WuWD@ DOK Leipzig 2023 - Jennifer Crystal Chien
August 25, 2023
Filmmaker, activist, and co-founder of Re-Present Media Jennifer Crystal Chien joins host Toni Bell in examining the need to generate new and more authentic representations and portrayals of BIPOC communities and expand those stories to other ways of storytelling.
This discussion engages the vital question of who is determining what is of interest and to whom. The question of an audience is an important one because it is often asked from the white dominant perspective, which influences the filmmaking process and limits topics and story arcs deemed acceptable for mainstream storytelling, thus barring some BIPOC filmmakers from accessing funding structures if they do not follow a specific type of mainstream narrative.
Jennifer's theory of change for the field is rooted in liberation and the spirit of the song she picked for this episode by the late great Curtis Mayfield, “Keep On Keeping On”.
Photo Credit: Jennifer Crystal Chien
[Image Description: Jennifer, pictured from the chest up, wears a black sweater, a grey, knitted winter cap, and a pair of black framed glasses. She looks directly into the camera.]
Jennifer’s Bio
Jennifer Crystal Chien is a documentary filmmaker focusing on personal storytelling from immigrants and people of color. In 2017, she co-founded Re-Present Media, a grassroots nonprofit that advocates for personal storytelling in documentary film and nonfiction media. In addition to presenting films with community dialogues by established filmmakers, Re-Present Media also offers professional development for emerging filmmakers and coordinates field-wide advocacy campaigns to recognize and elevate voices from underrepresented communities.
