A Sister in Cinema: An Interview with Yvonne Welbon (2003)

AWARD-WINNING INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER Yvonne Welbon is a Chicago native who received her undergraduate degree in history from Vassar College. After graduation, she spent six years in Taipei, Taiwan, where she taught English, learned Mandarin Chinese, and founded Bang, a premiere arts magazine. Upon returning to the United States, she earned an M.F.A. with a concentration in film and video from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University. Welbon's work has been shown on public and cable television and in film festivals around the world. Her film Living with Pride: Ruth C. Ellis @ 100 (1999), a profile of the oldest out African American lesbian, was screened in over 150 venues and received awards from the Austin, Los Angeles, and San Francisco International Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals, as well as a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) Media Award for Outstanding Documentary. Her autobiographical film, Remembering Wei Yi-fang, Remembering Myself (1995), which focuses on her experiences as an African American woman living in Taiwan, was broadcast on the PBS series POV and received Best Film/Video on Matters Relating to the Black Experience at the nth Black International Cinema Festival in Berlin. In 2002, Welbon completed the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women, where she directed the short film The Taste of Dirt (2003), the story of a young girl's suffering from the cruelty of her classmates. Her latest project, Sisters in Cinema (2002-03), is a history of African American female directors based on her doctoral dissertation. In addition to filmmaking, Welbon has various producing credits. She served as associate producer of director Cheryl Dunye's awardwinning prison drama, Stranger Inside, which aired on HBO in June 2001; as producer for several segments for Split-Screen (1997-2000), John Pierson's magazine-style show about the world of independent filmmaking; and as producer of Stray Dogs (2001), writer/ director Catherine Couch's adaptation of Julie Jensen's award-winning play. Welbon also coproduced That's My Face/Minna Cara (2001), a documentary, shot entirely in Super 8mm, chronicling black queer filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris's spiritual journey as he searches for the mythic face of Africa in the legendary city of Salvador Da Bahia, Brazil. VIDA CROSS: You started your career in publishing and then moved into filmmaking. Why did you make the transition? YVONNE WELBON: I wentto a publishing conference in Bangkok in 1989 and everybody was talking about video. And when I got back to Taipei my photographer said, Hey, we should make the monthly [her magazine, Bang] a video monthly, too? The hotels had installed all of these full circuit televisions with an internal TV network. A number of American companies had come in with some financing in a very big way and it looked like we were going to get some really good sponsorship to do a monthly video version of the magazine. I was really lucky because my managing editor had done cable access in Austin, Texas; my photographer, who was from France, had done video work; and one of ourvolunteers from the Phillipines had done commercials. There was also a guy from the states who worked on 20/20. So I had this incredible team and we put together this incredible demo of what we could do. And it was exciting. Then I was in a motorscooter accident and I was like, am I doing? What am I doing so far away from home? I don't even like doing this magazine anymore. Why don't I stop? So, I decided to go on the job market, close my magazine, and do something new. I had been in Taiwan for six years by then, so I came home for the summer and took introductory film and video production courses. I was getting all of these job offers faxed to me from Taiwan, but I just decided to go to graduate school at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. VC: For Black History Month, your films are listed as being shown at colleges and universities as part of their curriculum. …