Cambridge, MA, Thursday April 23rd, 2015 – The Department of African and African-American Studies Department is proud to announce that Harvard undergraduate, Gloria Hong (Class of 2015) won the Grand Jury Prize at the Girls Impact the World Film Festival for her short documentary film, “Losing Sight, But Gaining a Vision.” This film was made while Gloria was enrolled in AAAS 109, Using Film For Social Change, taught by filmmaker and Harvard Lecturer, Joanna Lipper. Hong’s film was selected by the jury from over a hundred entries spanning ten countries in an international competition open to high school and college students who submitted short films that addressed global women's issues including education for girls, maternal health, violence against women and girls and a variety of other issues.
On March 28th, 2015, student filmmakers flew in from all over the country to attend the GITW awards ceremony, which was co-sponsored by Harvard’s Social Innovation Collaborative and held at the Science Center on Harvard’s campus. Joanna Lipper introduced Hong’s award-winning film, which profiles Sara Minkara, a blind, Muslim activist and social entrepreneur enrolled at Harvard Kennedy School (MPP 2014). Disabled as a child due to macular degeneration, Sara has dedicated her life to providing a voice for a community of blind youth that has long been unheard. Minkara’s work with disabled children through her non-profit organization Empowerment Through Integration (ETI) began in 2009 as a one-month summer camp for 39 sighted and visually-impaired children in Tripoli, Lebanon. Its initial goal was to combat social stigma against blindness. Minkara quickly realized the lack of support sight-impaired youths received in their communities, schools and families, and was motivated to do more. “One seventh of the world’s population is disabled but it’s an invisible community,” says Minkara. “Every person in your society should have the right to be integrated and should have the infrastructure to be integrated. There is that huge potential that’s being lost, and there needs to be something done about that.”
Gloria Hong’s early life experiences left her very familiar with the challenges of integration and adaptation. She left Korea as a small child and immigrated to Los Angeles with her parents and sibling. She recalls, “The place we were to call ‘home’ was a single bedroom that could barely fit a bed - leaving me and my sister the closet to sleep in. Hello, America!”
When asked to describe her student Gloria Hong’s creative process and particular strengths working within the parameters of a filmmaking course at Harvard, Joanna Lipper explains, “Gloria approached each of her film projects armed with a global health framework and sociological context as well as her own perspective as an artist and filmmaker. She had great empathy for the disabilities of the target populations she was working with and a highly sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the implications of cultural differences. Throughout the filmmaking process, Gloria learned first hand about the emotional cost of being disabled as well as about discrimination – and she discovered – as the audience does while watching her film - how one highly motivated individual with tremendous support from her family was able to confront and make the best of these challenges with strength, integrity and resilience. Gloria is mature for her age, modest, and deeply respectful of others. I wasn’t surprised when after completing the film, she was appointed to serve on the board of Sara Minkara’s organization, Empowerment Through Integration. Gloria’s experiences as an ETI board member have enabled her to learn a great deal about the blind community across the globe in places like Nicaragua and Lebanon where resources and support are far from adequate particularly when it comes to youth populations who often face severe restrictions on their movement and access to information and integrated learning opportunities.”
Capping off a stellar year of accomplishments, Gloria Hong has also been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to go to Barbados to make a film and to teach filmmaking to local blind youth.
Hong had the following to say about her unique learning experience while enrolled in AAAS 109 - Using Film For Social Change, “Through a great selection of readings and films, ‘Using Film for Social Change’ exposes students to a range of important issues that exist around the globe, such as HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence, and disability. I took a special interest in learning about the social barriers of disability and through the course, had the opportunity to work with two non-profit organizations: one that provides dance as a means of therapy to the elderly, and another which aims to empower blind youth abroad. Through such experience, students witness firsthand the enormous amount of dedication that goes into fighting social issues, and, in my case, join them in their efforts as a filmmaker for their organization. As a graduating senior with postgraduate plans in working with blind youth, I can certainly say that taking the class has been among the most enriching experience of my Harvard education.”
AAAS department chair Lawrence D. Bobo said “AAAS 109 is a very special course taught by a remarkably talented documentarian in Joanna Lipper. As a department, we could not be prouder of the job she is doing. The incredible critical success of Gloria Hong’s film speaks not just to her talent, but to the special resource this course is for Harvard students.”
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To View Gloria’s award-winning film “Losing Sight, But Gaining a Vision”
visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uxl24Iu0IQ
For more info about AAAS 109 – Using Film For Social Change
