2014 GRANT PROJECTS
• DOCUMENTARY FILM
What Happened to Danny • $11,000
ManSee Kong and Third World Newsreel
What Happened to Danny by first-time documentary filmmaker ManSee Kong tells the life and death of Danny Chen, a U.S. Army Private from Chinatown, NYC whose alleged hazing and ostracism at the hands of his supervisors led to his apparent suicide. The film follows Danny’s mother and community organizers as they advocate for justice. This project was funded in 2012 by the AWGC.
• EDUCATIONAL VIDEO
Asian Kids Don’t Count • $11,000
Barbara Lee, Pointmade Films, and the Calhoun School
Asian Kids Don’t Count, is one of 13 educational videos in a series on racism, aimed at teens that will complement a completed documentary film, I’m Not Racist… Am I? The project includes a toolkit for teachers and teens that will explore macro issues of racism such as bigotry and privilege and stereotyping including the model minority myth and derogatory depictions of Asians in the media.
• MURAL
We Come from the Future • $11,000
Vaimoana Niumeitolu and Ping Chong & Company
We Come from the Future is envisioned as a public mural in Sunset Park, home to Brooklyn’s large Asian American community. Led by artist Vaimoana Niumeitolu, the project will work with immigrant women, mothers and grandmothers to depict immigrant women’s daily lives of courage and strength. The project will include mural classes and mentoring for three young women muralists.
• STORYTELLING AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Shifting the Power of Storytelling into the Hands of Women • $9,000
CAAAV (Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence)
Shifting the Power of Storytelling into the Hands of Women is a multi-generational project using storytelling and photography in partnership with the Chinatown Tenants Union and Asian Youth in Action. The project will shed light on issues such as gentrification, rezoning, affordable housing, police violence, and stop and frisk. Artwork will be publicly exhibited and featured in CAAAV advocacy campaigns.
• GRAPHIC NOVEL
DANGER! Police Involvement in Mass Deportation • $11,000
The Immigrant Defense Project and the Fund for the City of New York
DANGER! Police Involvement in Mass Deportation is a graphic novel that aims to help immigrant communities navigate the complex intersections of the criminal justice and immigration systems and rally support for the fight against deportation. The project is a collaboration of the Immigration Defense Project, the Sex Workers Project and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.
• COMMUNITY STORYTELLING
Kavad: Mother Tongue • $7,500
Kundiman, Inc.
Kavad: Mother Tongue is a community storytelling project comprised of interviews, writing workshops, new media and a public reading encompassing the stories of three generations of women, reflecting on the difficulties and triumphs of building new lives in America. Led by Kundiman-affiliated poets, the project includes oral history, an online archive and creative writing workshops at the Chinatown Youth Initiative, South Asian Youth Action (SAYA!) and UniPro (Philipino American Unity for Progress).
• MULTIMEDIA
Priya’s Shakti • $9,000
Rattapallax, Inc.
Priya’s Shakti is an innovative art, cultural and multimedia project, which includes a graphic novel, smartphone apps, and video, designed to draw attention to and activate responses to gender-based violence in India, arising from the 2012 brutal gang rape on a bus in New Delhi. Drawing on Hindu myth and classic Bollywood films, the project reorients traditional Hindu tales with a modern feminist sensibility and features the stories of real-life survivors of sexual assault. The project plans to launch to exhibit at the Mumbai Comic Con and several US cities and develop a teachers’ guide and workshops at City Lore in the East Village, NYC. The project won the 2014 Tribeca Film Institute’s New Media Fund from the Ford Foundation.