Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles
A Media Site & LA Film Mixers (2018)
I recently started a Film Organization titled Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles.
The Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers includes a Media Site featuring Original Short Video Content, and Film Criticism in the form of primarily Written Articles, by Queer Female Filmmakers who work in Los Angeles.
The Media Site is about Queer Female Filmmaking specifically, and Queer Female Identity in general.
Aside from the Media Site the Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles will also periodically host Film Discussions and Networking Mixers in Los Angeles. The film discussions, or Film Mixers, will be filmed and posted on the site.
I’m currently Shooting a VIDEO to Launch the Media Site, and Will Do a Crowd-Funding Campaign as well.
The Intent of Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers is to Create a Media Site with Quality Original Short Video Programming, and To Connect, Create and Foster the Queer Female Filmmaking Community in Los Angeles.
The Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers consists of Three Components; a Media Site featuring Original Short Video Content; Film Criticism in the form of primarily Written Articles, also featured on the Media Site; and Film Mixers in Physical Spaces throughout Los Angeles.
Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles is a 501 (c)(3) Nonprofit Arts Organization and will be Membership-based.
All Intellectual Property Rights Remain With Original Content Creators, and all content creators involved may list their contributions on their resumes and social media, etc.
Like I suggested it also the film organization’s intention to have a physical component to the media site as well, in the form of what I call LA Film Mixers.
A common complaint amongst queer women in general is that we don’t have enough physical spaces in Los Angeles anymore, and so I thought it would be nice to get Queer Female Filmmakers in particular to get together in LA to talk about Filmmaking Issues and particularly as they pertain to Queer Women as Minorities, Working in Film.
And this would also include content of, and discussions about, Queer Female Identity in general.
I’m thinking of casual film discussions, Film Mixers, with Queer Female Filmmakers over coffee or lunch or so, at different places in Los Angeles, which I would want to moderate and film, and put up on the site.
And since I have a background in independent filmmaking and film production I also put together a Manifesto of sorts which I think would help filmmakers in getting their projects going.
I will reveal the MANIFESTO in the Video to launch the site. It will be a very general sort of Manifesto, with 4 specific Points only, (as in “rules.”)
And besides this I will get into some filmmaking techniques I have put together to help simplify the overall filmmaking process and keep the budgets down.
All I will say about it for now is that I am taking it back to true independent filmmaking, which in my opinion rightfully belongs to minorities, not only because our stories are by far better than mainstream studio fare but because we have been systematically shut out of mainstream institutions and from mainstream legal and financial resources.
Minorities are by nature and by necessity the true independent artists and always have been, just like mainstream entertainment has traditionally been the arena of the privileged masses.
I believe in nothing less than connecting, creating and fostering a Queer Female Film Movement, and will publish the organization’s MANIFESTO of sorts shortly.
My personal filmmaking experience includes Film School (1992 - 1994,) Film Program at LACC, (as an International Film Student I had to pay out-of-state tuition.) I worked at the art house movie theater chain The Laemmle Theatres all throughout the 1990s. And I Interned and Volunteered at various independent film production companies (including IFC’s Next Wave Films, Samuel Goldwyn Films and Miramax Films,) and film organizations like Film Independent and their Spirit Awards and LA Film Festival in the early 2000s.
In 2001 I produced a very well received John Cassavetes Film Retrospective at the Laemmle Theatres, titled ‘Gena and John: A Cassavetes Retrospective,’ and including the definite documentary on Cassavetes, Charles Kiselyak’s ‘A Constant Forge: The Life and Art of John Cassavetes.’ The 3 months film retrospective showcased the complete directing work of my personal film inspiration John Cassavetes, generally considered “the godfather of American independent filmmaking,” and enjoyed the participation of Cassavetes’ main cast and crew.
Lastly in my own filmmaking experience, I’ve been writing and documenting mostly my own story as a Queer Female Filmmaker all throughout my adult life in Los Angeles, and am working on my own Feature Documentary about LGBTQ US-Immigration and DOMA Immigration-Exclusion Policy, titled ‘The Queer Case for Individual Rights.’
I got my start in the US as an International Film Student from the Netherlands and faced enormous hardship in the anti-LGBTQ US Immigration system, under the Defense Of Marriage Act.
Anyone familiar with the many filmmaking movements throughout film history, (Italian Neo-Realism, French New Wave, the New Hollywood of the 1970s, the New Queer Cinema and Independent Film Movement of the 1990s and Dogma ’95, to name a few,) understands I specifically mean with this that I really want to go back to real independent filmmaking, as in very low-budget, very small crews, simple production values, and a serious focus on human dilemmas over filmmaking techniques and genres, etc. I’m really thinking on being both highly creative and extremely pragmatic as a minority in the film industry, and have absolutely no personal interest in high concept or super hero type of filmmaking.
And I also want to give space on the Media Site for Queer Female Film Criticism, since there’s a dire need for Female Film Critics in general, and Queer Female Film Critics specifically. I think we need our own people to analyze our own stories, rather than let mainstream critics misinterpret our stories and give mediocre reviews based on that.
So again, the Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers consists of Three Components; a Media Site featuring Original Short Video Content; Film Criticism in the form of primarily Written Articles, also featured on the Media Site; and Film Mixers in Physical Spaces throughout Los Angeles.
I have received several Partnership Offers for the Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles, and the Media Site may have a Magazine Publication in conjunction with the writing website Medium through their Medium Partnership Program.
The idea behind the Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers came from a personal need for Queer Female Filmmaking Community, while busy on my Feature Documentary. I hope to raise funds for Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles through Crowd-Funding Campaigns and Grants. I am the Founder of Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles and own all Film Equipment necessary for this project.
I have a film production office in Hollywood, where I run these two projects from, and am definitely actively looking for people who openly identify as Queer Women and who are Filmmakers in Los Angeles.
I’m also looking for some of the more Established Filmmakers in the Queer Female Filmmaking Community to come on board of this organization, specifically on the Board of Directors, as their names and established legitimacy would definitely help with fundraising and marketing efforts.
And generally speaking I’m looking for both Established and Emerging filmmakers, and of different generations as well, to give input on independent filmmaking, through original short video content, video essays, interviews, articles, film discussions over coffee or lunch, drinks, dinner, which I refer to as LA Film Mixers.
The Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers will also be Gender Nonconforming and Trans-Inclusive, and would include Trans-Women, Trans-Men and anyone in between. Naturally I recognize Trans-Men as men, I just feel we can all benefit from positive media exposure together, and from working together in achieving this.
And the Film Organization Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles - A Media Site & LA Film Mixers will be Inclusive of People of All Races and Ethnicities, and for the same reasons. We stand to benefit from working together and supporting each other’s stories.
A point I want to make also is that lot of media sites focus on Millennials and Generations beyond that, but as a person of the Gen-X, (kind of the last of the last pre-internet generations,) I want to include all of our voices, and also give voice to the people who came before us and paved the way for us, so Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles — A Media Site & LA Film Mixers is to be very Intergenerational in general.
I think all of our voices are valid in this Queer Female Filmmaking Experience. I think there are many established filmmakers who didn’t quite get to have the careers they had hoped for because of the oppressive systems they were forced to deal with, and who are now sort of seen as aged out, but who aren’t finished at all, and I want to include those people.
And I also think that the voices of newer generations are valid because they were raised on a lot of information through internet access exactly, and this has worked realistically for good and for bad. I won’t focus on the bad right here but will say that the good that came out of that is that these people are more socially aware and have less patience for idle and escapist entertainment.
For starters I will be looking for Videographers and Editors, as well as people who have strong Marketing, Social Media and Internet Skills, to get the Media Site up and running.
And eventually I will let Content Creators upload their own Original Short Video Content and Written Articles, always through Pre-Approval from the Film Organization however.
To be perfectly honest, as much as I would love to be able to pay people from the start this will not be financially doable for me.
As the Media Site progresses I would want to pay regular contributors but I simply cannot afford anything like that at the moment.
Again, all Content Creators will Retain the Intellectual Property Rights to their Original Content however, and all Content Collaborators involved may list their Contributions on their Resumes and Social Media, etc.
Lastly, this is a passion project for me, which again came forth from my own need for filmmaking community, that I would hope could create and foster community and visibility for Queer Female Filmmakers in Los Angeles, and I am personally living well below my means myself in order to pursue these artistic endeavors.
I identify as a Gender Nonconforming Lesbian, “non-op” Trans-Masculine, Bi-Racial, from the Netherlands, Los Angeles-based, and am a Writer, Filmmaker, Producer. I am the Founder of Queer Female Filmmakers Los Angeles.
My pronouns are: they/them/theirs.
