Social Justice in the Central Valley

Hangtown

David Aguilar is a L.A. born Chicano who spent his formative years in Placerville, California, a small town with a rich history that sparked the concept for his short film Hangtown, a coming-of-age drama which recently won Best Director (Short Film) at the Pasadena International Film Festival. Aguilar is currently developing Hangtown as his first feature film. Aguilar's recent writing credits include the CBS dramatic series Matlock and SWAT as well as the mini-series FDR, now streaming on Hulu, and the award-winning animated short film To The Letter, which won first place at the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge and Jury Prize at the Afro-Animation Awards. Before becoming a TV Writer, Aguilar taught at an East LA high school during the day, while moonlighting as a private investigator at night. Aguilar recently finished work on Trespassers -- a feature screenplay for director Alex Rivera dramatizing the 1967 New Mexico Courthouse Raid culminating in the largest manhunt on U.S. soil.

Professor Emeritus at MSUM: He spent over 30 years as a distinguished professor of political science at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM), specializing in international relations and law. Former Sierra Leone diplomat and professor emeritus Andrew Conteh honored for lifetime dedication to students

Andrew Conteh served as Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to the USSR from 1976-81, delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1981-82, and Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, and as Senior Assistant Secretary in Sierra Leone's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Dr. Conteh recently completed 30 years as a distinguished Professor of Political Science specializing in International Relations and Law at Minnesota State University—Moorhead; he now teaches in the Political Science Department at Stanislaus State.  Dr. Conteh is the author of numerous articles addressed to issues on international human rights law.

Together for Water

Dr. Juli Hazlewood is an Intercultural Geographer and activist, researcher, writer, and educator from Indiana (USA). She is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Roots & Routes IC, an organization dedicated to facilitating the sharing of cultural ways of knowing and compassion between diverse cultures en route to responsibly stewarding a flourishing living world.  For over two decades she has lived and walked with the Chachi, Awá, and Afro-descendant communities of Ecuador’s Pacific Northwestern Chocó rainforests (Esmeraldas Province) to defend and protect their ancestral territories and cultures. In 2014, she also began collaborating with the Karanki people of San Clemente (Imbabura Province). She earned a Ph.D. in Geography at University of Kentucky, a MA in Native American Studies from UC Davis, a MA in Latin American Studies (with a concentration in Tropical Conservation and Development) from University of Florida, and a BA in Community Studies from UC Santa Cruz. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on Geographies of Hope, decoloniality/self-determination and diverse cultural ways of taking care of the Earth, Collaborative Activist Geographical Methodologies (CAGM), and Indigenous, Human, and Nature’s Rights. Since the 1990’s, she has taught in various universities in the U.S., Ecuador, Ireland, and Canada. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, for five years she taught "Amazonian Cultures and Conservation" in the Environmental Studies, and she currently teaches in the Rachel Carson College. 

Dr. Jennifer Lisa Vest is a former Associate Professor of Philosophy with a PhD in Indigenous Philosophies from UC Berkeley, a Masters degree in history from Howard University and a B.A. in Physics from Hampshire College. Dr. Vest is a philosopher, psychic, poet, and escaped academic who contributed to the shaping of Native American and African academic philosophies. Her monograph, Sovereign Wisdom: Generating Native American Philosophy from Recurrent Themes in Indigenous Cultures, was published by Peter Lang in 2024. She has published numerous philosophical  articles in journals and presented at dozens of academic conferences and universities throughout the world. She currently teaches medical intuition and writes books. She is also an online content creator who uses her gifts to provide a spiritual explanation for the current political situation. Her book, The Ethical Psychic: A Beginner’s Guide to Healing with Integrity, Avoiding Unethical Encounters, and Using Your Gifts for Good was published by North Atlantic Books in 2022. 

HomeTown HomeLess

Hometown Homeless is a collaborative documentary film which takes place in the Potrero district of Santa Cruz, California. A space that is the industrial zone of the city, the site of cement plants, garbage processing facilities, graveyards, discarded train tracks and homeless shelters.

As the industrial zone ends, the redwood forest begins. Deep in the trees is where we find unhoused poet Momma Shannan and her community of resilient women, who have found a place for themselves out of the public eye. Facing uncertain and precarious circumstances driven by rising laws that criminalize homelessness, the women come together to have conversations about life, love, loss.

Anchored by moments of poetry and propelled by both the women's conversations and events within the community, HomeTown HomeLess offers an intimate portrait of both people and place.

Maleah Welsh  is a documentary filmmaker and photographer working in both analog and digital formats. Originally from Santa Cruz, California, she focuses on intimate, story-driven work that reflects the complexity of everyday life. She holds a BA in Cinema from San Francisco State University and continued her education at University of California, Santa Cruz in the Social Documentation Masters program.

Her practice is rooted in collaboration, often working closely with individuals and communities to explore themes of personal history, home, belonging and collective memory. Guided by curiosity and care, Maleah creates work that values process, connection, and shared authorship.

Los Tres

Three Mexican-American artists find refuge in friendship and art as they compose their artistic vision in the face of denigration and a space/time that deliberately fails to see them.

Yehuda Sharim is a writer, filmmaker, poet, and photographer. His work reflects on the relationship between the quotidian and the poetic to explore new potentialities of the imagination. Oscillating between fiction, improvisation, and real-life events, Sharim’s work offers an intimate portrayal of those who refuse to surrender amidst daily devastation and culminating strife, offering a vision for equality and renewed solidarity in a divisive world. He roots his work firmly within the discourse of imagination, immigration, and displacement, shedding light on the changing constructions of home and belonging. Sharim’s films and images incorporate an ongoing exploration of new forms of storytelling, performative acts, dreams, and the lyrical potential of liberation with a precise aim: social and personal justice. His work also explores site-specificity and engages community members and untrained actors in reimagining new forms of social activism.

Director’s Statement

Los Tres is a film set in a space where there are more prisons than museums or galleries. For immigrants and sons of immigrants, most chances are that you will find your way into the carceral industry rather than becoming an artist.

Los Tres offers a timely and profound statement on what art can and should be – a movement that aims to set in motion a greater process (even if not recognized) and not merely an aim to gain, to maintain selfishness, a product to be circulated blindly

Ruben, Abel, and Frank remind us how difficult it is to locate and then stay on one’s creative path, particularly as sons of immigrants from Mexico, expected to remain in the fields, working as campesinos from sunrise to sunset.

Los Tres also reveals how harmful and distorting the roles of the gatekeepers in our society are, and how racial/economic/social borders are sustained and then overcome through resilience, creativity, and perhaps more importantly, friendship and community building.

Lastly, Los Tres is a poignant reminder of the critical importance of art in our societies, serving as a tool of liberation, a vehicle of change, and a means of preserving memory, all within the lives and conversations of the communities it brings into being.

Throughout the course of my artistic life, I’ve researched many artists. I’ve also explored many methods of painting. That being said, I’ve spent countless hours contemplating art and its relationship to me. The more of an “artist” I become, the less I understand. Art, to me, is like living in a world of uncertainty; I must rely on creativity to pull me out into clarity. I believe that if I understood every aspect of the painting process, pure art would not be attained. Instead

the art object would be a rehash of old thoughts, notions, and conditionings. If my awareness of every decision were visualized internally, then the art object would be a residue of this – which leaves little for discovery. Instead, I place myself in a “situation” in my art that has no apparent solution, thereby requiring a level of creativity to resolve the dilemma, which might be by the application of a color or a random image within the canvas that mmis brought about by the process of chance. Incorporating chance into my work is a way of separating myself from what occurs on the canvas. In this way, I become the spectator. The situation then becomes a springboard for ideas. I rely on both intuition and conscious thought to complete the work. In this way, I can never know the outcome of a work until its completion. I am also conscious of the errors within the works, which are intentional. I feel as though technology bombards us with slick, polished, and perfect images. Our “human” touch is not seen as a necessity in art. Yet, I enjoy looking at art that can give me a sense of that human presence, with all its imperfections.

Ruben A. Sanchez was born in Fresno, California and was raised in Merced, California and has been an active artist for his entire working life. From working in the fields as a Campesino in his early life to becoming a produce vendor, the depiction of agriculture and hard work is seen in his colorful canvases. In the 1970s, Ruben received his AA degree in Art from Merced College. In the 1980s, he worked as a commercial artist and textile screen printer while devoting himself to his practice of painting and printmaking. During the holidays he produced cheerful commercial designs on window displays at a multitude of local businesses. From picking produce to selling at farmers’ markets, and from commercial works to deeply personal symbolic art, Ruben has consistently devoted his life to his unique creative vision in the medium of painting, printmaking, murals and his family. His artwork has been showcased in exhibitions throughout California’s Central Valley and nearby cities including San Francisco, Fresno, Davis, and Sacramento. His artwork is also displayed and held in Los Angeles, San Antonio, El Paso, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Tlaquepaque, London, England, Singapore, Australia, and China.

In 1985, Ruben became a founding member of the Contemporary Humanitarian Artists Association, along with friends Frank Ayala and Abel Corchados. The three artists met regularly to discuss their art and share their creative endeavors, challenges, and opportunities. Later they invited other artists to join and CHAA has since developed into a major art group in Merced County. Ruben was also the original Curator for Merced’s Day of the Dead exhibit at the MMAC from 1999-2016. For these creative efforts, he received The Excellence Award in Cultural Arts in 2018. In 2022, through the efforts of film maker, Professor Yehuda Sharim (UC Merced), the short-film, “El Ojo Comienza en La Mano” became an Award-Winning Documentary of artist Ruben A. Sanchez.

Artist Statement:

Since feeling of the Tomato vines to feeling the paint brush, something of working in the San JOAQUIN VALLEY fields drew me to recognize the Campesino Experiences was important   for me to draw, print, and paint!

My memories became important, the brilliance of the Sun, the powerful wind and the smell of Mother Earth remain within me throughout the years, working, harvesting, planting the future crops! It has become my life mission to paint the Campesino Experiences, my styles may change but the importance of their stories will continue in my humble hands. Not the Horrible stories, but the love of La Familia, Mama and Child, Father to son, these feelings are what remains at the end of the Campesino Work Day...."

I began painting with watercolor at a very early age. I remember having to save several Sunday allowances to buy a box of watercolor paints. I was fascinated by all of the scenarios I could paint with just six basic colors. I would paint anytime I had a chance, either at home or at school. It was interesting to see how the light would fall upon objects and figures, or how a color would change from a dark shadow to a light one. For example, I was impressed when I found out that yellow creates the greatest illusion of brightness, and that black, the darkest color, produced a greater depth by simply adding red or blue or both. You see, to me, these changes were incredible! Later on, I was able to use these discoveries to create a greater contrast in two-dimensional paintings.

My paintings are reflections of special moments that happen on a daily basis with a blend of a surreal setting.  Moments we take for granted. My ideas come from these beautiful everyday events and by looking through the eyes of kids and people. Their expressive faces, activities, curiosity and their love of life have made me realize that each of us live in a world of our own a world with an open invitation.

The process of making a painting is very interesting. Sometimes I only have a vague idea, and I surprise myself with the end result. Sometimes I have a clear idea, and I surprise myself with the end result, and I have to start all over again.  Painting an idea on paper is one of the most difficult things to do, but it is also very rewarding.

Toni McNeil has nearly 10 years of experience as a Community Organizer for San Joaquin County. She has worked with Community residents and Concrete members surrounding Restorative Justice Issues such as: Gun Violence Reduction, Principled Policing, exposing/dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex, as well as Housing & Homelessness. She is an experienced consultant, and is skilled at trainings and group facilitations surrounding leadership development, vision casting, conflict resolutions, and bridging/belonging across differences.

Toni has a strong passion for healing and empowerment within communities of color through the means of active listening, training, and educating. Her focus is on revealing truths that lie within power structures through strategic and intentional power mapping, research, and systemic analysis. She enjoys motivational speaking, group facilitating, and training at events and is especially skilled in the areas of Facilitating, Organizing, Advocacy, and Leadership Development.

Toni McNeil is a mother of four, native of Stockton, and an ordained Elder. She has held a variety of ministry positions and developed programs such as “Train up a Child” and “Moving Forward” to help bridge the gap between church and community. She is the Founder and Host of Anti-Black Conversations, which is a virtual platform where People of Color can challenge each other’s conditioned mindsets through emotionally-intelligent, conscious dialogue to reveal the film of White Supremacy that clouds the lenses from which we see ourselves and others.

Samantha Johnson, is a public servant dedicated to advancing equity and civic engagement. She serves with the California State Assembly and holds a B.A. in Sociology from California State University, Stanislaus and a Master of Public Administration from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. As Chair of the Black Alumni Network at Stan State, she works to foster connection, mentorship, and engagement among Black alumni and students. Through her professional and community leadership, Samantha works to amplify diverse voices and create opportunities that strengthen and empower communities.

Christina Bastida-Gonzalez is a proud Stocktonian, raised in South Stockton, and daughter of Mexican immigrants. She is a proud graduate of Stockton Unified School District (SUSD).

Christina is the founder and co-owner of Bastida-Gonzalez Consulting, LLC, a small business dedicated to offering high level expertise in community health program design and implementation, health system administration, workforce development and technology.

Christina, an infectious disease epidemiologist by training, has been an advocate of public health and health systems strengthening throughout her professional career. Prior to her consultancy work, Christina served as Executive Director of HealthForce Partners Northern San Joaquin Valley, an innovative partnership of healthcare employers, educational and workforce development institutions, and community leaders. The partnership addresses gaps within healthcare economic development and workforce to strengthen the health sector, advance local community residents socio-economically, and improve population level health outcomes.

Christina has done extensive work in areas of sexual and reproductive health, health disparities, and STI/HIV disease transmission with organizations like the World Health Organization, Planned Parenthood of Southern New England, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Transcending her infectious disease training, she is most passionate about people and their health throughout their life course, and the systems that impact their wellbeing.

Christina completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health. Christina has published academic work in peer-reviewed journals like Global Public Health, an International Journal for Research, Policy, and Practice, and Pedagogy in Health Promotion: The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Sojourner

Cauleen Smith is a filmmaker and artist. With a BA in cinema from San Francisco State University (1991) and an MFA in filmmaking from the University of California-Los Angeles (1998), her interdisciplinary work expands from histories and practices of experimental film, including structuralism, Third World cinema, and science fiction. Through immersive installations, moving-image works, sculpted objects, and textiles, she engages with non-Western cosmologies, Afro-diasporic histories, Black cultural icons, real and speculative utopias, and, in her words, “the everyday possibilities of the imagination.”

Her first feature film, Drylongso, garnered acclaim at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and, in 2023, received a 4K restoration and rerelease by the Criterion Collection. From the mid-2000s, Smith increasingly presented in contemporary art contexts, where short films and videos, sequential screens, and expanded installations could enwrap visitors in her world-building projects. Interrelated bodies of works have been inspired by post-Katrina New Orleans; Afrofuturist musician Sun Ra; and a bookshelf of Black feminist literature, to name a few. In a 2020 interview, she observed, “Over time, the desire to see certain kinds of images has been replaced by a desire to communicate with the audience in a particular way. I used to be very focused on producing images or stories that I wanted to see, and now, I’m also trying to construct the films in a way that invites the viewer to understand how images are working on them.”

In addition to appearing in many group exhibitions, she has had solo exhibitions at MASS MoCA, Philadelphia’s Institute of Contemporary Art, and LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art, among others. Smith has received numerous grants and awards, including a Heinz Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her films screen internationally, and her works are in public collections around the world, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.