What’s Up with Docs feat. Jennifer Crystal Chien

Filmmaker, activist and co-founder of Re-Present Media Jennifer Crystal Chien joins host Toni Bell in examining the need to generate new and more authentic representations and portrayals of BIPOC communities and expand those stories to other ways of storytelling.

This discussion engages the vital question of who is determining what is of interest and to whom. The question of an audience is an important one because it is often asked from the white dominant perspective, which influences the filmmaking process and limits topics and story arcs deemed acceptable for mainstream storytelling, thus barring some BIPOC filmmakers from accessing funding structures if they do not follow a specific type of mainstream narrative.

Jennifer’s theory of change for the field is rooted in liberation and the spirit of the song she picked for this episode by the late great Curtis Mayfield, “Keep On Keeping On”.

Length: 82’48’’
Recorded in 2021

Moderator: Toni Bell
Music Composer: Marcus Lori
Sound Design: Timon Misselhorn
Editors: René Blümel, Anne Rethfeldt

You can find out more about our collaborators here.