CALL OUT FOR SISTAS TELLING IT LIKE IT IS 2006: BAY AREA WOMEN, TRANS, AND GENDERQUEERS OF COLOR SUMMER MEDIA JUSTICE DIGITAL STORYTELLING CAMP

The Sistas of Third World Majority are putting out a call for our San Francisco Bay Area Women, Trans and Genderqueers of Color Digital Storytelling Workshop. This Bay Area focused digital storytelling workshop will be held in San Francisco, CA on July 28 - 30, 2006.

WHAT IS SISTAS TELLING IT LIKE IT IS 2006: MEDIA JUSTICE DIGITAL STORYTELLING CAMP?

During the three days of the workshop, women, trans, and genderqueers of color organizers from all over the Bay Area will gather together to get trained in creating their own three-to-five minute video. This training includes introductions to the basics of scripting a movie, camera and interview basics, as well as how to use Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, all in a Media Justice centered curriculum. All participants in the training will also be part of a joint screening in October for Domestic Violence Awareness month. So, if your organization has a story to tell about how women, trans, and genderqueers of color like you are resisting violence and making Justice real for your community, and you would like to build with other organizers, then the TWM Summer Media Justice workshop is for you!

This workshop is a pilot of our new national Media Justice Arts Training Initiative which will replicate this workshop nationally for various sectors of the Social Justice field, such as prison justice, immigrant rights, environmental justice, indigenous rights, educational justice, reproductive rights, queer and trans justice, as well as in various regions such as the Southwest, the Midwest, the Southeast, and the Northwest. If you are not a Bay Area based organizer but want to get trained and be part of this movement please contact the TWM office at: 510.465.6941 or e-mail: wanda@cultureisaweapon.org.

LIGHTS, CAMERA, TAKE ACTION: MEDIA JUSTICE NOW!

As women, trans, and genderqueers of color we face violence in many places. Whether its state violence through war, prisons, or unjust immigration policy, we also confront it at the workplace, our schools and even our homes. At TWM we help organizers wake up to the media abuse that assaults our communities everyday. Whether it is painting immigrants and youth as criminals and locking them up in the abusive prison systems, ignoring our schools as they fall apart, or not showing the human and monetary costs of enlisting youth in the military, we are well aware of the ways that corporate media tell stories that reflects corporate interest and not our communities' best interests in social justice.

Media Justice speaks to the need for the creation of just media structures that are liberated from corporate control and consolidation and are accountable to our communities. This workshop will contribute to the long-term media capacity of women, trans, and genderqueer organizers and their organizations working for Social and Media Justice around the Bay Area, whose organizing work often depends on, but is often kept from access to mainstream media outlets. So, if you are tired of the media not telling it like it is, then lights, camera, and take action now by applying below!

WHO CAN APPLY TO SISTAS TELLING IT LIKE IT IS 2006: BAY AREA WOMEN, TRANS, AND GENDERQUEERS OF COLOR
SUMMER MEDIA JUSTICE TRAINING CAMP

This workshop is open to women, trans, genderqueers of color organizers and their organizations who are based in the Bay Area that are interested in gaining media production skills to support and enhance their organizations' campaigns. Applicants must be currently based at an organization in the Bay Area. Through the support of the San Francisco Foundation, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Community Technology Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Bay Area Video Coalition, selected organizations will be fully funded to attend the three-day training workshop. Each participating organization will be required to send one organizational representative. All admitted applicants must be willing to participate both in the workshop and in the community screening in October, 2006. Submitted applications will be reviewed by TWM staff who will determine the participating eight (8) organizations.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Digital stories created out of past TWM workshops are available for online viewing at the TWM Web site: www.cultureisaweapon.org (click on the link, "story").

Tell It Like It Is 2002 hosted 20 youth organizations from around the country in Oakland, California. Tell It Like It Is 2004: Target Hollywood, hosted 30 youth organization from around the country in Hollywood, California. To purchase a DVD of the stories created during Tell It Like It Is 2004: Target Hollywood, please email Wanda Dabkoska, wanda@cultureisaweapon.org