S6.3: Shelley Stamp: Cinema Preservation, Access and Renegotiating Women’s Representation in Silent Film

While this episode was recorded over a year ago, it is just as relevant now (if not moreso). I am honored to welcome the brilliant and wonderful Professor Shelley Stamp to Archivist’s Alley. A former professor of mine at UC Santa Cruz, she has been a major inspiration and she remains one of my mentors. Please join us as we discuss the intricacies of silent film restoration, the history of women in film, media access and much more!

As usual, bio is below the podcast link. Links to various subjects from our conversation are embedded in the bio so be sure to click on those and check’em out!!

Shelley Stamp is author of the award-winning books Lois Weber in Early
Hollywood
and Movie Struck Girls, and curator of the award-winning disc set Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers.  She is Founding Editor of the journal Feminist Media Histories and editor of the Feminist Media Histories book series published by the University of California Press. Stamp is Professor of Film + Digital Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she has twice won the Excellence in Teaching Award and currently holds the Presidential Chair.

S6.2: Raphael Rashid: Human Rights Journalism, Twitter Activism & “Agendas”

My friend Raphael is remarkable.

It’s hard for me to properly describe what he does except to say that he writes wonderfully about all the truly problematic areas in Korea.

You should just listen to the episode. It’s a really great conversation.

Do I love Korea and living in Korea? Sure. There’s a lot to love. But no country is without its problems. And what I know is that what Raphael is doing is critical to my survival here. He keeps me updated and informed.

I know that I’m not alone in this. While (as we discussed) some (a “vocal minority”) may think that his twitter feed has an “agenda,” his only agenda is providing real, honest journalism. It’s mostly human rights-related information but his work spans all kinds of topics in Korea and that’s why reading him is really great.

No one is doing what Raphael Rashid is doing and I feel so lucky to know him.

Please enjoy our conversation and follow him on Twitter. And if you don’t have Twitter, just go there every so often to see his posts!!!

And if you read Korean….he’s got a new book out!! Let’s hope that it gets translated into English *crosses fingers*

As usual, links and bio under the episode….

Bio: Raphael Rashid is a freelance journalist in Seoul and has been based in South Korea for over a decade. His writings have appeared in publications including The Guardian, The New York Times, and Nikkei Asia, with a focus on societal issues. He is the author of a recently published book examining conformity and unhappiness within South Korean society.

Raphael’s recent book can be found here: http://kyobo.link/vaZR

AND HIS AMAZING TWITTER CAN BE LOCATED HERE: https://twitter.com/koryodynasty

S4.8: Candace Ming: Immediate Access, Weird Collectors, and the Necessity of Personal Time

As usual these days, I’m behind. I keep feeling like I’m going to catch up with myself and the podcast and maybe I will but it seems like life and this horrible pandemic and Other Stuff keep coming up.

But I want to reiterate that this podcast is still important to me and I am still extremely dedicated to it, even in the middle of whatever chaos is happening.
As usual, thank you for your patience and continued listening. I believe in you, these guests, and every conversation and issue that we discuss. It’s just that whole…life thing, amirite?

THAT SAID, I want to bring you an incredible conversation with an invaluable member of our archiving and preservation community, Candace Ming. When I first met them, I was so excited! To me, just hearing the name “Candace Ming” attached was legendary- they had always felt like superstar-tier. And then I got to hang out with them at an AMIA conference and it was so cool! I just felt like a million bucks!

Recording this was an absolute blast. And I really hope that you enjoy it and get as much out of it as I did. Candace is authentically one of the best humans with some GREAT things to say.

Two quick things:
-this was recorded before the elections so some of the conversation is a *wee* bit dated. This is what happens when life (my life) gets in the way of my podcast and a brilliant conversation. Again- apologies all around.
– please note that I used the pronouns “her/she” in the introduction and beginning of the show. These are not Candace’s preferred pronouns. The correct ones are they/them and those should be used going forward.

And now…Please enjoy the amazing Candace Ming on Archivist’s Alley! As usual, bio and copious links are below the podcast!

Candace Ming is the Media Conservation and Digitization Specialist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.  They are a graduate of NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program. They have a wealth of experience as an archivist (Carnegie Hall Archives, Alaska Film Archives, Missouri History Museum) and as a film projectionist (Landmark Theaters in their native St. Louis). They are the former Project Manager/Archivist of the South Side Home Movie Project where they were responsible for digitizing and preserving all home movies donated to the SSHMP and also conducted community outreach. They are on the Board of Directors for the Center for Home Movies and the Association of Moving Image Archivists. they also serve as Secretary for the International Association of Audiovisual Archives Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.

LINKS! CHECK ‘EM OUT!!!


https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAAHC.SC.0001?s=0&n=10&t=C&q=great+migration&i=0


https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/great-migration-home-movie-projecthttps://www.centerforhomemovies.org/


https://sshmp.uchicago.edu/https://sshmpportal.uchicago.edu/

S4.3: Stephany Kim: Filmmakers of Color, Daily Activism and Pushing Boundaries to Work For a Better Future

I could fill this page and 50 more with words of praise for Stephany Kim.

I miss our lunches at Musso & Frank’s. I miss our laughs and inside baseball talks about archiving, Hollywood and Korean culture.
I never thought she would come on the podcast but finally it happened and more importantly, she came on to discuss the current situation in the US with the protests and #BlackLivesMatter and systemic oppression.
This episode is a little longer than normal (please forgive us) but I think you’ll agree that we had a lot of ground to cover.

I also want to point out that since the time of our recording, three more Black men have been lynched. 5 Black men hung from trees in just a little over a week. The police want to call them suicides.
No Black person looks at a tree and thinks: yeah, that’s how I’m gonna off myself. Just like how all the white folks used to kill my ancestors way back when.
NOT A SINGLE BLACK PERSON IN EVER.
While people protest for BLM, there are calculated publicly visible murders being carried out. Yeah.

And less and less white people are paying attention to the people who are protesting because they have the added distraction of having the US opening up again for business which (inevitably) will only lead to a lot more COVID cases.

That said…Stephany and I had an amazing conversation about what education had missed in the way of POC in film, our varied local experiences of the recent BLM protests, Karen Eruptions and what the archives world is(n’t) doing.
Check it out!
And don’t miss the bio below as well as the mad amounts of links!

Stephany Kim is a Coordinator, Restoration and Preservation at The Walt Disney Studios. She received a BA in Film Studies from Smith College and a MA in English (Media Preservation) from the University of Rochester. Her film-related interests are in the history of silent film intertitles and modern day approaches to intertitle recreation, preservation of home movies and family histories of people of color in the United States, and the celebrity image and its relation to parasocial interactions during the silent film era.

Her free time is usually dedicated to Polaroid portraitures, staring at pie designs (one of her favorite Instagram accounts is @crumbcrush), and daydreaming about fluffy animals and carne asada tacos. She is overly invested in THE GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF even though she doesn’t bake.
Stephany was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley and is unapologetic for her Valley Girl accent and usage of Valspeak.

Links and references from the ‘cast

The racist history of tipping: https://afropunk.com/2018/04/the-racist-history-of-tipping/

Black crime fiction writers

Chester Himes: https://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2017/fall/chester-himes-lonely-crusader-african-american-fiction-writer/

Walter Mosley: http://www.waltermosley.com/

Iceberg Slim: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/books/review-street-poison-the-biography-of-iceberg-slim-studies-the-life-of-a-pimp.html

Barbara Neely: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/11/814603243/remembering-barbara-neely-a-pioneer-in-crime-fiction

Here’s a full list of Black-owned bookstores to support right now:

HTTPS://WWW.TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM/LEISURE/ARTS-AND-CULTURE/G32782756/BLACK-OWNED-BOOKSTORES/

Some ways you can show up for Black Trans Folks: http://www.tgijp.org/from-words-to-action-showing-up-for-black-trans-women.html

A collection of Black-led Queer and Trans orgs to support: https://www.bustle.com/p/32-black-led-queer-trans-organizations-to-support-22959025


And finally…for those wondering about James Wong Howe…
there actually are a few books about him! Check ’em out here:

James Wong Howe, Cinematographer
by Todd Rainsberger

James Wong Howe The Camera Eye: A Career Interview
by Alain Silver

Patricia Ledesma Villon: The Challenges of Home Movies & the Complexity of Asian American Representation

This episode is the official Home Movie Day episode and it is extremely exciting! As you may recall, other guests have discussed the critical value of home movies. The exceptional Snowden Becker  was a guest and she is one of the actual founders of Home Movie Day, Erica Lopez came on and spoke on her vital and unique work on Mexican home movies, and Lynne Kirste  was a guest and we examined the way classic Hollywood depicted themselves in the home movie genre and why those films are such incredible gems in their own right.

I couldn’t be more excited to have Patricia Ledesma Villon be representing and speaking about home movies for Home Movie Day, 2018. In my eyes, she is exactly what the archiving and library world should be embracing and looking for in their new hires and future generations. If you are an employer reading this, take my advice: the qualities Patricia has are those you want. Passion, honesty, conviction and dedication.

As she and I discuss on the show, home movies are not simple nor are they just about fun nostalgia. Many times they are incredibly challenging and they can produce great discomfort in the viewer. This is one of the very important aspects of this moving image genre.

When home movies are shown, class, culture and representation are key elements and should always be part of the presentation. Yet this is rarely done. Home movie texts can always be enjoyed on the basis of narrative or nostalgic pleasure- they are so much fun and so pleasurable to watch– but it does them a disservice to deny their complex historicism and social meaning. Patricia’s work as an intern with CAAM and her own archival scholarship stand out in this manner as she introduces powerful ways of examining these critical moving image works, especially vis-a-vis Asian American communities.

Finally, although we touched on the importance of hiring people of color during our discussion, Patricia emailed me afterwards to emphasize that we should highlight black, indigenous, queer and disabled archivists in our community, especially as we remember the cultural significance of Home Movie Day.

Her bio & some REALLY TERRIFIC links are below, as usual. Hope your Home Movie Day rocks!!

PATRICIA LEDESMA VILLON is an archivist based in Oakland, California. A Bay Area native, she has worked for several Asian media nonprofits in the area. Patricia most recently interned at the Philippine Film Archive (formerly known as the National Film Archive of the Philippines) where she digitally restored a short film submitted to the 2017 Short Film Festival of Switzerland. She is currently interning at the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) where she works on Memories to Light, a project preserving the home movies of Asian American families on Super 8, 8mm and 16mm formats. She received her B.A. in media from the University of California, Berkeley and is a member of Low Light Darkroom and Black Hole Collective Film Lab, a DIY member-run analog still image and motion film collective.

 
Here are some links:
 
About Low Light Darkroom and Black Hole Collective Film Lab: https://lowlightblackholelab.org/
 
About Memories to Light: https://caamedia.org/memoriestolight/
 
Kip Fulbeck’s home movie collection featuring Santa’s Village on Memories to Light: https://caamedia.org/memoriestolight/2015/12/30/throwback-thursday-kip-fulbecks-santas-village-visit-in-1972/
 
Dawn Bohulano Mabalon’s home movie collection featuring Stockton’s Little Manila on Memories to Light: https://caamedia.org/memoriestolight/project/bohulano-family-collection/
 
African American Museum & Library’s “Representing Ourselves: Black Home Movies for All Audiences” on Home Movie Day Saturday, October 20 from – 2:00-4:00pm: http://oaklandlibrary.org/events/african-american-museum-library-oakland/home-movie-day