Imagining a Community of Action
by Robert Winn, A-Doc
What’s the story?
Only two years in the world, and already Color Congress is stretching our imagination of how documentary storytellers can work together and what we can accomplish. If this were a movie, what kind of movie would it be? An adventure film? A detective story? Political thriller? Science fiction? It’s got elements of all of that. But at heart it’s a gripping non-fiction story about organizing and collective effort, a band of outsiders staking a claim. Like all good documentaries, it’s firmly grounded in the world as it is, both a celebration and critique of reality, reflecting back and building from what is and what could be.
When I first heard about Color Congress, it made so much sense as both an affirmation and a revelation. Sahar’s Driver’s report Beyond Inclusion: The Critical Role of People of Color in the U.S. Documentary Ecosystem lifted up a beautiful constellation of BIPOC-led and serving documentary organizations across the country. As the report notes, these groups tend to be under-resourced and often work in isolation. But they have long been crucial to the storytelling capacity of communities of color. This is one insight on which Color Congress builds — that these far-flung, scrappy organizations have much in common and are interconnected. Even more important is the idea that this ecosystem of organizations can and should be nurtured and strengthened. And, crucially, the “how” matters as much as the “what.” The journey to a durable, powerful ecosystem depends on care, intentionality, and mutuality along the way. This is the organizing principle shaping the good work of Color Congress.
Lineages
Of course, the independent documentary field has a long history of collective endeavors. Third World Newsreel was founded in 1967 as a collective of activist filmmakers. Communities of color organized in the 70’s and 80’s to push public television to better reflect the public, leading to the creation of what are now the National Multicultural Alliance and the Independent Television Service.
More recently, the Asian American Documentary Network (A-Doc) is another example of how documentary people can come together (alongside other amazing peer groups such as Brown Girls Doc Mafia and other powerhouse Color Congress members). A-Doc started as a conversation at the 2016 Getting Real conference and quickly has grown to a membership of over 1,400 AAPI documentary filmmakers and allies, from emerging to seasoned, from the coasts to everything in between. With considerable resourcefulness and agility A-Doc has been able to support members through a range of programs, including short film commissions, skillshares, workshops, visibility at festivals and other field events, and participation in pressing conversations about the state of the field.
This is a feat. A-Doc membership, like Asian America itself, is very heterogeneous. Members come from various regions, communities, and levels of experience. Zoom and Slack form the imperfect scaffolding on which to grow the connective tissue. Yes, A-Doc meets a need, as reflected in the enthusiastic response. And, yes, A-Doc is driven by smart, dedicated people, bringing the same sort of producer mindset and entrepreneurial zeal and pragmatism that they use in their films, starting with co-founders Grace Lee and Leo Chiang. But it has been effective precisely because it is filmmaker-led, relying on substantial volunteer labor alongside incredible staff. It is at its best when it leans on people power, invites broad participation, and takes the time to bring people along. This is true community-building, and creates a space that feels like home, a story in which all of us can see ourselves. These are values that A-Doc and other member groups bring to Color Congress.
Laying the groundwork
Color Congress weaves together diverse member organizations representing a spectrum of communities and different sectors of the field, ranging from filmmaker networks and youth media organizations to roving exhibition groups that bring cinema to the people. It’s a big tent, a beautiful, wide-ranging idea. But how does one build community among this very aligned, but also very dispersed and heterogenous group? How do the pieces fit together and work in concert?
It could very easily have been a top down effort, with Color Congress as designer and gatekeeper deciding where to allocate support to a severely under-resourced field. Rather than placing themselves at the center, however, the formidable Color Congress team has approached its work with care, intention, and consideration. From the beginning members were engaged in deep conversations about what they as organizations needed. Flowing from that, some of the early work of Color Congress included steps to address precarity and allow organizations surviving on passion and perseverance to look beyond day to day challenges. Unrestricted grants, as well as technical assistance and capacity-building support, were essential groundwork for successful mutual engagement, creating the space to dream and build together.
Building the road together
More recently, the shaping of the Field Building Fund exemplifies Color Congress’ approach. This Fund is dedicated to broader initiatives that address cross-cutting issues of members and the larger documentary field. Again, rather than imposing an option, Color Congress invited members into a thoughtful, participatory, and deliberate process to mutually identify and shape priorities.
This was not simple, involving around 100 diverse member organizations — and a lot of process. There was a series of monthly online meetings, of course. Each meeting started with a grounding exercise to encourage participants to be focused and present; this set the table for deep listening and conversation. During these meetings there were numerous Zoom breakout rooms, multiple Google Docs, votes, temperature checks. Members self-selected into working groups to hone ideas. An in-person convening (very welcome) had the requisite sheets of butcher paper and many post-it notes, leading to a bounty of intriguing ideas, more than time and resources would allow (for now). Over the course of eight months these group brainstorming sessions surfaced priorities, needs, goals, and opportunities informed by member organizations’ diverse perspectives, experiences and expertise.
All of this has worked thanks in no small part to masterful facilitation. Staff put in substantial legwork between meetings, digesting the conversations, thinking through feasibility, conducting background research, identifying models, posing clarifying questions. At forks in the road, we had to decide whether decisions would be made by majority rule, consensus, or, better yet, a consent-based process. What are the gradients of agreement? How do you nurture constructive conflict, and grapple with the uncertainty of give and take? “This is what democracy looks like,” Sonya Childress observed toward the end with a mix of humor and equanimity.
Where this has landed is an intriguing distribution initiative to address a crucial question for a field increasingly dominated by commercial incentives and large streamers: how do we amplify the work coming out of Color Congress membership (too often ill-served by mainstream structures), and build the foundations needed for alternative, collective distribution models that support our membership and better connect communities to the stories that bind us together? Stay tuned for more exciting news in the coming weeks.
Nurturing our collective imagination
Yes, this all involves a lot of time and effort — and patience — when there is so much that needs fixing in our field and in the world, but it’s been worth it. It’s not about process for the sake of process, or even just about respect and consideration, although these are elemental. Rather, it’s about building collective power. Collaborative, participatory processes, seeking consent, an emphasis on transparency and accountability, building and earning relationships of trust, are fundamentally tied to the power and potential of the Congress. It takes a minute to get there, but this is essential, and lays a solid foundation for the future in so many ways.
So, what kind of story are we shaping? It’s not a procedural, process notwithstanding. It’s not auteur cinema, although there is no shortage of brilliant people — no solitary heroes here. In this story, we are the protagonists, drawing on the best strains of the independent documentary world, operating outside of the systems and constraints of mainstream commercial entertainment and guided by concern for accountability, ethics, and care.
Especially in a field where the stories of communities of color have too often been told by and for outsiders, the work of Color Congress is, in a way, about strengthening muscles of listening, sharing, collaborating, organizing and dreaming as a bulwark against intense polarization and contested truths. There is so much potential to build cultural power and in turn contribute to a more inclusive and just American understanding of who we are. Toward that end, Color Congress is a lovingly crafted invitation to invent and make discoveries as we together build a community of action.
Robert Winn is on the leadership team of the Asian American Documentary Network, as well as an advisor to the Color Congress.
