Bay Area Women in Film & Media

Doculink

Ever since I was a kid, my grandmother would tell me stories about her life in the Philippines. There were stories about her siblings, her boyfriends, how she narrowly escaped being killed by Japanese soldiers during WWII, and even ghost stories. I never thought of recording them until 2002, when I saw Francis Ford Coppola’s “Peggy Sue Got Married” on television. In one scene, Peggy Sue finds herself at her grandmother’s house and says, “Grandma, I haven’t seen you in 20 years. I missed you!” (Peggy Sue’s grandmother is already dead; but since Peggy Sue has gone back in time, she can see her again.)

That scene made me realize that my grandmother wasn’t going to be around forever and that she had so many interesting stories that would be lost if no one recorded them. So for the past 6 years, I have been filming her.

My goal with the film is to encourage people to not take the ones they love for granted. When I heard that my grandmother had absolutely no souvenirs of her mother, it broke my heart. It seems unfathomable to not have a souvenir of someone we love. But even in this era when everything is documented, and even cell phones have cameras, this scenario is still plausible. I recently talked to a woman who also didn’t have any souvenirs of her late mother because she lost everything in the Oakland Hills Fire of 1991.

I’ve also talked to people who have seen the film, and it made them want to run out and film grandma that day. I highly encourage anyone to do this. They don’t even need to make something for public consumption. They should go ahead and make that souvenir that they can perhaps share with their own grandchildren someday.

Michael Smuin, Pina Bausch, Documentary filmmakers who can edit both documentary and narrative films, film noir (especially the low budget, over-the-top grade B noir), Antonín Dvořák

Maya Deren, Stan Brakhage, Bruce Conner, John Woo, Isamu Noguchi, Luis Buñuel, Vladimir Nabokov, René Magritte, Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff

Memory of a Butterfly (associate producer/editor)
http://vimeo.com/33888323

Revolution Revisited (producer/editor)
http://www.revolutionrevisited.com/

My Sexuality: A Sensory Experience (editor)
http://mysexualitymovie.com/
Audience Choice Award Winner for Best Documentary
CineKink Film Festival, NYC

Tapestries of Hope (co-editor)
www.tapestriesofhope.com

Bella Bella (editor)
http://www.ivstudios.com/index.php?/documentaries/bella-bella/

The Virtues of Corned Beef Hash (cinematographer/editor)
www.thevirtuesofcornedbeefhash.com

In film school, Jessica Sison decided to rebel against the stereotypes placed on Asian-American females by making a parody of Hong Kong action films as well as an homage to Jean-Luc Godard.

Since then she has worked as a producer, director and editor specializing in documentaries and narrative films based on true events. Her diverse work has screened in film festivals all over the world, including Tribeca, Slamdance, SXSW, and the Hawaii International Film Festival ; and her broadcast work has been shown on Showtime, PBS, the Oxygen Channel, the WB, and The Filipino Channel.

Jessica is passionate about documentaries and continues to edit for other producers and directors.