Author: Alfredo Casuso

media contact: David Perry (415) 676-7007/ news@davidperry.com 

Rainbow Honor Walk Names Donna Sachet “The First Lady of the Castro” as Board President

With a New Slate of Board Officers, the Non-Profit Reiterates its Commitment to Celebrating and Preserving the Public Memory of LGBTQ Pioneers

www.rainbowhonorwalk.org

16 April 2020—San Francisco CA: The Rainbow Honor Walk (www.rainbowhonorwalk.org) an eleven-year-old nonprofit that highlights the contributions of LGBTQ pioneers with sidewalk plaques in the city’s Castro District, today announced a new slate of board officers. Taking the reins from David Perry, RHW’s cofounder and board president since 2009, is Donna Sachet, the San Francisco-based entertainer, drag queen, community activist, and fundraiser, also known as “the First Lady of the Castro.” 

Donna Sachet brings more than 25 years of experience to the position, having served as a former board member of the Positive Resource Center, Equality California, SF LGBT Community Center, LGBTQ Advisory Committee to the SF Human Rights Commission, the Imperial Council of San Francisco, and the International Court Council. Sachet, who has earned accolades from five San Francisco Mayors, the City and County Board of Supervisors, and the California State Legislature, has also co-chaired SF GLAAD Media Awards, 50th Anniversary Gala of Imperial Court of SF, co-created and produced SF Pride Brunch for 21 years, and co-anchored and hosted televised and live productions too numerous to mention. Sachet is a regular columnist for the San Francisco Bay Times.

As the impact of COVID-19 continues to unfold in communities around the world, the Castro District’s well-traveled sidewalks may temporarily be empty.  San Francisco Bay Area’s residents—among them, AIDS survivors now combating their second pandemic—are sheltering in place. But the need to remember and take inspiration from the bravery and resourcefulness of past LGBTQ pioneers endures.    

“This is a very difficult time for everyone, including non-profit charitable groups,” says Sachet. “We realize that priorities have changed, as they should, but we remain committed to recognizing our own LGBTQ historic pioneers. Knowing our history and making sure our significant contributors are inscribed in the public record remains vitally important. I am proud to share the vision of the Rainbow Honor Walk.”

A Close-Knit Team of Collaborators

The board also voted in a new slate of new Rainbow Honor Walk board officers. They include:

• Vice President – Barbara Tannenbaum, San Rafael-based journalist and author, former magazine editor and science writer with the California Academy of Science, and board member since 2015;

• Secretary – Dr. Karen L Helmuth, San Francisco-based clinical psychologist and former union steward with NUHW and board member since 2017;

• Treasurer – Charlotte Ruffner, Sonoma-based attorney (retired) and board member since 2013 who returns for a second term as treasurer. In 2013, Ruffner enabled RHW to earn its nonprofit 501(c) 3 status.  

Newly elected Rainbow Honor Walk board members are Maximilian Buck, San Francisco-based product manager at the health/technology firm Augmedix, and Kyle McKee, San Francisco-based filmmaker with a background producing commercial videos, documentaries, and short films. 

They join board members Peter Goss, real estate agent/marketing specialist at Corcoran Global Living; Madeline Hancock, native San Franciscan and Learning Specialist at SF’s Hamlin School; Dr. Bill Lipsky, San Francisco Bay Times columnist, author, and curator at the GLBT History Museum; Joe Robinson, director of facilities operations at Nurix; Gustavo Serina, former president of the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit District; and Tarita Thomas, Oakland-based healthcare facilitator and author. All continue to work on the educational and outreach mission of the Rainbow Honor Walk. 

Special Thanks for Departing Board President, David Perry

David Perry first obtained recognition from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as early as 1994 for his inspiration to create a sidewalk tribute to honor the significant achievements of past LGBTQ individuals. Funding and city support was delayed, however, by the urgent need to combat the ongoing AIDS crisis. Not until 2009 were Perry and cofounder Isak Lindenauer able to charter a board with the support of Bevan Dufty and launch the all-volunteer nonprofit organization. 

To date, the Rainbow Honor Walk —working with the San Francisco Department of Public Works—has installed 36 plaques along Market Street, Castro St, 19^th Street, and Collingwood Avenue. An additional 8 honorees have been selected for installation later this year.

Perry, who remains a special volunteer advisor to the RHW board, wishes great success for the team’s continuing efforts. He joins new president Donna Sachet in warm recognition for the contributions of founding board members and previous officers Gustavo Serina (founding Vice President) and Joe Robinson (founding Secretary). 

“Joe and Gustavo have been the glue that has bound together the Rainbow Honor Walk since day one,” says Perry. “Without their calm, no-nonsense professionalism, we could not have achieved this level of impact and continuity.” 

With an eye to the future, Perry says, “The LBGTQ community has faced pandemics before and survived. Our story is the American story and a global story. Our painful experience will help the world at large face the present crisis and find the strength and inspiration to rise again in the not-so-distant future.”

For more information:

A full list of board members, donors, and honorees can be found online at www.rainbowhonorwalk.org or on Facebook by searching for “Rainbow-Honor-Walk.”

For more information, email at info@rainbowhonorwalk.org or by mail to Rainbow Honor Walk, 584 Castro Street, #113 San Francisco, California 94114. 

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Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com 

Winners Announced for the17th Annual International Ocean Film Festival “Global Online Audience Award” for Student Films

In Preview of Upcoming Festival Slated for Fall 2020
Student Films Were Highlighted Online in Response to COVID-19

10 April 2020 – San Francisco, CA: In a nod to the many young student film and video artists who are participating in the 17^th Annual Ocean Film Festival (www.intloceanfilmrest.org) – postponed to fall 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic – a special virtual competition was with voters weighing in for a special Global Online Audience Award.  More than 2,200 votes from all over the world, including Ireland, Argentina, Antarctica, United Arab Emirates, American Samoa and from across the United States were received. The winning films and filmmakers are:

o   Middle School: The Legend of Bahari, Yasumi Sapphire Villareal and team, 8th Grade, Multiple Intelligence International School, Quezon City, Philippines

o   High School: See Me! Victor Kasila & Khalid Ahmed, 10th Grade, Light Academy Boys Secondary School, Nairobi, Kenya

The winners each win $200, a Jenga Ocean and a Global Audience Award certificate.  All of the competing films are still online for viewing online at www.intloceanfilmfest.org 

“Congratulations to all of our student filmmakers, all winners for taking part,” said Ana Blanco, Executive Director of the International Ocean Film Festival.  “We all are honored and grateful by their telling their own personal stories about our oceans and for using the power of film to communicate how important the oceans are to us all. This was so successful, we have decided to make this a recurring annual event.”

Now in its nightyear, the Student Film Competition is hosted by the International Ocean Film Festival as an opportunity to give middle school and high school students around the world to tell their stories about the ocean through film. The rules are:

·      The entries must by done by an individual student or group of students

·      The film or video must be about the ocean

·      The total running time must be five minutes or less 

This year the Festival received 68 submissions from the Philippines, Indonesia, Turkey, Kenya and across the United States. All 13 finalists’ films will be screened when the film festival is rescheduled in later 2020 with winners at the end of the Festival

Since its launch in 2004, the San Francisco-based International Ocean Film Festival has attracted thousands of spectators of all ages from around the world, including film enthusiasts, sea athletes, educators, and environmental activists. Since then, the Festival has presented over 600 films from 50 different countries and featured post-film Q&A sessions with visiting filmmakers, special panel discussions with content experts, and the Annual Free Student Education Program. It was the first event of its kind in North America, inspired by the well-established ocean festival in Toulon, France, which has continued to draw large audiences for more than 40 years.

Current sponsors for the 17th Annual International Ocean Film Festival include National Marine Sanctuary, BigBus of San Francisco, Gray Line Tours, SSA, Alcatraz Cruises, the Port of San Francisco, the Consul General of Canada, Blue and Gold Ferry, RBC Wealth Management, Heidrick & Struggles, Pacific Gas & Electric and Troutman Sanders LLC.

The International Ocean Film Festival encourages its patrons, supporters and partners to follow the most current advice from the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization for preventing the further spread of the COVID-19 in Northern California and beyond, and to stay tuned for announcements about International Ocean Film Festival events once the threat level is reduced. A new date for the entire 17^th Annual International Ocean Film Festival will be announced in a few weeks.

Media Contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc/David Perry
(415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com

“Radical Accessibility” and “Serendipity”Are Key to New Initiative
from San Francisco’s Letterform Archive

Nearly 1,500 items and 9,000 images integral to the history
of typography, graphic design, and written communication
now available FREE and accessible to all

lettarc.org/online-archive 

8 April 2020 — San Francisco, CA: During the Dark Ages, monasteries were the repository of knowledge and information. With the Renaissance, the preservation of culture and writing took flight with the invention of the printing press. Since then, the beauty of the written word has manifested itself in endlessly creative and artistic lettering styles and typefaces. Nowhere on Earth is this beauty, creativity and artistry more important – or more available, free, to the entire world — than at San Francisco’s nonprofit Letterform Archive (www.letterformarchive.org). This unparalleled collection of typographical artifacts, the digitization of which has been a four-year labor of love, is debuting online in a moment when the world needs it the most. 

“This has been a dream since before the archive opened five years ago, and this launch was planned long ago,” says Rob Saunders, founder and executive director of Letterform Archive. “But what a perfect moment for radical accessibility.”  

Normally, Letterform Archive, located in San Francisco’s creative Dogpatch neighborhood, is strictly a “brick and mortar” collection where artists, scholars, and the font-loving public come in and learn from – and touch – a collection ranging from a 4,000-year-old cuneiform clay tablet to a page from a Gutenberg Bible to style manuals from Apple Computer. From a fifteenth-century handmade Rothschild Book of Hours to psychedelic ’60s posters and the early pixelated digital type designs of the 1980s , it is a collection unparalleled in the Bay Area and unique across the world. 

For the last four years, Saunders and his team of librarians, curators, developers, and designers have been preparing for this moment: making its world-class digital trove of typographical artifacts available – free of charge – to anyone and everyone on the planet. The Archive’s online repository of digitized materials related to lettering, typography, calligraphy, and graphic design spans thousands of years of history. Opened as a beta in 2018, the Online Archive was previously available to members only.

The Archive developed its own photography standards, in consultation with E. M. Ginger of 42-Line, to produce high-fidelity imagery that is as true to the original as possible. Visitors can zoom in and pan around the images for a more detailed view of each object. Viewers will gain access to materials in a variety of formats, including books, periodicals, packaging, posters, original artwork, sketches, type specimens, and related ephemera. 

“Many of our materials are unique, curated from designers’ archives or donated by collectors. They represent centuries of design history for the benefit of current and future generations of design students, professionals, and researchers,” said Saunders, a collector of the letter arts for over 40 years. In 2015, his personal passion opened to the public, eventually offering hands-on access to a curated collection of over 60,000 items. “Some come with specific research ideas in mind, while others are simply looking for inspiration. Invariably, thanks to the breadth and accessibility of the collection, they stumble on something unexpected. Serendipity is key to the Archive experience.”

During the height of the current pandemic and its social distancing protocols, Letterform Archive has opened up the Online Archive to give people all over the world access to a lifetime’s worth of inspiring and informative exploration. The most obvious feature of the site is what Saunders calls its “big, beautiful imagery.” Nonetheless, Saunders and project lead, Librarian Kate Long, are equally proud of the metadata behind those images. Volunteers Murray Grigo-MacMahon and Websy developer Nick Webster developed the site and its incredible data architecture, while Jon Sueda and Chris Hamamoto led the charge on its exquisite design with Omar Mohammad.

“It’s the information that fuels the powerful search and filter functions of the site, and it’s written specifically with graphic designers in mind,” says Long, noting that this first phase of the site surfaces just a small percentage of the metadata collected by Letterform, with more to be revealed as the project develops. “Our challenge was to draw on our existing library services knowledge, but also rethink standards and terminology for the material and audience unique to the Archive. We wanted to create an intuitive experience for designers using the words they use, with a user interface full of rich imagery”

During its five-year history, Letterform Archive has welcomed over 10,000 visitors from 30 countries, including students, practitioners, and letterform admirers from every creative background. Later this year, the Archive will move into a new, expanded building, providing more hands-on access, when such access is once again available.

Saunders sums up: “This project is a labor of love for everyone on our team, with many generous volunteers, and we hope it provides a source of inspiration and delight to all who love letters and design. At a time when good news is in short supply and so many resources have gone dark, we hope to light a creative spark.”

Media contact: David Perry & Associates, Inc. (415) 676-7007 / news@davidperry.com 

“Bringing the Ocean to your Couch”

International Ocean Film Festival Home Edition
Now Available Online through April 12
www.intloceanfilmfest.org 

1 April 2020 – San Francisco, CA: The International Ocean Film Festival often called “Sundance for the Ocean” brings the ocean to your couch with its  “Home Edition” online at www.intloceanfilmfest.org through April 12.

“Specially curated from the 2020 International Ocean Film Festival and prior, we’ve gathered a range of films from you, from Johannasburg to the Galapagos Island to Borneo,” said Ana Blanco, Executive Director for the International Ocean Film Festival. “During this ‘pause’ while we are all staying home, share with your friends these incredible films so we can still stay connected through our love of the Ocean.”

Originally scheduled for March of this year, the 17^th Annual International Ocean Film Festival has been postponed in light of the COVID-19 health emergency. A future date for the festival in San Francisco will be announced in the coming weeks.

“While we all may not be able to get to the ocean right now,” said Blanco, “we decided to bring the ocean to you!”

For the 2020 Festival, 160 submissions were received from around the world, including films from the USA, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Turkey, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, South Korea, Madagascar and South Africa. The list includes films of all genres – documentaries, narratives, shorts, and animation films of all lengths. As always, the Festival focuses on all ocean centric themes including but not limited to: ocean exploration, wildlife, environmental, conservation, oceanography, seafaring adventures, maritime issues, ocean sports and coastal cultures.

In order to fulfill its conservation mission, and in addition to screening films, the International Ocean Film Festival has aligned itself with the Ocean Unite’s #Love30x30 initiative to bring more awareness to this global effort. #Love30x30 is a call to action to safeguard at least 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030 through a network of highly protected marine areas where no destructive or extractive activities like fishing or mining can take place.

Since its launch in 2004, the San Francisco-based International Ocean Film Festival has attracted thousands of spectators of all ages from around the world, including film enthusiasts, sea athletes, educators, and environmental activists. Since then, the Festival has presented over 600 films from 50 different countries and featured post-film Q&A sessions with visiting filmmakers, special panel discussions with content experts, and the Annual Free Student Education Program. It was the first event of its kind in North America, inspired by the well-established ocean festival in Toulon, France, which has continued to draw large audiences for more than 40 years.

Current sponsors for the 17th Annual International Ocean Film Festival include National Marine Sanctuary, BigBus of San Francisco, Gray Line Tours, SSA, Alcatraz Cruises, the Port of San Francisco, the Consul General of Canada, Blue and Gold Ferry, RBC Wealth Management, Heidrick & Struggles, Pacific Gas & Electric and Troutman Sanders LLC.

The International Ocean Film Festival encourages its patrons, supporters and partners to follow the most current advice from the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization for preventing the further spread of the COVID-19 in Northern California and beyond, and to stay tuned for announcements about International Ocean Film Festival events once the threat level is reduced. A new date for the entire 17^th Annual International Ocean Film Festival will be announced in a few weeks.

Below is a full list of the films in the “At Home International Ocean Film Festival”

Song of the Spindle
Drew Christie | USA | 4 min
An animated inter-species conversation that leads to a neuron found in the brains of humans and whales that makes us capable of compassion, whether we use it, or not. 

Protecting Blue Skies and Blue Whales
Michael Hanrahan | USA | 8 min
As international shipping increases, so do ship-strike deaths among endangered whales. Vessel fuel emissions foul the air, putting us at risk, too. But NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program, working with state agencies, whale experts, and maritime transport firms anxious to make our seas safer and our skies cleaner, have voluntarily slowed vessels passing through “whale territory:” This could prove an enduring commerce-conservation partnership! 

Fragile – Why Turtle Hatchlings Need the Sea
Hendrik and Claudia Schmitt | Germany | 8 min
Sea turtles are the most endangered group of pelagic vertebrates with 86% (6 of 7 species) threatened with extinction. In the natural scheme of life, only one in 1,000 sea turtle hatchlings will survive to maturity. Turtle conservationist Sian Williams of the Gili Eco Trust in Indonesia explains how the impacts of egg poaching, habitat destruction, and even the inadvertent effects of human assistance threaten them. 

Street Surfers
Arthur Neumeier | South Africa | 9 min
A pro surfer, Frank Solomon from Cape Town, meets two young men in Johannesburg known as “street surfers” who comb the streets for recyclables to make a living. Their unsung efforts just to survive, helps reduce plastics in the ocean. Inspired, Frank, also an avid ocean activist, decides to show them the ocean for the first time. An inspirational story of friendship and how two seemingly different worlds can be connected.

Alice in Borneo’s Wonderland
David McGuire | USA | 11 min
Alice, a sixteen-year-old aspiring biologist, learns to SCUBA dive off the coast of Malaysian Borneo and discovers a wondrous world. With the help of Shark Steward instructors she learns to respect the key predators of that astonishing world – the sharks, endangered worldwide because of shark finning. Her next step is to share with other students her new knowledge about the importance of protecting the oceans.

Spinnaker Documentary
Nadine Licostie | USA | 14 min
The crab season was delayed this year from concern about whales getting entangled in the ropes. The concern is serious. During her lifetime, the humpback whale, “Spinnaker,” became entangled three times over 11 years. Each time dedicated teams of fisherfolk and biologists quickly and carefully came to her defense. But it was not enough; her skeleton tells the story.

Super Salmon
Ryan Peterson | USA | 25 min
Ah, the salmon! Perhaps the most famous of fish, it is best known for its healthy omega-three nutrients, but do people realize what is at stake for salmon to survive in the wilderness? With a gorgeous Alaskan backdrop, we follow one amazing salmon on his long journey up the Sustina River, only to run into a government proposed dam that threatens its life. Along the way we meet those who are helping protect both their way of life and the salmons’.

Galapagos Evolution
Roberto Ochoa | Ecuador | 32 min
Led by Pierre Cousteau, son of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, a group of internationally famous free-divers explore biodiversity in the cradle of evolutionary theory: the Galapagos Islands. Adventure, excitement and a respectful interaction with ocean wildlife reveal the gentle elegance of hammerhead sharks, gliding manta rays and other marine megafauna, demonstrating the way toward co-existence and saving our oceans.

Dick Ogg: Fisherman
Cynthia Abbott | USA | 9 min
The ocean is his life and his delight. Dick Ogg fishes for a living; but whales do, too – often, in the same spot and whale entanglements in Dungeness crab gear can be the result. Dick discusses how his lifetime at sea has taught him that with collaboration, ingenuity, and much hard work, fisherfolk can help prevent lethal gear interactions, and still land their catch.

Ocean Stories: Greg Stone
Casey Acaster | USA | 31 min
“The Ocean is telling us it doesn’t need us, we need it. And we better stop abusing it…. Our condition is far more vulnerable.” Greg Stone reminisces about his life as an ocean scientist, explorer and marine conservationist. His romantic fascination with the ocean as a young boy became his life work. Now that science has identified the ocean’s problems, Stone challenges us to find a solution.