Stories in Action

CCH Board member named head of NAACP. Benjamin Todd Jealous, who has been on the CCH Board since March 2007, has been named president and chief executive of the NAACP. Jealous is currently president of the Rosenberg Foundation, which supports social justice organizations. Jealous will assume his new position in September. More.

This is a shoutout to all our friends in the L. A. area. A collection of short films made by youths in our Youth Digital Filmmakers program will be featured at the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs from June 19 to 29. Congratulations to the young filmmakers in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Concord whose films were singled out for the honor. The youths’ films will be screened on Sunday, June 29 at noon at the Italian Cultural Institute (1023 Hilgard Avenue). The young filmmakers will there in person to discuss their work and answer questions. There is no charge for admission. Please show your support by attending the screening. More.

May 16, 2008

“Hollywood Chinese,” Arthur Dong’s fast-paced delightful film about how the Chinese have been portrayed in American feature films, has been receiving terrific reviews everywhere it has played. Next up, L.A. and Pasadena, where the film opens on May 30 at Beverly Hill’s Laemmle’s Music Hall ((9036 Wilshire Blvd.) and at
Pasadena’s Laemmle One Colorado (42 Miller Alley). Catch the filmmaker in person in Beverly Hills on May 30, 7:40 screening only; in Pasadena on May 31, 7:40 screening only. Watch a film clip and read the reviews.

Picturing America, an exciting new initiative from the National Endowment for the Humanities, brings masterpieces of American art to schools and libraries. Applications for the program will be accepted online beginning August 4, with a deadline of October 31, 2008.

Drug abuse among teens, cliques on campus and dealing with ethnic differences are among the topics of a series of films made by teens in a video production class at Lodi High School as part of the Council’s Youth Digital Filmmakers program. You can catch the films at 6 pm, Tuesday, May 13, at the Student Union, California State University, Stanislaus, 1 University Circle, Turlock; and at 9 am, Saturday, May 17, at Lodi Stadium 12 Cinemas, 109 North School Street., Lodi. More.

The California Council for the Humanities and the California History-Social Science Project have teamed up to offer three professional development workshops for California K-12 history teachers this summer. The workshops, to be held at UC Irvine (July 9), Stanford (July 28) and UC Davis (July 30), will provide teachers with model lessons and other material to use with the Council’s We Are California website about the history of California immigration and migration. The website launches this fall.

The guidelines for the 2008 round of funding for California Documentary Project are now available. New this round of funding. The Council is now offering grants for those interested in creating web-based story projects using new media technologies. This is in addition to the production and research and development grants offered under the grant line. The new media grants support the creation of original web-based media projects that document contemporary California life and explore issues of significance to Californians.