Title
Interviewee
Anita Chang
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
6-6-2009
Abstract
2009 interview with filmmaker Anita Chang by Lauren Smith. For more information on the artist visit: http://anitachangworks.com/
Recommended Citation
http://anitachangworks.com/
Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, American Material Culture Commons, American Popular Culture Commons, Art and Design Commons, Art Practice Commons, Asian American Studies Commons, Asian Art and Architecture Commons, Asian History Commons, Asian Studies Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Cultural History Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons, United States History Commons
Comments
Anita Wen-Shin Chang is an independent filmmaker. She was born to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan in the 1960’s, fleeing a dictatorship. She grew up in Akron, Ohio and Massachusetts. Chang received her BA in American Studies and English at Tufts University, and MFA in Cinema at San Francisco State University. She has worked as an urban youth counselor, civil rights investigator, and education director for a non-profit San Francisco-based media literacy organization.
She has completed artist residencies in Nepal, Headlands Center for the Arts, Taipei Artist Village, and Hweilan International Artists’ Workshop. In pushing the boundaries of the moving image medium, she is always discovering ways to experiment with content and form, inspiring an active viewing experience. She is a recipient of a Creative Capital Grant, National Geographic All Roads Grant, Fulbright Lecturing Award, Film Arts Foundation Personal Works Grant, Serpent Source Grant, Open Meadows Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant, KQED/Peter J. Owens Filmmaker Award, Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center Grant, Gertrude Murphy Fine Arts Fellowship, Asian American Arts Foundation Grant, and Tufts U. Ted Shapiro Memorial Fund Grant.
Highlights: Her latest film, Joyful Life is broadcasting in Taiwan. She Wants to Talk to You was selected for the Whitney Museum’s American Effect exhibition exploring global perceptions of American society and culture, selection to the Bay Area Now 3 at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and inclusion in the NEA-funded The Girls Project, an international video/film resource guide for community groups, schools, and universities. Her body of work was featured by the San Francisco Cinematheque in “The Spaces She Inhabits: An Evening of Films by Anita Chang,” and Kearny Street Workshop’s Featured Artist series.
Chang guest lectures, curates and writes on film. She has taught film/video production in community-based organizations such as San Francisco Conservation Corp and the Film Arts Foundation, including its STAND Mentorship program for first-time directors from under-represented backgrounds. She has also taught at San Francisco’s School of the Arts and University High School; and abroad at Kathmandu Academy of Audio Visual Arts & Sciences and National Taiwan University of Arts as a Fulbright Scholar. She also taught film/video production, documentary, and world cinema at the San Francisco Art Institute and San Francisco State University. She is currently teaching in the Department of Indigenous Languages and Communication at National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan.