C3: Rise Up

FREE EVENT

This artist conversation will be hosted via Zoom. Click here to RSVP.

Join us every Saturday (12pm PT)  in October for a C3:CONVERSE series in partnership with the Asian American Documentary Network (A•DOC) and Open Your Eyes & Think MF.

Join us for an artist conversation with filmmakers on the rise as we talk about their first feature documentary film. Featured filmmakers are Yi Chen (FIRST VOTE), Alice Gu (THE DONUT KING), and Jiayan “Jenny” Shi (FINDING YINGYING), hosted and moderated by Nanfu Wang (HOOLIGAN SPARROW, ONE CHILD NATION).

Yi Chen is a documentary filmmaker based in Washington, DC, known for FIRST VOTE, a feature length documentary supported by the Ford Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, ITVS, Kartemquin Films, and Southern Documentary Fund. It will be broadcast  on American Reframed beginning October 20. Yi is a 2019 Open Society Foundations’ Soros Equality Fellow. She holds an MFA in Film and Media Arts from American University.

Alice Gu is a Los Angeles native who began her career as a Director of Photography, working with renowned directors Werner Herzog, Stacy Peralta, and Rory Kennedy, among others. Her commercial clients for print and live action include Beats by Dre, ESPN, Apple, Peta, and more. She was the director of photography for the film TAKE EVERY WAVE: THE LIFE OF LAIRD HAMILTON, which made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017. THE DONUT KING is Alice’s feature directorial debut. Alice is currently in pre-production for a whistle-blower documentary and an episodic project, set to be announced later this year.

Jiayan “Jenny” Shi is a Chicago-based documentary filmmaker who is passionate about social justice issues regarding people of color. Her debut feature documentary FINDING YINGYING was selected to premiere at 2020 SXSW Film Festival and won the Special Jury Recognition for Breakthrough Voice. Jenny is a graduate of Kartemquin’s Diverse Voices In Docs program, a TFI Network alum and a Women at Sundance Adobe fellow.

Nanfu Wang is a Chinese filmmaker living in New Jersey. She directed, produced, filmed, and edited feature documentaries HOOLIGAN SPARROW (Sundance 2016), I AM ANOTHER YOU (SXSW 2017), and ONE CHILD NATION (Sundance 2019).

Established by film publicists David Magdael and Vince Johnson, OPEN YOUR EYES & THINK MF supports films and filmmakers that may not fit within the current distribution/exhibition system.  The goal is to provide access to films that are challenging and changing the landscape of truth telling and story creation. These filmmakers include BIPOC, LGBTQ + and other content creators who are on the margins.  OYEATMF provides exhibition opportunities, resources, and the creation of meaningful discussions for and by filmmakers who are challenging us to think.

Missed the live conversation? Watch it below!