Center for Asian American Media
James T. Yee Fellowship
Named in honor of CAAM’s founding Exeuctive Director, the James T. Yee Fellowship offers mentorship and funding for first-time or emerging filmmakers. Candidates are nominated from the Open Call applicant pool. Applicants to Open Call indicate their interest in the Fellowship on the application cover sheet.
James T. Yee, the former executive director of the Independent Television Service and founding executive director of the CAAM (then called NAATA), passed away on March 17, 2001 at the age of 53 after an 18-month battle with cancer. At his memorial service, his friends, family and colleagues hailed him as a “visionary, leader and warrior” in the cause of social justice and a democratic, diverse public media. They also recalled his warmth, humor, tenacity and devotion to the causes he advocated and to the friends and family he held dear.
While serving as CAAM’s first executive director, Jim fought to secure public funding to allow Asian American works to be created for and presented on public television. Under his leadership, CAAM inaugurated the first series on U.S. broadcast television on Asian Pacific Americans, ‘Silk Screen,” in 1983. Jim also launched the first Asian American film festival in San Francisco and created an educational distribution service that makes Asian American films and videos available to thousands of educators and community organizations. Generations of Asian Pacific American film, video and multimedia producers will be forever in his debt for laying the foundation for a vibrant media arts institution. Tributes to Jim can be found at http://www.itvs.org/yeetribute/ at ITVS web site.
To honor its memory and the legacy of his contributions, CAAM has established the James T. Yee Fellowship Program. The fund’s purpose is to aid the development of Asian Pacific American producers and elevate the quality of Asian Pacific American work. Each year, CAAM receives nearly 100 proposals for film and video productions about Asian Pacific Americans. Many of these projects contain brilliant ideas and show great promise. CAAM recognizes that some of these projects would benefit from the guidance of mentors to reach their full potential and be more competitive in future funding rounds.
Through the James T. Yee Fellowship Program, CAAM will work with producers to evaluate the needs of the project and match them with appropriate mentors to develop projects to the next stage. Mentors might include writers, directors, editors, directors of photographers, etc. In some cases, CAAM will pay for training workshops and the production of sample tapes. Projects chosen for the James T. Yee Fellowship Program will be selected from CAAM’s Media Fund Open Call for Production Funds.
James T. Yee Fellowship
Center for Asian American Media
145 Ninth Street, Suite 350
San Francisco, CA 94103
For more information about the James T. Yee Fellowship Program, contact Sapana Sakya, CAAM’s Media Fund Director, at (415) 863-0814 ext. 122.
Contributions to the James T. Yee Fellowship Program are tax-deductible.
Center for Asian American Media wishes to thank the following individuals and organizations for their generous contributions to the James T. Yee Fellowship Program:
* Beach School Parents Organization
* Bridge Media
* Cynthia R. Browne
* Hoover Chan
* Alicia K. Chin
* Renee Cho
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting
* Fanlight Productions
* Janet Fishinger
* Nanette Fok
* Deborah Hoffman
* Kartemquin Educational Films
* Sylvia Komatsu and George Stone
* Karen Larsen
* Mary Louise Lo
* Nancy Lourie,
* Julie Mackaman
* Frank Markowitz
* Ann Moriyasu
* June Ouellette
* Public Broadcasting Service
* Public Television Playhouse
* L. Joanne Sakai
* John B. Schwartz
* Van Tonn Soo Hoo
* Sharon Tavares
* Corey D. Tong
* Calvin M. Yee
* Janet Lim Young
