F-WORD

Project Description

The F-Word is a multimedia justice project for young women of color 18 years of age and over. The F-Word is a program whose objective is to build the next cadre of socially conscious media makers by recruiting a number of young women of color of diverse racial, sexual, economic and linguistic identities, throughout the five boroughs to cultivate their perspectives as media activists. For 18 months participants take part in semiweekly workshops, help at the Chica Luna space in El Barrio from 5pm to 8pm, on media literacy, filmmaking, organizing & advocacy skills and self-healing.

To contact us any questions about The F-Word, pleasse contact Karly Beaumont at: fword@chicaluna.com

MEET THE NEW CLASS

Samantha Chamblee

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Samantha is a former middle school teacher. After graduating from Spelman College with a degree in English she was recruited by Teach For America, a non-profit committed to eliminating educational inequality by enlisting recent college graduates to teach in underserved communities. As a TFA corps member she taught 7th grade English in New York and then London. Her interest in media and activism brought her to Democracy Now!, a grass roots independent news program, in 2005 and she has been there ever since. A budding filmmaker, she has worked on several film shorts in various capacities and is delighted to join Chica Luna’s 2008 F-Word program.

Taishi Duchicela

Taishi can see the ocean in a drop of water. Media educator, activist, artist, mother. She grew up constantly moving from place to place, finally settling down in Oakland, CA for 9 years, however last year moved to Brooklyn, NY in pursuit of infusing all her experiences, stories, and creativity to make socially conscious films.

Alexandra Gutierrez

Alexandra Gutierrez is Dominican, born and raised in New York City. She is an actress and commercial print model who graduated from Lehman College. Alexandra continued to pursue her acting career and has various theater, film/TV credits. She interned at Chica Luna and there she was the Production Coordinator of the 2nd edition of the What About…? Show. Currently, she is taking this time to move from the front of the camera to behind the scenes where she will take on producing and directing.

May Hong-Ying Lin

May Lin was born and raised in Los Angeles but loves living in New York City, with its abundance of public transportation, drastic weather changes, and realness. In 2007, she graduated from Columbia, where she studied Comparative Ethnic Studies and participated in student organizing. She currently works with high school youth in various after school programs in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. In her free time, she volunteers with the Chinese Staff & Workers Association and studies pop culture with intense scrutiny. She looks forward to being a part of the F-Word and to imagining and creating rather than only critiquing.

Natalia Lopez

Born and raised in NYC, Natalia Lopez has been heavily influenced by her work as a youth facilitator and ESL teacher. Starting as a youth member at the Latin American Integration Center, she later returned as a facilitator, developing workshops with her co-worker for new incoming youth. During this time, she was also trained as an ESL teacher for adult immigrant students at the New Immigrant Community Empowerment organization, where she became interested in Popular Education as an empowering and engaging form of pedagogy. As a woman who attributes much of her personal and political growth to social justice organizations, she will continue her growth as an educator and never-ending student as a community organizer at NICE, a participant with the Chica Luna F-word program, and an undergraduate student at Hunter College. At home, she devotes her time to personal arts and crafts projects, as well as avid TV watching.

Tania Padró

A self-described writer since the age of 8, Tania Padró was constantly observing. Her short story writing as a child paved the way for her current screen writing abilities with some additional fine-tuning via a college education. A consummate artist with an observant eye, a passion for her culture and an undying drive to showcase the social ills of a lopsided society, Tania's creativity continues to evolve. Always on a quest to reach individuals in less than fortunate circumstances, she draws from her own experiences and never runs out of hope or inspiration. Through her work, she intends on changing people’s lives, one film at a time.

Ijeoma N. Ude

Ije Ude is a community educator and facilitator. Over the past 10 years, Ije has worked as a youth organizer, sexuality educator and trainer. She has been part of several groups committed to developing community solutions to violence and trauma through healing, dialogue and art. She completed a certificate program at the International Trauma Studies Program and received a NYC Social Justice Fellowship to develop a project to use holistic healing and art to address gender violence. Ije is a trained empowerment facilitator, holistic health counselor and birth assistant. She grew up in Nigeria and currently lives in Brooklyn with her 6-year old son.

Curriculum

In 2006 the program focused on developing each participant as a socially conscience filmmaker. The F-Word curriculum consists of workshops in media literacy training to help understand the messages all forms of media use to influence us. Along with the media literacy training the young women of the F-Word will be trained as screenwriters, directors, producers, cinematographers, and editors. We have several professional filmmakers and other industry members to expand this training.

During the first three to six months of the program each young women begins to explore storytelling techniques by completing a short screenplay (10 pages or less), which is produced by the group on digital video later in the year. Each film production gives each participant an opportunity to explore different roles in a film production.

Lastly, the participants learn how to market and distribute their work. They set up screenings and conduct dialogues about their films in their communities. They will learn how to create press kits, flyers and other publicity materials to publicize these events. Furthermore, they all send their films to film festivals and learn how to pitch them. The feedback they gain from both their community and industry folk will help them evaluate their work and progress.

Ultimately, Chica Luna aims to empower young women of color with the awareness and tools to create and distribute accurate media representations of their experiences and communities.

THE F-WORD FILMS

For a full list of the films created in the F-Word program, please click on the link below.

2006 - 2007 F-WORD FILMS