Dear NYWIFT Community,
The heat is on. Are you feeling it? When I was a kid, I played with Mexican jumping beans and when it was hot they went particularly crazy. That is how I feel – trapped and jumpy in my Jackson Heights apartment.
What a week! To say the least. We hope you are taking time to care for yourself, enjoy the sunny days, and protect the skin, nerves, and heart. Conserve energy when possible to use it strategically when needed. I mean that literally, figuratively, spiritually, and politically. We have all been through a lot and we need to recharge and use the sun and moon to help us, even during this climate change era.
As a non-partisan association, it is not our place to endorse a candidate. However, we can certainly express our joy to see a woman – and particularly a woman of color – step up to lead her party in a time of chaos, sadness, and discontent. I am loving this burst of energy. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of how we got here and what has transpired across our country in just the last 48 hours. We thank President Biden for all that he has done leading us during these tumultuous times. I cannot imagine what he has been through in this year alone — it is enough to make any of us shake and then tumble.
Yet, here we are with another potential opportunity. How will you use it? I am not here to direct anyone but simply to express that it is time — it has been for quite some time — for a woman to lead us forward.
Remember when I wrote in our latest Creative Workforce Summit Journal about how much I loved Attack of the 50 Foot Woman as a child? A little film nerd humor for you:
Go, Kamala, go! I implore our community, no matter their affiliation, to organize, to stay informed, and, most importantly, to vote. It’s our superpower.
Among the many pressures we are all feeling during this most recent political firestorm, we as creative workers are deeply concerned about the state of arts funding.
This week is a big week for Congressional funding of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). In both the House and the Senate, there are bills under consideration that will effectively maintain (at slightly reduced and slightly higher levels respectively) funding for the arts. However, two weakening amendments will be offered on the House floor by freshman Freedom Caucus member Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-OK) to further cut the NEA and NEH by an additional $48 million each. That’s over a 23% cut that we cannot let happen!
Here’s how you can help. Before Thursday, July 25:
- Please send a message now to your House Member to VOTE NO on the Rep. Brecheen floor amendments to prevent further cuts to the NEA and NEH in the House version of the FY’25 Interior Appropriations bill.
- Please also send a message now to both your Senators to urge the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund the NEA and NEH at $211 million each in its version of the FY’25 Interior Appropriations bill.
You can easily take both steps now by sending customizable, pre-written messages to your House member and both your Senators at the Arts Action Fund’s Arts Action Center.
Lourdes Portillo (Photo by Antonio Scarlata, from deadline.com)
I also wanted to take a moment to recognize a leading light of the film world we lost in May: Lourdes Portillo, an Oscar-nominated, Mexican-born documentary filmmaker whose work explored Latin American social issues. Among her best-known works is her 1994 documentary The Devil Never Sleeps, a murder-mystery in which she investigated the strange death of her multimillionaire uncle, whose widow claimed he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. In 2020, the Library of Congress selected the film for the National Film Registry – making her one of the few women whose films achieved this recognition.
Her breakthrough work was the 1985 Oscar- and Emmy-nominated documentary The Mothers of the Plaza of Mayo, which followed a group of mothers in Argentina who had sought answers to the disappearance of their sons, seized by a repressive regime. In 2006, the NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund was proud to support the preservation of this groundbreaking portrayal of women activists.
I have been so saddened by Lourdes’s passing that I couldn’t write about her. However, I keep thinking of her right before I sleep each night and wondering if her transition was peaceful. I hope she didn’t feel alone or scared. I imagine her in the vivid The Book of Life (everyone should see the cartoon), partying with her ancestors and all of las Mujeres Desaparecidas in Juarez as they are finally are at peace.
Lourdes, I told you several times how I admired your courage and kindness, your strength and conviction. And I felt loved by you always, each time I saw you – though it was not often. I will always remember the last thing you said to me. I hold onto it as I try to push NYWIFT’s work forward. “There will always be a lack of funding for our work. There will always be those in power against our cause. There will always be people who do not think art and documentary can be a cure. But we know different, siga Adelante Mija, I am so proud of you. Go lead, regardless of the circumstances. You will persevere. Cuidate.”
Pictured clockwise from top left at the 2024 NYWIFT FinanceHER Institute: Opening Keynote Speaker Rachel Feldman shows off her vintage NYWIFT swag; questions from the audience; NYWIFT Board Member Kim Jackson and President Leslie Fields-Cruz, and the audience takes notes during Meet the Greenlighters (photos by Avis Boone)
Lastly, in lighter news, thank you to all of you who joined the packed house for our standing-room-only FinanceHER Institute at Lincoln Center last month! It was a truly phenomenal day chock full of actionable advice, intelligent insight, and inspiration for those looking to get their films across the financial finish line. And thank you again to all our speakers – too many to name here, but you can review the amazing lineup.
We’re going to be back for FinanceHER part two – likely in September 2024. Stay tuned, and we can’t wait to see you there.
Esperanza aka Hopeful,
Cynthia Lopez
CEO, NYWIFT
