Wow! I had an incredible experience as an instructor for the first Keio Academy Summer Japanese-English Digital Media Creation Camp in Purchase, NY. It was co-sponsored by DCTV’s youth media program, Pro-TV. For two weeks, with the help of translators, I had a group of five Japanese students and taught them to envision, shoot, and edit a short video. There was a team of 10 instructors total, each with their own group of 5-7 students. The assortment of videos at the end, were pretty phenomenal, especially considering the time, language and cultural barriers that we all faced to various degrees.

It was quite humbling for me to realize the extent of how different our cultures really are. Yes, I love sushi and Japanese animation and even practice a Buddhist discipline born in Japanese. That does not make me a Japanophile, even by dilettantish standards. So my enthusiasm and passion for the students, their ideas and the craft of making media was often received as very aggressive, intimidating, and even rude. I realize that even with the best of intentions, and as we try in earnest to build cultural bridges and meet halfway, it actually only reaches a quarter of the way on both sides. There is still a huge chasm to fill. And the only way to fill it is to openly acknowledge what you do not know and try to understand, listen, and learn.  You have to give it time, patience and compassion.  And ou have to give it to yourself as much as to the other and try not to take things too seriously. It’s Basic Diplomacy and Being a Human Being 101, a lesson reinforced from my experience with my students. In the end, we turned the camera onto ourselves to examine and discuss our misunderstandings and perceptions, and made a beautiful short video of their thoughts and experience of being Japanese and being American.

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080803/NEWS02/808030334/1220/NEWS020
http://business.rutgers.edu/default.aspx?id=1523

http://lovenewark.wordpress.com

As part of my final group project in my Creativity in Business Decisions seminar with Professor dt ogilvie [lowercase required], I helped shoot and edit a team video to promote the City of Newark experience.

Newark is in a momentous renaissance of development, arts, small business and grassroots communities. I’ve gotten fairly acquainted with the city over the years as a student and filmmaker. As a team, we all agreed that its diversity of people and activities have been overshadowed by its volatile season in the 60’s and urban decay up to the 90’s.

So our team of six people photographed and videotaped what we considered Newark’s treasures, and collaborated on a script that celebrates what we find unique and exciting. And we propose that the residents and fans of Newark should do the same — become ambassadors for the City of Newark and promote what you love about it.

I am giddy to announce my first ever public screening, two shorts, at Anthology Film Archives!

BLACK DOCUMENTARY COLLECTIVE:
SCREENING OF MEMBERS FILMS
curator/host: Julia O’Farrow
SILENT CHOICES
(Running time 60 minutes)
FAITH PENNICK
Producer/Director

Wednesday February 20th, 2008 at 7 PM (Admission: $5)
At ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES 32 SECOND AVE
(F TRAIN TO 2ND AVE OR 6 TO BLEEKER)
New York, NY 10008-8631
Phone: (212) 505-5181

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I had the honor of being part of the Brave New Films field crew with the veterans to document their confrontation of Bill O’Reilly at Fox News yesterday, who claims there are no homeless veterans. Here’s my report for the day:

I put on my brown military thermals, my chocolate chip cammies, my black bandana and my black boots. I was off to represent for my father, my uncle, their army buddies and all the people in my life that I knew and didn’t know who had served this country and in some way, often the same way, got the shaft from it. Most of them are Black, like me. My home state, Texas, is practically one huge military base. It’s my patriotic duty, as the daughter of a Vietnam War combat medic, to pick up my weapon and fight for the cause. I grabbed my gear and went into friendly warrior mode to help these vets broadcast their story. And believe me — their stories are AMAZING. Read more