History

Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) began in 2000 with funding from California Arts Council for award-winning San Francisco filmmaker Madeleine Lim to conduct a series of free workshops serving queer women of color emerging media artists. Since then, 22 free workshops have been conducted serving 180 queer women of color. From 2003 to 2005, 60 new films were created through our Training Program, single-handedly increasing the number of films by and about queer women of color. These politically insightful, socially relevant and personally poignant works challenge all forms of racial, political, economic, sexual, and gender stereotyping and offer new dynamic representations of queer women of color.

In 2002, Darshan Elena Campos curated the 1st Queer Women of Color Film Night, a free public screening of workshop participants’ films held at the San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (SF LGBT) Community Center. Decisively different from a traditional film screening, our Exhibition Program blended art, public discussion and political activism with community building. The packed audiences of queer women of color saw fresh representations of themselves, otherwise missing from mainstream media. The panel discussion that followed established a dynamic relationship between the artists and the audience. At the end of the evening, everyone walked away with a real sense of community. Since 2002, standing-room-only crowds of over 2000 queer women of color have attended our 6 community screenings.

In addition to our own screenings, QWOCMAP films have also screened at Bay Area and international film festivals around the world, thereby increasing the visibility of queer women of color everywhere. Participants’ films have screened at the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival, the SF Latino Film Festival, the SF LGBT Film Festival, the Oakland Black LGBT Film Festival, as well as LGBT Film Festivals in Los Angeles, Boston, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Toronto, Vancouver, Germany, Brazil, and India. Our latest success is Mónica Enríquez’s film A Journey Home, which received the 2004 Lesbian & Gay Jury Award from the SF Latino Film Festival. QWOCMAP films are also streamed on the Internet, making them available outside of the traditional film festival circuit.

Board Members and Mentors-->