Saturday June 11 11:00am-12:30pm
National Center for Democracy
Tateuchi Democracy Forum
Multiracial Identity (Directed by Brian Chinhema)
Multiracial people are the fastest growing demographic in America, yet there is no official political recognition for mixed-race people. Multiracial Identity explores the social, political, and religious impact of the multiracial movement. Different racial and cultural groups see multiracialism differently. For some Whites multiracialism represents the pollution of the White race. For some Blacks it represents an attempt to escape Blackness. And for some Asians, Latinos, and Arabs, multiracialism can be seen as ill equipped to perpetuate cultural traditions and therefore represents the dilution of the culture.
Brian Chinhema was born in Harare, Zimbabwe. Following high school at an all boys boarding school, he enrolled at Missouri State University, where he majored in finance hoping to be an investment banker. After meeting a white-identifying Caucasian-Asian biracial girl at a concert, Brian lit on the concept for “Multiracial Identity,” his passion-project.
Saturday June 11 2:30-4:30pm
National Center for Democracy
Tateuchi Democracy Forum
Yelling to the Sky (Directed and Written by Victoria Mahoney). In a New York neighborhood, the youngest of two mixed-race sisters named Sweetness O’Hara, spends the better part of being seventeen navigating an identity between the known: a violent life of crime, and the unknown: a life of purpose and meaning.
YELLING TO THE SKY is the debut feature film for writer, director and producer, Victoria Mahoney. The project is one of a handful of films to be accepted to the Directors, Screenwriters & Producers Sundance Institute Labs. The film stars Zoe Kravitz Jason Clarke, Antonique Smith, Tim Blake Nelson, Shareeka Epps, Yolonda Ross and, in the follow-up film role to her2010 Best Actress Oscar-nominated role in “Precious”, Gabourey Sidibe.
Shot in the winter of 2009 in Queens, NY, the 35mm film features cinematography by Reed Morano (“Frozen River”). In June 2010, Victoria Mahoney and producer Billy Mulligan took the project through the 2010 IFP Narrative Filmmakers Lab. In July 2010, Victoria Mahoney, Reed Morano and Zoe Kravitz were each named individually as three of the “American New Wave 25” by Ioncinema.com, a list compiled of the 25 indie filmmakers who will make an
impact in the industry in years to come. The film website Shadow and Act also included Mahoney on it’s “Filmmakers to Watch” list. In September 2010, Mahoney was chosen as one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine who called the film a
“powerful, emotionally nuanced debut film”. In November 2010, Elle Magazine included Mahoney in their annual “Women in Hollywood” issue as one of three up-and-coming female directors to watch out for in 2011. Yelling to the Sky was invited to premiere in Competition at the Berlin Film
Festival in February, 2011. In the 61 years of the Berlin Film Festival, Mahoney is the first woman of African-American descent, and only the 4th
American woman, to have their debut feature film premiere in the prestigious Competition category. In March 2011, the film had it’s North American premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
“A powerful, emotionally nuanced debut…”
- Filmmaker Magazine
“Yelling to the Sky” boasts a strong directorial voice…
Mahoney was clearly driven by a genuine creative gift.”
- Variety
“An assured debut Yelling to the Sky’s quiet intensity
is buoyed by Kravitz’ affecting performance.”
- Boston Herald
Sunday June 12 3:00-6:00pm
National Center for Democracy
Tateuchi Democracy Forum
One Big Hapa Family (Directed and Written by Jeff Chiba Stearns)
After a realization at a family reunion, half Japanese Canadian filmmaker, Jeff Chiba Stearns, embarks on a journey of self-discovery to find out why everyone in his Japanese-Canadian family married interracially after his grandparents’ generation.
This feature live action and animated documentary explores why almost 100& of all Japanese-Canadians are marrying interracially, the highest out of any other ethnicity in Canada, and how their mixed children perceive their unique multiracial identities.
The stories from four generations of a Japanese-Canadian family come to life through the use of innovative animation techniques created by some of Canada’s brightest independent animators, including, Louise Johnson, Ben Meinhardt, Todd Ramsay, Kunal Sen, Jeff Chiba Stearns, and Jonathan Ng. One Big Hapa Family challenges our perceptions of purity and makes us question if mixing is the end of multiculturalism as we know it.
Jeff Chiba Stearns is an award-winning independent documentary and 
animation filmmaker from Kelowna, B.C., of Japanese and European heritage. In 2001 he founded Meditating Bunny Studio Inc., which specializes in animation and documentary films. . His films have screened at hundreds of film festivals around the world, garnered 22 awards and broadcast internationally. Chiba Stearns is also a college animation instructor and has written and lectured on filmmaking and animation, as well as multiracial identity and cultural awareness.
