Blog

In this black and white photo from the 1980s, five teens and children of various races sit on playground equipment smiling on a bright summer’s day.

Mother's Day

May 4, 2021
Mother’s Day was first conceived in the 1850s when Ann Reeves Jarvis, a social activist and community organizer, put together “Mother’s Day Work Clubs” to provide assistance and education to reduce disease and infant mortality. At around the same time, Julia Ward Howe, another activist, as well as abolitionist and suffragette, wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation - a call to action for mothers to work toward world peace. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a measure officially establishing the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
New Day husband and wife filmmaking team Baldwin Chiu and Larissa Lam look directly in the camera smiling softly. Larissa is wearing a leather jacket and has her arm on Baldwin’s shoulder. He is wearing a black shirt with writing on it. They are bathed in red lighting.

Meet New Day: Baldwin Chiu and Larissa Lam

April 30, 2021
We are a Chinese American husband-wife filmmaking team from California who are passionate about empowering and educating others through film. We are actively working to broaden the way American history is taught and discussed so that it is more inclusive of the Asian American experience and other underrepresented groups. Prior to becoming a film director, I (Larissa) worked in the music industry for 20 years as a singer-songwriter and composer for projects like The Oprah Winfrey Show.
A middle-aged Japanese-American couple hold hands and dance in their living room. Their faces are lit with smiles as they face the camera, arms extended

AAPI Heritage Month 2021: Words Matter

April 28, 2021
My father grew up in a rural American community with scorching hot summers, wide open fields and spectacular sunsets, which left a fleeting glow on the swaying tule reeds of the near-by river.  Despite the challenges of being poor and having immigrant parents who spoke little English, there was reason for optimism as he looked forward to the rite of passage of his approaching high school graduation. Then on December 7th 1941, a country that he had never visited, but shared ancestral ties with, bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II.
In this black and white still from the film, a female firefighter is fully geared up in a heavy coat, gloves and helmet as she races at the scene of a fire. She wears an oxygen tank on her back and looks out towards the distance, with determination on her face.

Women’s History Month

February 26, 2021
March is Women’s History Month. It is a time to recognize the struggles, celebrate the achievements, and encourage the study of the vital (and often unacknowledged) role of women in US History.Taking the Heat, a film by Bann Roy, tells the courageous story of one woman who took on the New York City Fire Department in a landmark lawsuit and paved the way for women to become firefighters for the first time.
In this empty theatre, we see rows of velvet chairs and an out-of-focus stage.

The Envelope Please...

February 26, 2021
With apologies to Alfred Tennyson: In the Spring, a young filmmaker’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of… awards. Yes, ‘tis the season of the Academy Awards, with nominations to be announced late March and the televised extravaganza a month later. 
Two black and white headshots are joined together. On the left, Filmmaker Olga Lvoff looks up at the camera with a slight smile. On the right, Filmmaker Victor Ilyukhin looks at the camera, his hand resting on his chin.

Meet New Day: Olga Lvoff and Victor Ilyukin

February 26, 2021
We (Olga Lvoff and Victor Ilyukhin) have been friends for many years.  We met in college in Moscow and then found ourselves at the same graduate school in the United States. We share the same interests and have a mutual understanding of an artistic and ethical approach to documentary filmmaking. So, we came together to make our first collaboration on an important and often misunderstood mental condition, dissociative identity disorder (DID).
[Image Description: A close up image of a Black youth sitting in a bus with their face reflected on the bus window. A harsh white street light obscures their reflection against the dark night background. They appear pensive]

Voices of Black Filmmakers

January 29, 2021
As we enter Black History Month 2021, it is essential to not only highlight the amazing collection of African American Studies focused films of New Day, but to center and lift up the thoughts and feelings of the Black filmmakers who directed and produced these extraordinary stories. I had the pleasure of interviewing four immensely talented and inspiring filmmakers who are shedding light on the multi-dimensional experiences of Black people in the United States.
[Image Description: An image of Larry Selman, a community activist and fundraiser who has an intellectual disability, and filmmaker Alice Elliot seated, holding hands, talking and laughing in a bedroom. Behind them is a seated dog, a poster board filled with cards, a dresser with an old TV on top and framed photos]

February: National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

January 29, 2021
National Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month is a time to elevate conversations with and about our community members with intellectual disabilities, to reflect their value and recognize the obstacles they face.Mimi and Dona, a film by Sophie Sartain, takes us into a mother-daughter relationship and reveals the challenges aging caregivers face when caring for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
[Image Description: New Day Member Lisa Molomot, a woman with pulled back dark hair, looks at the camera on a bright sunny day. Behind her is an out of focus tree branch.]

Meet New Day: Lisa Molomot

January 29, 2021
I am a documentary filmmaker based in the American Southwest. Since immigration issues are front and center here, my most recent documentaries focus on immigration and immigrant communities. My new award-winning short, Soledad, is a unique look at the asylum process told firsthand by an asylum seeker from Central America. This brave woman, along with an all-women legal team, fight for Soledad’s right to gain asylum in this country.
New Day Member Melina Tupa, a woman with long dark hair, looks at the camera and smiles. Behind her is a grey brick wall.

Meet New Day: Melina Tupa

January 13, 2021
My film, The Search, explores Estela de Carlotto’s 37-year search for her long-lost grandchild after her daughter, Laura, was kidnapped and murdered during the Argentinean dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to 1983. In 1979, Carlotto became a member, and then President, of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, an organization that worked to find the 500 children that were either kidnapped or seized from women in detention during the military dictatorship. 

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