Give as a gift
“Everyday I’m reminded
that the reason I even have a voice
is because my story has never been just mine.
It has always belonged to the village
A family heirloom from my ancestors
who fought for their lives so that I can fight for ours.
This is how I know that more than anything
our stories have the power to change everything.
Why else would this country delight in our silence
and be content with leaving our history out of the narrative?”
-excerpt from the poem AAPIs Rising by Terisa Siagatonu
The works in this exhibition engage with the complexity of community and history while pushing boundaries that invite us to reimagine other realities. There is anticipation in these works, a gesture rooted in the joy that a liberatory future that’s expansive, decolonial, and gender-free is within reach. There are many of us dreaming and creating a world where social justice, queer identities, and other fundamental rights and social rights and opportunities exist more than not. Yet, despite a world so severe and unsparing, we can continue to look to our stories, songs, paintings, and poems to create maps and imagined spaces where no one asks permission to exist. Perhaps in these works, we can perfect the creation of counter systems that offer healing balms for those of us that need to leave behind a wearying past or present. Can we be reminded that it is possible to center well-being and that we can value and normalize healing scenarios in our daily lives? Beyond the ethnic cheerleading that tower over these observances, this exhibit asks its viewer to look through the lens of these Filipinx artists articulating a different world that might be around the corner.
In addition to the short films included in the collection, we invite you to watch the PBS American Masters film Maia Cruz Palileo: Becoming the Moon: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/maia-cruz-palileo-becoming-the-moon/15825/.
Guest Curator: Irene Soriano
What’s more embarrassing than writing erotic fiction about your crush? Accidentally texting it to her. When this very thing happens to Nousha she enlists the help of her best friend, Oliver, and they set out on a mission to delete the text…. By any means necessary.
-------------
ALYSSA LERNER (she/they) is a queer comedy writer and director heralding from Poway, CA. The child of a Jewish guitarist and Filipina dancer-slash-reiki-healer, Alyssa knew she could be anything she wanted in life except rich. As a child, she sported an eyepatch/glasses combo, stutter, and scoliosis brace— thankfully not at the same time— and she used her adolescence to train for a professional career in ballet. After years of schlepping her hard plastic scoliosis brace to ballet academies and competitions around the world, she had a 1/5th life crisis, and left her predetermined ballet career to attend the University of California, Berkeley where she explored Ethnic Studies and being gay. She went on to graduate from USC’s MFA in Screenwriting, where she finally found her voice in comedy writing. She has since written on shows for Disney+ and Amazon Studios and is in development on her feature film directorial debut, a high school comedy titled JESSE IS A FRIEND that was featured on the 2020 GLAAD List, a curated list of the most promising unmade LGBTQ-inclusive scripts in Hollywood. She is resident in the 2019 Black List x Women in Film Feature Lab. Her directorial debut “Bubble” won Best Narrative Short at aGLIFF32 and the audience award for best short at Frameline43 Film Festival, while her second film, “Break In” was an official selection at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival, Outfest Los Angeles, Shortlisted for the Iris Prize, and won Best in Show at Wicked Queer Film Festival (2021). And despite her past eyepatch and scoliosis brace, she now has a clear vision for her future— and nothing is holding her back. Alyssa is represented by Jairo Alvarado at Redefine Entertainment and Abby Glusker & Jessica Kantor at United Talent Agency
Website: https://www.alyssalerner.me
- Runtime16 minutes
- DirectorAlyssa Lerner
- ScreenwriterAlyssa Lerner
- ProducerAlyssa Lerner and Cat McCabe
- CastKimia Behpoornia, Riley Westling, Sara Young Chandler, Cat Davis, Vas Provatakis
- CinematographerLucas D. Miller
- EditorCullan Bruce
“Everyday I’m reminded
that the reason I even have a voice
is because my story has never been just mine.
It has always belonged to the village
A family heirloom from my ancestors
who fought for their lives so that I can fight for ours.
This is how I know that more than anything
our stories have the power to change everything.
Why else would this country delight in our silence
and be content with leaving our history out of the narrative?”
-excerpt from the poem AAPIs Rising by Terisa Siagatonu
The works in this exhibition engage with the complexity of community and history while pushing boundaries that invite us to reimagine other realities. There is anticipation in these works, a gesture rooted in the joy that a liberatory future that’s expansive, decolonial, and gender-free is within reach. There are many of us dreaming and creating a world where social justice, queer identities, and other fundamental rights and social rights and opportunities exist more than not. Yet, despite a world so severe and unsparing, we can continue to look to our stories, songs, paintings, and poems to create maps and imagined spaces where no one asks permission to exist. Perhaps in these works, we can perfect the creation of counter systems that offer healing balms for those of us that need to leave behind a wearying past or present. Can we be reminded that it is possible to center well-being and that we can value and normalize healing scenarios in our daily lives? Beyond the ethnic cheerleading that tower over these observances, this exhibit asks its viewer to look through the lens of these Filipinx artists articulating a different world that might be around the corner.
In addition to the short films included in the collection, we invite you to watch the PBS American Masters film Maia Cruz Palileo: Becoming the Moon: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/maia-cruz-palileo-becoming-the-moon/15825/.
Guest Curator: Irene Soriano
What’s more embarrassing than writing erotic fiction about your crush? Accidentally texting it to her. When this very thing happens to Nousha she enlists the help of her best friend, Oliver, and they set out on a mission to delete the text…. By any means necessary.
-------------
ALYSSA LERNER (she/they) is a queer comedy writer and director heralding from Poway, CA. The child of a Jewish guitarist and Filipina dancer-slash-reiki-healer, Alyssa knew she could be anything she wanted in life except rich. As a child, she sported an eyepatch/glasses combo, stutter, and scoliosis brace— thankfully not at the same time— and she used her adolescence to train for a professional career in ballet. After years of schlepping her hard plastic scoliosis brace to ballet academies and competitions around the world, she had a 1/5th life crisis, and left her predetermined ballet career to attend the University of California, Berkeley where she explored Ethnic Studies and being gay. She went on to graduate from USC’s MFA in Screenwriting, where she finally found her voice in comedy writing. She has since written on shows for Disney+ and Amazon Studios and is in development on her feature film directorial debut, a high school comedy titled JESSE IS A FRIEND that was featured on the 2020 GLAAD List, a curated list of the most promising unmade LGBTQ-inclusive scripts in Hollywood. She is resident in the 2019 Black List x Women in Film Feature Lab. Her directorial debut “Bubble” won Best Narrative Short at aGLIFF32 and the audience award for best short at Frameline43 Film Festival, while her second film, “Break In” was an official selection at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival, Outfest Los Angeles, Shortlisted for the Iris Prize, and won Best in Show at Wicked Queer Film Festival (2021). And despite her past eyepatch and scoliosis brace, she now has a clear vision for her future— and nothing is holding her back. Alyssa is represented by Jairo Alvarado at Redefine Entertainment and Abby Glusker & Jessica Kantor at United Talent Agency
Website: https://www.alyssalerner.me
- Runtime16 minutes
- DirectorAlyssa Lerner
- ScreenwriterAlyssa Lerner
- ProducerAlyssa Lerner and Cat McCabe
- CastKimia Behpoornia, Riley Westling, Sara Young Chandler, Cat Davis, Vas Provatakis
- CinematographerLucas D. Miller
- EditorCullan Bruce