Erika Valenciana +
Anu Rana
Erika Valenciana is a Chicana filmmaker from Chicago with a Film & Video BA from Columbia College Chicago. Her award-winning short films have screened at festivals internationally, including Blackstar and Mountainfilm. Her recent recognition includes winner of Chicago International Film Festivalβs Fiction Feature Pitch, Jury & Audience winner Best Doc Short at Anchorage International Film Festival, and Honorable Mention Best Short at DC Environmental Film Festival. Valencianaβs work has been supported by Tribeca Film Institute, Cine Qua Non Lab, Stowe Story Labs, Puffin Foundation, Kartemquin Films, Chicago International Film Festival, DC Environmental Film Festival, Frozen River Film Festival, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and Illinois Arts Council. Valenciana amplifies the voices of her local community filmmakers of color through the Mezcla Media Collective and as a mentor for Kartemquin Films Diverse Voices in Docs. She uses film to share underrepresented stories building towards a media landscape where diverse experiences are visible and celebrated.
Anuradha Rana is an independent filmmaker, program leader, and educator who has produced and directed award-winning films internationally. Born and raised in India, her immigrant roots create the lens of a curious interloper at the heart of her films, where everyday characters push conventional boundaries. Her work has been supported by Kartemquin Films, Tribeca Film Network, If/Then, PBS, DOC NYC, IL Arts Council, Chicagoβs DCASE, CAAM, American Insitute for Indian Studies, Chicago International Film Festival, Full Spectrum Features, and Depaul Humanities Center. Anuradha is a Professor at DePaul Universityβs School of Cinematic Arts and on the steering committee for the Asian American Doc Network (A-DOC). She has been named one of Chicagoβs 50 Screen Gems, a DCASE esteemed artist, DOC NYCβs Documentary New Leader, part of the ArtEquity BIPOC Leadership circle, and most recently, a Rockwood Documentary Leadership Fellow 2024. As part of her work as a mentor and program leader, Anuradha was formerly the Creative Lead for the Diverse Voices in Docs fellowship organized by Kartemquin Films and the Community Film Workshop of Chicago (CFW) where she designed and led the annual mentorship and film development program for BIPOC documentary filmmakers. She has been invited to lead pitch development and coaching workshops for the Blackstar Film Festival, Center for Asian American Media, and the If/Then mentorship program. She regularly serves on film festival jury and grant review panels internationally. She is a Professor and Co-Chair of the Documentary Program at DePaul Universityβs School of Cinematic Arts, a Vincent de Paul Professor in Film, and an Excellence in Teaching Award recipient.
Brewer
As four female and non-binary brewers navigate their way through the beer crafting process, they also maneuver an environment rife with sexism and racism. Juxtaposing poetic visuals of the brewing process with reflections on sexism, BREWER, confronts the everyday biases that challenge people in workplaces as unexpected as a craft brewery. The location (brewery) and the process (brewing) become a microcosmic representative of everyday discrimination. Brewer draws on visual poetry to place the audience into the participantsβ frame of mind, their environment, successes, and challenges. The audio does not distinguish the individual speaking, as interviews with several brewers are interwoven to create one overarching narrative. In parallel to the process of brewing, the voices narrate their personal struggles and triumphs, the daily nitty-gritty and camaraderie, as well as the pushback that they often encounter in the form of subtle micro-aggressions. An off-hand remark or a pointed question doubting a well-qualified individualβs abilities reaffirms the inequity in social spaces. The patterns that emerge from the audio, reveal that many stories are not isolated incidents, but a disturbing motif. The physically demanding aspects of the work are emphasized through stylized, carefully composed shots, the graceful balance between the bodies and the industrial environment, and an original music composition.
Short Documentary
When we began researching this film, the Me Too movement was exposing the hypocrisy surrounding the notion of gender equity. It brought to the forefront the mistreatment of women in many different fields and sparked dialogue about how we as a culture are complicit. In May of 2021, Brewer Brienne Allen, aka @Ratmagnet, asked for stories of sexism in the craft brewing industry and was inundated with over a thousand anecdotes, which she amplified. This led to a reckoning that reverberated across the brewing industry. Lauded industry figures stepped down and many employees were eventually investigated and fired, exposing the lack of accountability in the system. Moreover, in many instances, it became impossible to separate whether the discrimination was rooted in racism or sexism. This event underscored our research and foregrounded how these issues are intertwined.
The film's goal is to underscore that the work toward inclusivity is far from complete. Women and non-binary individuals continue to navigate unequal spaces, exerting extra effort to be acknowledged as experts in their fields. They face microaggressions while consistently outperforming their white male counterparts. Through BREWER, we aim to guide the audience in making broader connections β from the individual stories of brewers to their own experiences rooted in the broader issues of inequality and discrimination.