AWC Spotlight | So Young Shelly Yo

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AWC Spotlight | So Young Shelly Yo

So Young Shelly Yo is a first-generation, Korean American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Her short films have screened and received accolades at film festivals around the world, including LAAPFF. As an AWC fellow, she challenged herself with making a short documentary after a number of widely-screened and award-winning narrative shorts.

Read more about Shelly’s AWC fellowship experience, her first feature film, and what she has been up to!

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AWC Spotlight | Jeff Man

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AWC Spotlight | Jeff Man

A Maryland-raised, Los Angeles-based filmmaker, Jeff Man attributes his success as an artist to the community and friends he made through VC and his 2012 AWC Fellowship. After writing and directing Santa Claus (2017), which received a Special Jury Mention at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Jeff is excited to continue his career and direct his first feature-length film in 2023.

Read more about how participating in AWC, LAAPFF, and being a Digital Histories instructor shaped Jeff into the person and artist he is today.

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Franklin S. Odo (1939–2022)

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Franklin S. Odo (1939–2022)

Franklin Odo, a prominent Asian American Studies scholar, activist and long-time friend and supporter of Visual Communications, passed away on September 28, 2022. A third-generation Japanese American born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Franklin was a forebear in the Ethic Studies Movement. He was one of the 4 editors of the first anthology focusing on Asian Americans, Roots: An Asian American Reader, which became the nationwide standard textbook in Asian American Studies for many years, and the author of the first VC-published book, In Movement: A Pictorial History of Asian America.

Franklin’s legacy is imposing. We mourn the loss, commemorate and celebrate Franklin’s life and far-reaching contributions and impacts to the many individuals and communities he has touched and uplifted.

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AWC Spotlight | Shaun Vivaris

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AWC Spotlight | Shaun Vivaris

Shaun Vivaris, a New York-raised and Los Angeles-based filmmaker, has found his community after his 2016–2017 Armed With a Camera Fellowship. A natural storyteller and formerly aspiring novelist who makes genre-bending fantasies that have screened at multiple international film festivals, Shaun strives in his works for authentic Asian American characters and stories beyond mere representation.

In light of the release of his first feature film Lisa Mania on August 23, we checked in with Shaun and discussed his career since his AWC Fellowship, the making of Lisa Mania, his creative process and how he found a community through VC.

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Join us at Suite VC during the 2021 Sundance Film Festival!

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Join us at Suite VC during the 2021 Sundance Film Festival!

Join us at Suite VC during the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Here is a starting point for media-based conversations that can bridge understanding between communities and different allies. By amplifying storytellers and centering their friendships and experiences, we hope to align diverse perspectives to build a better world for all of us.

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