About the Festival
Festival Co-Founders Heidi Durrow and Fanshen Cox met in New York at an audition for a show about multi-racial people. Both were sure that the other would ’steal’ the role from the only other ‘blue-eyed, curly haired light-skinned’ girl. When both were cast, they began a long and fruitful friendship, supporting each other as artists and through the various challenges they faced surrounding their search for identity on their own terms.
In 2007, the two created the popular podcast: Mixed Chicks Chat, the live, weekly show about being racially and culturally Mixed (www.mixedchickschat.com). The show has a loyal following of live chatters, more than 4,000 downloads per month and won ‘Best Podcast’ from the Black Weblog Awards. The hosts have been featured on NPR, CNN, and in the Guardian, The San Francisco Chronicle and Blur Digital.
It was while talking to guests of Mixed Chicks Chat that Fanshen and Heidi realized they had to create a space where artists who identify as Mixed could display their works and encourage others to do so as well. This is how the Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival was born! The first festival, held in 2008, was a huge success and fostered excitement and a dedication to continue to search out and create content that addresses the Mixed experience.
The Festival is now a fiscally sponsored project of the New York Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit organization, and every year brings together film and book lovers, innovative and emerging artists, and multiracial families and individuals for two days of workshops, readings, film screenings and live performance including music, comedy and spoken word. In the last two years, the Festival has showcased many talented filmmakers, writers, and performers including Rebecca Walker, Kip Fulbeck, Danzy Senna, Kim Wayans & Kevin Knotts, Angela Nissel, Neil Aitken, Sundee Frasier, Karyn Parsons and many many more.
We look forward to seeing your work, encouraging you to continue to share your story and to meeting you at the 2010 Mixed Roots Film & Literary Festival!
