QWOCMAP Testimonials

Letter of support from Margo Mercedes Rivera-Weiss

I can think of no one more deserving of KQED’s Local Hero Award for LGBT Pride month than the founder and executive director of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) Madeleine Lim.

I met Mad in August of 2004 when I signed up for an intensive 16-week free digital video class that met at the Sunset Beacon Center in San Francisco. I was intrigued by the class both because it was offered at no cost and also because it was specifically geared to queer Latinas.

Participating in QWOCMAP was a transformative experience for me in making me feel more comfortable as a queer Latina in my Latino neighborhood and also giving me the tools to present my experiences to the community at large and I fully credit Madeleine for all of this.

Mad is the consummate teacher – completely organized, full of information, hard-driving but also supportive. Class exercises were designed to familiarize us with film techniques and concepts and build relationships with classmates. When one or more of us hit the wall of frustration or information overwhelm, Mad would send encouraging and prodding emails to shepherd us along.

As a visual artist prior to taking this class, I have often had the experience of my work misunderstood by well- meaning heterosexuals and white people. It is often exhausting to have to deal with this in the midst of being creative. Being in a class with other queer Latinas, although we were very different – representing at least eight different countries, an age span from 20’s to 50’s - I never had to explain my perspective and was cheered on by colleagues who really understood my vision.

I also appreciated that Mad understood that filmmaking and even digital video making is often out of reach financially for many people. Even though I am employed, I do not own nor could I afford to go out and buy a digital video camera or the appropriate computer equipment to edit a digital video. Through QWOCMAP, I was able to borrow and share a camera, tripod and microphone with my classmates, and QWOCMAP had computer equipment available for us to use.

Without QWOCMAP I never would have been able to afford the prohibitive cost of a digital video class, camera, and computer equipment. It is no accident that there is a paucity of films and videos by queer women of color and Madeleine Lim is doing everything in her power to change that.

One of Mad’s sayings is “If you can't find community, perhaps you haven't built it yet.” And Madeleine has indeed built a thriving lesbian of color film community. I can only hope you will agree that Madeleine Lim has made tremendous and far-reaching contributions to the local and international LGBT communities and deserves to be recognized a Local Hero.



Letter from E. Wood -->