Bad Feminists Making Films

Director and cinematographer Alexxiss Jackson shares her journey as a visual storyteller committed to social justice: from being an eight-year-old making home movies starring Transformers and Barbie dolls, to being one of few women of color in film school, to working double to get half the recognition on film sets. To our question "What is it like to be a woman of color in the film industry?" Alexxiss offers nua...

Filmmaker, organizer, and impact producer Set Hernandez Rongkilyo waxes lyrical about how to bring together the worlds of storytelling and organizing in the service of building movements. They share their journey of feeling like the only person without a social security number to being connected to an entire universe of undocumented superheroes fighting in the migrant justice movement. Set reflects on how film is a sharp w...

Filmmaker, photographer, and professor Leena Jayaswal joins the show for a deep-dive into her current film project MIXED. She describes her filmmaking journey with fellow director Caty Borum Chattoo, as they--two mothers, one brown, one white--set off to explore the experiences of mixed race families fifty years after Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage in the U.S. Leena reflects on the vulnerability of shari...

Artist and filmmaker Hilary Hess describes her journey from doing social media at a public television station to directing a PBS digital series, becoming the videographer for Bernie Sanders and working with Melinda Gates. She created her own opportunities and intensely focused on what she was passionate about rather than the limitations she or others may have perceived about her. Maggie, Emily and Hilary discuss the diffic...

BFMF goes on the road for an evening of storytelling with emerging and seasoned feminist filmmakers from across the U.S. who break down the “how tos” of mounting a decolonial lens onto your camera. Whether it's challenging stereotypes, forging a space for alternative narratives, or digging into solidarity work, we hear from Tricia Creason-Valencia, Elena Herminia Guzman, Laura Menchaca Ruiz, and Nadia Shihab about filmmaki...

Artist and activist Monica Jahan Bose describes “rising up” to challenge the Kavanaugh nomination by teaming up with other women media-makers. Monica reflects on where her fearlessness comes from—her background as an environmental lawyer and performance artist. She shares her unique approach to filmmaking and other art forms as one of “forming community”—using storytelling and shared artistic authority with women to tackle...

Dawne Langford, DC-based filmmaker and creative producer tells us about “discovery syndrome”--or what happens when women and people of colors’ ideas are picked up without credit--and the hard lessons she’s learned about film collaborations with communities. Describing her journey from her beginnings at a black-owned public TV station (Howard University’s WHUT) to attending the highly selective PBS Producers Academy, Dawne ...

What does it mean to decolonize film not just in theory, but in practice? In episode 2, Maggie and Emily speak with filmmaker PJ Raval, who recently led an all-Filipino directing and producing team to create Call Her Ganda, which tells the story of three women intimately invested in justice for Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman who was brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine; together they galvanize a political uprising, p...

Emily and Maggie kick off the podcast by dropping some bad feminist facts about the sad state of the filmmaking industry. Our guests Elena Guzman and Miasarah Lai talk about why feminism needs an asterisk, and how it has come to be a shorthand for knowing who you want to work with. Elena and Miasarah discuss the importance of feminist filmmaking as an anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice, and share some bad feminist mo...