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Sarah Dunham, Searit Huluf, Margrit Eichler, Veronica Moscoso and Jasmine Brown.
of women filmmakers from the East Bay who are coming
together to give each other support and notes on work in
progress and kind of help each other’s careers move forward in
the world of film. We are a collection of all kinds of different
people. Can be director, cinematographers, any stage, early in
their careers or late in their careers.”
B.K. elaborates, “Those of us that don’t work at a large
company who may not otherwise be able to benefit from
having that kind of feedback from other professionals, we
actually get a chance to do that. To help people working in a
silo.”
But isn’t the film collective a women’s only group?
B.K. laughing, “We didn’t start out that way. We had
men on the list.” Erica chimes in “we invited all these men
and they never showed up. I felt like we didn’t have a male
balance. We tried to get men to join but they didn’t come.”
B.K. underscores the point, “When we first started we
were open to all but that was just who showed up.” The
Collective has remained women only.
Collective members are inspired by the vast number
of uniquely Richmond locations. We have point
Richmond, bay trail, old architecture, San Francisco
as background, Wildcat Canyon, rural Carriage Hills.
Currently, B.K is working on a script that will be
filmed in Richmond. “Even though part of the incident
happened in Oakland, I’m looking to shoot the entire piece
in Richmond. Using locations in Richmond that are actually
characters. For instance I see Point Molate as a character
because Point Molate is this huge conversation right now. The
same thing with Chevron, I see that as a character. Shooting
and making people aware of those locations in the city is
really important to me.”
Three years ago Erica Milsom wrote and directed
a film called “So Much Yellow”. The opening shot in
her movie was Atchison Village. Erica relates “Atchison
Village is like a period piece dream.” The Village is a
community in Richmond, which was originally built as
housing for defense workers from the Kaiser Shipyards.
“When I start writing something I think about the location.”
Members agree that the collective provides a valuable
space for feedback and support of their filmmaking
endeavors.
Veronica Moscoso who has presented her work in
progress documentary says “I belong to many different
film groups. Many groups of women in film, but I really
like this one, first because it’s in Richmond and I live in
Richmond, maybe that’s the second reason, the first that they
give good feedback.”
Searit Huluf who presented her film concept
centered on food tells me “my favorite part was people
talking about their favorite food experiences, and how people
eat food and use it as a food language. I felt like it was nice
conversation about food and filmmaking.”
Margrit Eichler, a recording engineer and composer,
comments “The best thing about the film collective is a
sense of community of women and films. For the meat and
potatoes it has been a practical thing because I’ve gotten jobs
out of it. Which is amazing. I’ve been very busy. “
If you would like to meet this diverse collective of
filmmakers, their next film mingle is tentatively set for
Sept 9th at the Bridge ArtSpace in Richmond. Please
check the Bridge ArtSpace to verify time and date.