Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Review from Jennifer Baumgardner!

This Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for the support of some awesome feminists. What are you feeling grateful for? Gratitude is contagious... comment below to share!

"This culture is long on lamenting the sexualization of women and girls, but short on actually listening to women and girls talk about their own experiences with sex, being sexy, and sexuality. Melissa Tapper Goldman's Subjectified says that women don't want to be reduced to their sexuality, but they don't want to have to deny it, either. This is feminist storytelling--and it is powerful."
--Jennifer Baumgardner, creator of the I Had an Abortion Project and author of Look Both Ways: Girls and Sex, Manifesta, and Abortion & Life.

Friday, November 12, 2010

From the road

I just wrapped up an incredible trip to Bowdoin College.

It is always amazing to get on a plane in the hecticness of New York, surrounded by buildings and asphalt, and find myself amid green trees and just an hour later. Maine is incredible.

Bowdoin was super welcoming and I had a chance to meet Leah Pepe, the student organizer for Safe Space, a campus organization dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual violence, and Melissa Quinby, the Director of the Women's Resource Center. Both groups helped to bring Subjectified to campus.

The Bowdoin newspaper did a story on Subjectified as well. Very cool! You can read it here. It's always interesting to read other people's perspectives on Subjectified, and always strange to read my own quotes. I need to work on speaking grammatically in conversation! Recently, quite a few people have asked me what I personally learned in the process of making the doc and how it affected me. That is good food for thought. I can't quite know the answer yet because the process is not yet over. The succinct answer is what I told the Bowdoin Orient writer, Quinn Cohane "'I feel much freer to express myself, and that's been really useful in my personal life and the way I relate to other people,' said Goldman. 'I had to confront things I was uncomfortable with head on, things I didn't even realize I was uncomfortable with.'"

The longer answer is more complicated. I can honesty say that every single one of these interviews changed me and made me recognize something in myself that I had never acknowledged or understood. It's not too useful for me to speak in these sweeping generalities, so I will come up with some specific examples. More on this later.

In the meanwhile, this shooting/screening trip continues. I'll be in the southwest for a few days and eventually up to UC Berkeley for the event on Thursday! All are welcome: 145 Dwinelle Hall at 7PM on 11/18.

/Melissa

Monday, November 1, 2010

Screenings full steam ahead!

It's been eventful over here as I'm trying to finish up post-production (and even a little bit of production! More on that later), while moving forward with lots of campus screenings using the existing version of Subjectified. I've also been taking care of business and legal stuff, which is less fun but also very important.

Upcoming events!
I am very excited to be doing screenings and discussions at Bowdoin College in Maine (11/10) and at UC Berkeley (11/18). I am also working on another mystery screening in January! Stay in touch for details....

Other big news
I am super excited to be working with John Weston of Futura Productions on our sound mix. John is an awesome guy and has been terrific to work with so far. It's so heartening to know that we have the support of men as well as women on this project! John will help to refine the rough edges of this DIY project.

I am working in parallel to John to refine the video components. All the money that I didn't have to start this project translated into my using very basic equipment, which is translating into a lot of time on the back end, fixing things. I had no idea that I'd get so far with Subjectified that day when I walked into the electronics store and looked for the cheapest digital video camera with a mic input... Five years and thousands of hours of work later, I am very close to a final product that (hopefully) does justice to the incredible bravery of the women who told their stories on my camera!

There is other news to do with the final push for production/post-production, but that will have to be another blog post. More content soon, I promise.

Recent events!
We've had some really successful events recently, including a screening and Q&A at Lesley University, and a screening and fascinating discussion at Moishe/Kavod House in Brookline, MA, put together by their Sex Ed Team. The Moishe/Kavod Sex Ed Team does young adult sex ed at their social justice community center. The discussion was facilitated by Bonnie Solomon and Mimi Arbeit of the blog Sex Ed Transforms.

Daphne Strassmann wrote a very stimulating blog post through the Lesley Women's Center about Subjectified and the culture of oversharing. (She doesn't think that Subjectified is part of the oversharing problem, by the way!) I really appreciated her insights. It helps that she loves the project! She did a fantastic job putting together the event at Lesley and really going to bat for Subjectified.

I also had the pleasure to show an excerpt from the doc at Dr. Amy Rutstein-Riley's course on Women in Culture and Society, and to conduct a discussion with the class. You can see photos on facebook through the Lesley Women's Center. It's so fun and refreshing to encounter young women grappling with these ideas, sometimes for the first time. I wish they could be more involved with the project. By the way, if you are reading this and you want to get involved, I could totally use the help! Be in touch.

//Melissa

Monday, July 26, 2010

News, slowly but surely

It has been a busy few months for me, mostly with things totally outside of Subjectified. I needed some time to finish grad school, among other exciting projects. Now I'm back full-time. The news right now is not so interesting for those watching from the outside, but I'm focusing on important long-term ventures in terms of creative ways to distribute the project and some final issues with post-production.

It looks like we will have another public screening in the Boston area in the fall! More to come on this. I'd love to expand beyond our many tremendous opportunities in Boston, so please be in touch if you want to see Subjectified screened elsewhere.

Anyway, don't let the radio silence fool you, we have lots of good stuff in the works. I just have to go underground for a little while to make it happen!

Melissa

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Upcoming: Boston and Wellesley

We are getting excited for the Boston International Film Festival screening on Saturday, April 24th! We will have a party afterwards- check in for details. Please contact us if you can help put posters around Boston before the event Also, we have another exciting event coming up soon in the Boston area.

Wellesley students and Wellesley-area people: come see Subjectified at Wellesley College, followed by a Q&A with the director! Wednesday, May 5th at 7PM in Collins Cinema. For non-Wellesley affiliates, suggested donation of $5 for students and $10 others. Sponsored by the Wellesley Sexual Health Educators.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Boston International Film Festival

Subjectified is having its festival premiere at the Boston International Film Festival! Please join us on Saturday, April 24th at 6PM. More information online at the BIFF website. Please note, the tickets link isn't accurate right now, but this is the direct link to Fandango where you can get your tickets for Session 37. We will follow the screening with a premiere party nearby where we will answer any questions you have about the project. I will be there and I'm hopeful that Alexis will be in attendance as well.

We're also planning a screening at Wellesley College this spring through the Sexual Health Educators organization. Later this spring, we're hoping to work with the Boston College Underground Film Festival to show Subjectified at B.C. Check here for updated information or join the email list so you don't miss out on a screening in your area.

/Melissa

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Fun at MIT

The MIT screening was amazing! 160 people, standing room only and an incredibly fun q&a with interview subject Alexis Van Pelt and myself. I met some very interesting people who are hoping to bring Subjectified to several other campuses in the Boston area, and hopefully some home screenings as well.

The event was also featured on the Boston Phoenix's picks of the week and the blog of The American Virgin. Thanks to everyone who turned up. Please join the email list if you'd like to hear about upcoming screenings.

/Melissa

Saturday, January 30, 2010

More great coverage

We've been featured on the sex blog Carnal Nation! I'm glad to see more people becoming interested in this subject.

We've got some creative distribution strategies in the works, so join the email list to stay up to date with news. As always, contact me if you'd like to see Subjectified screened in your city. I'm getting some great responses from people and we're hoping to have a screening schedule up soon.

/Melissa

Monday, January 25, 2010

Cool shout out

Hey people. We got a cool shout-out from Rachel at the Our Bodies Ourselves blog today!

Everything is looking good for the screening next week. I hope to see all of you (in the Boston are) there.

/Melissa

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Screening in Cambridge MA coming up!

Please join us for a FREE screening of Subjectified at MIT in Cambridge, MA! The documentary will be followed by a Q&A session with the filmmaker. We are thrilled to be a part of Women in Film/Video New England's Chicks Make Flicks series, hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-sponsored by the MIT Program in Women's and Gender Studies, who have made this free screening available to the public.

Thursday February 4 at 7:00PM in room 6-120 inside the MIT Campus. Note to everyone: the MIT campus is a little bit confusing! Give yourself a few extra minutes to find the room, which you can access through the big dome on Mass Ave.

Feel free to RSVP to the facebook event and become a fan on facebook to receive updates.

For more information, check out the listing on the Women in Film/Video New England website http://www.womeninfilmvideo.org/programs.chicksmakeflicks.php.

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