a champagne and birthday cake reception. The public is invited to attend the free event but must RSVP (karen@midpenmedia.org) to reserve a seat.

The panel will consist of:

Ekta Bhargava, East Indian Filmmaker, producing and writing both in the US and in India, was a Senior Editor on Stealing America Vote by Vote. Bhargava is on the board of the non-profit A STAR FOR THE NIGHT, which provides children with challenges a chance to share the spotlight with a celebrity. Currently, Bhargava is working on a documentary for the Center for Third World Organizing.

Haeran Fisseha was a principal translator for Fadiman’s Seeds of Hope series, working with others to translate over 100 hours of interviews from Amharic to English. She holds a Masters in Industrial Engineering from Stanford. She founded and runs a California-based non-profit, Dir Biyabir, which supports sustainable grassroots development in Ethiopia. Haeran has worked at various technology companies and is currently working at Apple as a Global Commodity Manager.

Tony Levelle, Writer, Filmmaker and Teacher, has 30 years of experience in technology and media production. He joined Fadiman first as an Intern and then went on to co-author with Fadiman the book Producing with Passion: Making Films That Change the World. He is author of Digital Video Secrets. In addition to teaching filmmaking throughout Northern California, he has launched the lake.org Film Festival in order to encourage and recognize student filmmakers in his own community.

David S. Sobel, M.D., is a board member of Fadiman's production company Concentric Media, as well as a longtime friend and supporter of her work. Dr. Sobel is Director of Patient Education and Health Promotion for Kaiser Permanente Northern California Region. He has appeared on more than 200 television programs to educate the public about health issues, including the Today Show, CNN, Hour Magazine, and a regular television news segment on KNTV, the NBC affiliate station in San Jose.

June is "Dorothy Fadiman Month" on Channel 27

As part of the celebration of Dorothy Fadiman's 70th birthday and the donation to the Media Center of her entire film collection, the Media Center is dedicating weekend programming on Channel 27 throughout the month of June to the films of Dorothy Fadiman. Additionally, each Monday evening throughout June on Channel 27 from 7 to 9 pm, the Media Center will cablecast films from the collection.

The Dorothy Fadiman Film Festival Schedule is as follows:

• Sunday, June 7: 3 pm – 12 am
• Monday, June 8, 15, 22 and 29: 7 pm – 9 pm
• Weekends June 13 & 14, June 20 & 21 and June 27 & 28: 3 pm Saturday – 9 am Sunday

Festival Programming will include the cablecast of the Media Center coverage of the June 6th gala event: A Tribute to Dorothy Fadiman: 30 Years of Filmmaking.

Festival Films include:

• From the Back Alleys to the Supreme Court & Beyond - a three film series
• Moment by Moment: The Healing Journey of Molly Hale
• Motherhood by Choice not Chance
• Radiance: The Experience of Light
• Seeds of Hope – a five film series documenting HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia
• Stealing America Vote by Vote
• Why Do These Kids Love School?
• Woman by Woman: New Hope for the Villages of India

Short Format Films To Be Shown Include:

• Breathe Easy
• Celebration: I Am All of These
• Fix-It Shops: An Endangered Species
• Peace: A Conscious Choice
• World Peace is a Local Issue

Please visit the schedule pages on the Media Center website for titles and times of films to be shown during the Dorothy Fadiman Film Festival.

Contact:
Karen Adams
Production Manager/Staff Producer
650-494-8686, ext. 18
karen@midpenmedia.org

The Flash Finalists are Announced!

Congratulations to the finalists in The Flash photo contest! We received a lot of really great submissions and our judges have selected the six finalists:

9th-10th Grade
Empris Johnson, In a Daze
Ofa Tuipulota, Compact Image
Sarah Jacobs, Bridge of Tears, Venice

11th-12th Grade
Ashley Chu, Untitled
Julia Benton, New York Tourists
Katie Rockhold, To Become One with Nature

VOTE!
Come by the Media Center and cast your vote for your favorite photo! Or vote online on Facebook! Prizes include cash prizes, Media Center T-shirts, Custom Framed Photos, Certificates of Achievement, AND: A free photography workshop at the Pacific Art League in Palo Alto!

Thanks to all our entrants and our judges.

Judges:

Alton Sun has been teaching photography for years and is a professional event and portrait photographer in the bay area. Known for combining models with exclusive locations, he presents a distinct balance between style and edge. You can catch some of his work at www.AltonSun.com and may be able to join him during one of his many photo-adventures.

Godfrey DiGiorgi is a fine art photographer based in Sunnyvale, CA with a commitment to photography reaching back to childhood days. His award-winning photography has been exhibited and sold in galleries both local and abroad, and has been used for book, editorial and advertising publication. A frequent contributor/participant in on-line photo critique forums, Godfrey is a judge for the Minox Historical Society photography contests (www.minoxgallery.org). Learn more about Godfrey by following him on Twitter: twitter.com/godfreydigiorgi, or by visiting his website: www.gdgphoto.com.

Kameelah Rasheed was raised and still lives in East Palo Alto, CA. She is a 23 year old, educator, writer, and self-taught photographer. At 20, she earned her BA in Public Policy from Pomona College, graduating as a Truman Scholar and Rockefeller Brothers Fund Fellow. In 2006, she was named an Amy Biehl US Fulbright Scholar to South Africa. While she was in Johannesburg she photographed the 2007 public sector strikes, Human Rights marches, and the Zimbabwe Solidarity demonstrations. In 2008, she earned her Ed.M from Stanford University and now teaches Humanities at East Palo Alto Academy High School. Recently, she and her students founded a documentary photography program called Zoom In! Collective that collaborates with youth in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is also a freelance writer and her work has appeared in The Nation (online), WireTap Magazine, Make/Shift: Feminisms in Motion, and Pambazuka News: Social Justice in Africa.

THE DESIGN NARRATIVE DEBUTS ON Channel 28, Monday, 5/4/09, 7:30 pm

On Monday, May 4, 2009 at 7:30 pm on Channel 28 the Media Center will cablecast the debut of a new show on creativity and design produced by Nancy Zerella of Zerella Designs. The show features interviews with the minds behind design and taps into the areas of creative collaboration, problem solving, aesthetics and of course design. We glimpse the world of "designing" people and how they work. What goes into a finished product? How do designers work? What are they like? Do creative people tend to think in a similar way? How do they see problems and constraints? As obstacles or opportunities? Opportunities! Always!

To celebrate the Wrap and Release of THE DESIGN NARRATIVE, the Media Center and Zerella Designs co-hosted a gala screening of the first episode in High Definition on Friday night, May 1, 2009 in the Media Center studios. The first episode features the world famous interior design team of Leavitt/Weaver. Both Craig Leavitt and Stephen Weaver were on hand for the evening. The keynote speaker of the evening was Jesse Kearney a designer with Eton Radio right here in Palo Alto. Louise Pencavel of our Professional Services department spoke for the Media Center and Nancy Zerella spoke for Zerella Designs. Additionally, Michael Wollaeger, formerly editor-in-chief of Western Interiors Magazine spoke as well. Media Center regulars mixed with friends of the Design Narrative. The party was scheduled to end at 9:00. However, many guests lingered until 11:00 pm to enjoy the non-stop conversation and the magical ambience. Wine, beer and non-alcoholic spritzers were donated, and hors d'ouvres were catered by Leslie Catering and provided by Zerella Designs. An enormous bouquet was provided by Bloomsters and is still gracing the Media Center studio lobby.

The Media Center is proud to be the first cable station/TV station anywhere to cablecast THE DESIGN NARRATIVE. The show meets our goals of focusing on local productions and providing relevant content. With Stanford and Silicon Valley being a hotbed of creativity, THE DESIGN NARRATIVE will serve another component in our rich demographic here on the Peninsula. Additionally, co-hosting the party with Nancy Zerella provided a rich opportunity for community building by bringing together new people who may not be familiar with the Media Center and all the cool things we do here.

Watch THE DESIGN NARRATIVE
every Monday, 7:30 pm
Channel 28

Or watch THE DESIGN NARRATIVE simulcast from our website whenever it is airing.

For more information contact becky@midpenmedia.org or nancy@zerelladesigns.com.

NEW SHOW LINE UP FOR CHANNEL 28 ROLLS OUT SUNDAY APRIL 12

First we saw amazing changes in the Channel 27 Schedule. Now we're ready for a new line-up for Channel 28, our youth, education and sports channel. Our goal: to group shows together that each Channel 28 demographic can watch at times convenient to it. Hence, for example, the weekend is devoted pretty much to serving our student viewers because that is when they can watch!

A TYPICAL WEEKDAY -
7-9:30 am - preschool appropriate programming
9:30 am - EVERYONE'S YOGA
10 am - 3:30 pm - Adult Variety - Cooking, How To, Physical Fitness, Career Development
3:30 - 6:00 pm Youth/Youth Education Programming
WEEK NIGHTS
Monday - Career Night
Tuesday - Educational Shows and Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) playback
Wednesday -Career Night- Media Center Produced Shows Only, followed by Open Programming
Thursday - Educational Shows and Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) playback
WEEKEND
Friday Night - Sunday Night - ALL YOUTH ALL THE TIME (for the most part)

So take a look and watch the shows at times that work for you!