AMC 2008

A screening of black./womyn.:conversations with lesbians of African Descent followed by a workshop on how to conduct interviews for film/video.

Presenter: Tiona Mcclodden (Director)

black./womyn.:conversations… focuses on the lives and views of lesbians of African descent, featuring candid interviews discussing coming out, sexuality and religion, love and relationships, marriage, visibility in media, discrimination and homophobia, activism, gender identity, balancing gender/race/sexuality and more. Interviewees include close to 50 out, Black lesbians including Poet Cheryl Clarke, Filmmaker Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Poet Staceyann Chin, and Filmmaker Michelle Parkerson. 97min.

Following the film a workshop will explore the art of the interview and the idea of transporting often silenced voices through film and video. We will explore these topics: (1)Ways one can make an interviewee feel comfortable. (2)Editing for a documentary filled with heavy dialogue. (3)Providing safe spaces for progressive dialogue around a film dealing with various points of view.

Presenters: Zane Scheuerlein and Marisol Becerra Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Open Youth Networks

Google maps enables users to embed pictures and videos. By adding pictures and videos that tell the stories of the issues in communities across the globe, one can network and exchange strategies with other groups. In this interactive and hands-on workshop, we will show "The Cloud Factory," a youth produced video about environmental racism in the Mexican-American neighborhood of Little Village. We will also present our mapzine and teach others to contribute digital content and essentially use Google maps as a tool of social action and community organizing. Workshop participants will create personal stories about the environment through digital media and embed them onto Google maps.

Presenters: 2-Cent Entertainment

This workshop uses the model of 2-Cent Entertainment, a grassroots video production project in New Orleans, Louisiana, to teach how to make and promote accessible and entertaining video with a political intent. 2-Cent produces a 28-minute regular television show that is broadcast on local New Orleans stations, in addition to online distribution. They have collaborated with the People's Hurricane Relief Fund, to produce music videos, a short PSA that cleverly targets "disaster tourists" exploiting our community, and much more. In this workshop we will share important lessons about creating and promoting high-quality, accessible work with little to no resources.

Presenter: Geoff Hing

What is Web 2.0 and what does it mean for social movements? This session will look at blogs, feeds, wikis, mashups, tags and a ton of other tools and services that are the building blocks of "Web 2.0". As we navigate around the buzzwords and acronyms together, we will look at Web 2.0 technologies with a critical eye and think about what they bring to or take from the communication of social movements. Bring a notebook computer and mobile phone if you want to try some of the technologies at the session, but this hardware is definitely not required!

Presenters: Andalusia Knoll, Rustbelt Radio; Selina Musuta, Free Speech Radio News

This workshop is news production/writing for radio 101. How is writing for radio different from writing for print? How is writing for grassroots radio different from writing for corporate radio? Participants will learn the basics of community journalism--from the 5Ws to examining sources, research and events. This is a participatory workshop in which you will practice writing lede's/intros for a radio piece and brainstorm how to expand your story.

Presenters: Dean Jansen, The Participatory Culture Foundation; Steven Mansour, The Strict Machine Foundation

Commercial platforms like YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook give activist mediamakers potential access to large audiences, but they also exploit your cultural labor, make money off of ads without sharing the revenuewith you, log your IP address and track your social networks, hand over your info to the government, and censor you if they are asked to do so by the government or corporations. Happily, the last couple of years have seen a real advance in free and open source tools to help you set up your own multimedia site. In this part-informational, part-hands-on workshop, we will zero in on some state of the art FOSS tools that you can use for video production and distribution.

Presenter: Adrienne Maree Brown

For organizers, skillful facilitation might be the most important media tool we can cultivate. How do we create the spaces where the diverse members of an organization, community, family, etc. can come together and communicate in a way that is respectful and effective and that draws out every person's best ideas? Come spend time with Facilitation Evangelist Adrienne Maree Brown and learn how to make any meeting, gathering or event burst with energetic input and creative outcomes. This workshop will cover: Your Facilitation Personality, Best (and Worst) Practices, Asking the Right Questions, and Ground Rules. This will be a popular education so expect to participate and co-create!

Presenters: Aiko Shirakawa, 5th Element; Mary Dee, 5th Element; B-Girl Tara, Anomolies Crew

Dance is one of the oldest forms of communication. And Breaking/Locking crews have communicated the resistance of the hip hop generation since its beginning! What's a movement without movement? Come learn the foundation elements of breaking from two of the flyest in the game, B-girl Aiko, original Pop/Locker from San Jose, CA, and B-girl Tara, instructor from NYC. These two b-girls from Anomolies and 5th Element will teach you the foundation; locking, top roks, and floorwork, where you take it is up to you...

Presenters: Mary Dee and Aiko Shirakawa, 5th Element

More and more people are reclaiming party and music spaces to nurture a transformative music movement. What are the sustainable economic models of party promotion and event production that support positive and progressive agendas? How can we create more of these transformed spaces across the country? How do organizers improve their skill in putting events together? Can organizations pair with promoters to create these kinds of spaces?

This workshop will highlight the experiences of 5th Element,a collective of women who use hip hop to challenge sexism and misogyny by producing shows and workshops highlighting positive artists. Participants will leave with practical, innovative approaches to throwing parties and booking shows that will apply within any music scene.

Presenter: Josh Redd Sanchez

Street art (graffiti, stencils, wheatpastes, etc.) is a powerful direct action tool for taking control of our mental and physical environments. This hands-on workshop, led by Josh Redd Sanchez will offer a general how-to on stenciling, with a discussion of other techniques such as paper cutting and wheatpasting.