COMMUNITY, ACCESSIBILITY, INCLUSION, SAFETY, AND BELONGING

A statement by the BAMMS volunteer organizing committee

The Bay Area Media Maker Summit was created to connect our media making community. The organizers envisioned bringing together people from across our diverse media making ecosystem. We invite fiction, nonfiction, experimental, and commercial makers, leaders, organizations, and funders to our focus groups, events, and conversations. 

Our communities are rich in diversity, perspective, and purpose - we are overlapping and intersectional. We believe in the power of media making to expose the world to different perspectives, bold visions, creative storytelling, to reflect our identities, and celebrate our lives.

We are committed to creating safety across all of our events, conversations, and experiences. Even though safety can be different for each individual related to personal preferences or expressed identities, we define it to mean hosting spaces and experiences that are free of harassment and discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender performance, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, class, age, language, or ability. Harassment, threatening or discriminatory behavior, or violence will absolutely not be tolerated. We reserve the right to revoke, without notice or refund, tickets, passes, credentials, or access to BAMMS events - either in person or virtually. 

In honor of this statement this includes our request and posting of stated “informed consent” for being photographed, recorded, quoted, hugged, etc. We will include a request to all presenters to share content warnings for films and/ or presentations with sensitive subject matter.

If you believe you’ve observed or experienced a violation of this policy, please reach out directly to hello@bammsummit.org. BAMMS volunteers will work to assess the situation and respond as soon as possible).

Acknowledgement and Action for Land Back and Reparations Movements

BAMMS events and activities take place on the unceded ancestral land of the Ohlone people. As the predominant Indigenous group of the Bay Area, they include the Chochenyo and the Karkin in East Bay, the Ramaytush in San Francisco, the Yokuts in South Bay and Central Valley, and the Muwekma tribe throughout the region.

As an organization dedicated to truth telling, we feel it is vital to acknowledge the story of this place and the people who have been its stewards for countless generations.

We acknowledge and recognize the Land Back Movements across the region and around the world. For more information about the local movement and ways for you to give back please check out Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the Shuumi Land Tax.

Additionally, we recognize the ongoing and compounding harms experienced by African Americans as a result of slavery and its lingering effects on American society today. We are following various reparation movements including the State of California’s set of preliminary recommendations for policies that the California Legislature could adopt to remedy those harms. We are committed to ensuring that our spaces are Pro-Black and support the efforts of our Black community members. 

Black Lives Matter. 

BAMMS volunteers are committed to learning about, recognizing, and interrupting the ancestral and ongoing harm caused to people based on their race, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender performance, nationality, religion, class, age, language, or ability. We invite our community to share ideas, suggestions, and support to achieve these efforts.

Accessibility Statement

BAMMS strives to make all of our programming safe, inclusive, and a welcoming space for people across the spectrum of access, ability, and neurodiversity. Our organizing team is committed to the ongoing process of refining our accessibility practices, as well as dismantling individual and systemic ableism in the media-making industry and our local communities. 

We aim to do this through the following kinds of access offerings: 

Physical: 

• Only hosting in-person events at ADA accessible venues and sharing this information in our posts

• Ramps and elevators for wheelchair users

• Service/support animal access

• Accommodations for dietary restrictions/sensitivities at in-person events with food and beverage

• Encourage our guests and participants to wear their masks indoors for the duration of the event(s) with the exception of the consumption of food and beverages. Masks and hand sanitizers will be available. Should there be a health advisory or a surge in COVID or another health crisis, we have the right to change this at any time.

Audio-Visual/Sensory: 

• Sign language interpreters at in-person and virtual events, when requested

• Image descriptions on digital materials, during introductions at in-person, and virtual events

• Hearing support devices, as available and upon request

• Virtual screening links for folks unable to attend in-person events for access reasons - when available and with filmmaker approval 

• Strobe/flashing light warnings for films or media in programs

• Requesting Closed Captions from filmmakers. We will have closed captions whenever possible.

Communal: 

• Amplifying Bay Area filmmakers with disabilities

• Partnering with Bay Area organizations and venues that share in accessibility values and best practices

Please contact hello@bammsummit.org for feedback, specific accessibility requests (ex. sign language interpretation, assisted listening devices, et cetera) or additional information.

We follow accessibility models and examples set forth by organizations and initiatives like QWOCMAP, 1in4 Coalition, FWD-DOC and the Film Festival Accessibility Scorecard. Please explore their comprehensive resources for more information about accessibility in the media-making industry. 

Belonging

You, members of our Bay Area Media Making community, are wanted and welcomed! We want community and safety. We will do everything in our power to create open, welcoming spaces for all of our members.

BAMMS organizers are all volunteers. We are open to new members, new ideas, and developing these statements.

These accessibility items are subject to change based on available resources and other conditions that may be beyond our control. This is a living document and we encourage people to share their ideas and suggestion.

Final Thoughts

This is a work in progress statement. Please contact hello@bammsummit.org for feedback, suggestions, ideas.