What Are We? in Films:
Mixed Race and Multiracial Identity 50 Years After Loving v. Virginia
June 10, 2017
1:00pm-2:45pm
FREE!
We are excited to share two special film screening programs that feature filmmaker Q&As and also a special discussion with leading scholars in their fields. We will showcase recent films about interracial relationships in the morning program and films about the mixed-race and multiracial experience and identity in the afternoon program. Immediately following the screenings there will be scholar-led talks that connect current storytellers’ work in a larger historical and legal framework and link the social, cultural and economic status of multiracial populations to the broader dynamics and politics of race. There will be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions. Filmmakers will also be available to answer audience questions.
black enuf
dir. Carrie Hawks
Running Time: 22:16 minutes
black enuf* explores the expanding black identity. This animated documentary takes a playful approach to heavier questions of race, difference, and self-acceptance.
“My animated documentary, black enuf*, examines the expanding black identity through a personal journey. The film interweaves stories from my great grandmother’s autobiography, interviews of family & friends, and my hand-drawn memories. Starting off as a queer oddball in a white world, I navigate my path to self-confidence. My tongue-and-cheek humor makes such a heavy topic easier to digest. The visuals mix Monty Python style cut outs, infographics, watercolor, and a variety of illustrative styles.”
Carrie Hawks harnesses the magic of animation to tell stories. Their first film, Delilah, won the Best Experimental Award at the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival (2012). Their films have screened films at BlackStar, CinemAfrica, and MIX Queer Experimental Film Festival. The Jerome Foundation gave generous funding to black enuf* Prior to filmmaking, Hawks concentrated on visual art and design. Their work addresses gender, sexuality, and race.
Silences
dir. Octavio Warnock-Graham
Running Time: 22:00
Bi-racial filmmaker Octavio Warnock-Graham attempts to learn the identity of his father and the circumstances of his birth, two topics never discussed by his white mother in their suburban household. Set in Maumee, Ohio, the filmmaker struggles to understand his mother, Harriet Warnock, and her decision to suppress her son’s racial identity. It is a question that no one in the family has been asked or can answer.
The camera captures the family’s inner demons — one mention of Warnock-Graham’s half-black parentage nearly gives his white grandmother a heart attack. Warnock-Graham’s family embodies the denial found in multicultural families across the country, and reminds us that the ideal of racial purity persists in America.
Silences is not about race and it is not about shame. It’s about the problems that every parent faces in raising a child and every child faces in coming to terms with the choices, for better or for worse, that a parent makes.
Octavio Warnock-Graham’s documentary Silences is currently used as an educational tool by over 200 universities around the United States.
He is a member of the worker owned-cooperative, Time of Day Media, which collaborates exclusively with social justice organizations and he produces and edits for CUNY TV, the largest university television station in the country.
#EmergingUS: Mixed
dir. Shauna Sigglekow
Running Time: 6:00 minutes
“What are you?” Mixed race people in America are constantly being asked this question. In this #EmergingUS video, members of HAPA USC, flip the script by asking people on the street “What are YOU? We also explore the different modes in which multiracial people, an increasing group across the country, define and classify themselves.
Shauna works as the Executive Video Producer for #EmergingUS productions, and for the immigration focused non-profit, Define American. In her previous work, she was an Assistant Editor at MeetingHouse Productions and Tommie Copper Productions, a Senior Production Assistant at Zero Point Zero Productions, a Coordinating Producer at Hot Air Productions and a Senior Associate Producer & Casting lead for the Emmy-Nominated MTV special White People. She holds of Bachelors of Arts from Oberlin College. As a storyteller, she’s dedicated to exploring the complexity of our American identity.
Reginald Daniel is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has numerous publications that examine race and multiraciality, including More Than Black? Multiracial Identity and the New Racial Order (2002), Race and Multiraciality in Brazil and the United States: Converging Paths? (2006), and Machado de Assis: Multiracial Identity and the Brazilian Novelist (2012). I am also co-editor of Race and the Obama Phenomenon: The Vision of a More Perfect Multiracial Union (2014) and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Critical Mixed Race Studies (JCMRS).
Maria Leonard Olsen (Moderator) is a lawyer, radio talk show host, journalist, writing retreat leader and author of “Mommy, Why’s Your Skin So Brown?” and “Not the Cleaver Family—The New Normal in Modern American Families.” Maria graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, served in the Clinton Administration’s Justice Department, raised two multiracial children, and fostered newborns awaiting adoption. She’s written for The Washington Post, Washingtonian, Parenting, and Washington For Women, among other publications.
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program or on this website do not necessarily represent those of California Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Exploring the impact of race and culture on relationships, PG is specifically pertaining to parents that feel uncomfortable with their children being romantically involved with someone outside of their race/culture. The film ventures through different avenues of dealing with this issue, while still maintaining one’s relationship with their parents.
In this interactive storytelling workshop you will learn how to tell your Mixed experience story. Using improv, breath awareness, and voice techniques, participants will learn skills to inhabit curiosity and their full selves. This interactive workshop is led by professional actor and master teacher Rayme Cornell.
Rayme Cornell is an Assistant Professor on the Performance Faculty at UNLV. She teaches in the Graduate studio and is the Head of Undergraduate Actor training. She has been a Professional Actor for over 20 years. Rayme is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Actors Equity Association. Rayme received her B.A. in Musical Theatre from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and her MFA in Acting & Directing from the University of Missouri Kansas City in association with the Missouri Repertory Theatre. She was the host of the national award winning PBS show Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy. She has worked in film, television, Off Broadway and with some of the nation’s most prestigious Regional Theatres including, The Old Globe, The Alley, Crossroads, ATC, The Vineyard, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Primary Stages, The O’Neill, Missouri Rep., Unicorn Theatre and with New York’s famous Acting Company. Rayme is a private coach for professionals. Her speech and acting clients range from network News Anchors and Celebrity Chefs to UFC champions. Rayme is also known for her extensive voice-over work. Rayme is a Master Teacher at the Don LaFontaine Voice Over Lab at the Screen Actors Guild Foundation in Los Angeles and New York. Rayme has represented such products as L’Oreal, Ford, Dunkin Donuts, Cingular, Singulair, Lifetime, WE, Oxygen Network, USA Network, MTV, VH1, BET, ESPN, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Republican and Democratic Candidates and many more. Her greatest role to date is that of being Brick’s Mom.
It’s 2017. What’s the big deal about the mixed-race experience? It’s a question we keep hearing from many younger people. Is the mixed-race conversation is still relevant 50 years after Loving and given the current political climate on issues of race? Panelists of four different generations address these issues. There will be extended time for audience Q&A. 
One of the hottest comedians on the Hollywood scene, Actor, tv/radio host, and activist, Tehran Von Ghasri, is a Washington DC native. Mixed Iranian and African-American, Tehran is known for his multiculturalism, diversity, and unique life perspective. With degrees in International politics, economics, and law, Tehran often brings activism and social commentary to life on stage through his comedy. A Laugh Factory favorite, Tehran has been seen on Fox, Bravo, Pivot, Revolt and Comedy Central.
Dr. Greg Kimura was ordained at age twenty-five in Alaska. He then obtained a PhD in philosophy of religion and taught. He then served as the head of Alaska’s humanities council before taking on the role of president/CEO at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. He now serves as Rector of St. Andrew’s Church in Ojai, Ca. Kimura is hapa, half Anglo and half Japanese.
Karen Grigsby Bates is a Los Angeles-based correspondent for NPR, where she covers race, identity and culture issue for the network’s award-winning Code Switch team. Her work often appears on Morning Edition and All Things Considered. A former contributing editor to the Los Angeles Times op-ed page, Bates’ work has also appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian UK, Essence and Emerge magazines.
Crystal
Elizabeth Hudson is a native New Yorker who has lived all over the world in pursuit of her medical education. She proudly identifies as a mixed race woman and has come to embrace the unique experience of being ethnically ambiguous. She is local physician who specializes in the care of Infectious Diseases, with an emphasis on HIV care. Elizabeth lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son. 
“We are extremely pleased to have 23andMe as a sponsor,” says Festival Founder Heidi Durrow who calls herself an Afro-Viking because she is African-American and Danish. “The company provides a valuable service that helps people discover the complexity of their backgrounds. The DNA stories 23andMe reveal highlight how the Mixed experience is one that we all share.”
