Hsiao-Yen Lee Jones
activist . filmmaker . writer
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My greatest motivation in life is love—its potential, its power, and its heart. And in knowing the unimaginable impact that love has had on my life, I can't help but strive to make that the reality of the world for any and all who need it. I find no greater passion than helping others, and no greater joy than the artistic depth that can be communicated through the medium of film. And I guess my dream is to know that I dedicated all that I have to melding and developing those dually essential parts of my life to live beyond it.
Specialties:
• HDSLR / Canon 7D Video Production
• Non-Profit Promotional Film Production
• Social and Environmental Documentary Production
• Experimental Narrative Production and Composition
• Film and Video Editing and Color CorrectionExperience- Sept 2012 - PresentVideographer / Gauge Magazine
- Jan 2012 - Aug 2012Visual Media Coordinator / Emerson College Office of Diversity and Inclusion
Created media for the Emerson Talks series. Investigated the issues faced by those with diverse socio-economic statuses, ethnicities, sexual orientations, disabilities, etc. in order to produce impactful and provocative promotional and educational videos, PSAs, and print materials.
- Mar 2012 - Jun 2012Video Journalist / Harvard Law School
Serving as a creative liaison between Harvard Law School and curent students, faculty, visiting alumni, HLS Media Services creates short video that capture the real stories of Harvard below the surface of its printed pamphlets and iconic reputation.
- Mar 2011 - May 2011PSA Producer / Onein3 Boston
In collaboration with Mayor Thomas Menino’s non-profit organization ONEin3 Boston and Emerson College’s Office of Service Learning and Community Action, led section of First Year Writing Program through the process of producing four public service announcements to inform Boston’s youth of the opportunity for innovation and creativity within their city.
- Aug 2010 - Aug 20101st Assistant / 4 Rivers Deep Production Company
Contributed as 1st assistant to producer and director during participation in the 48 Hour Film Project. Film "The Price of Amber" awarded "best acting" as well as selected to be apart of Pittsburgh’s top 10 films.
Education-
2010 - 2013Emerson CollegeBachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production
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2008 - 2010Carnegie Mellon UniversityConcurrent Enrollment
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2008 - 2010University of PittsburghConcurrent Enrollment
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Videos
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Posts
Don’t settle. Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.
Chris Brogan- Gay marriage has its queer critics, too
“Why are we fighting for marriage equality while trans, queer, and gender non-conforming people are dying, losing their jobs and being locked up at dramatically higher rates than straight, cisgender populations? Why are we fighting for a few more documented monogamous couples to be let into an exclusionary institution instead of demanding health care, immigration [rights], respect, and autonomy for everyone?”“Wouldn’t marriage’s death as a state institution, including for straight people, be the best solution? By all means let people ‘commit’, in front of priests or otherwise, but leave weddings as ceremonies with no legal status. Scrap the civil register; make no distinction in the state’s eyes between married and unmarried citizens. The British Humanist Association, a key supporter of C4EM, seeks legal recognition for marriages its celebrants perform, but secularism is about ending, not emulating, certain belief sets’ privilege. And likewise, shouldn’t the gay community’s aim be equal treatment of all relationships, not the inclusion of same-gender ones among those which get tax breaks, media approval and B&B rooms?”
We think long-term monogamous partnerships are valid and beautiful ways of structuring and experiencing family, but we don’t see them as any more inherently valuable or legitimate than the many other family structures. We believe in each individual and family’s right to live their queer identity however they find meaningful or necessary, including when that means getting married. However, the consequences of the fight for legal inclusion in the marriage structure are terrifying. We’re seeing queer communities fractured as one model of family is being hailed and accepted as the norm, and we are seeing queer families and communities ignore and effectively work against groups who we see as natural allies, such as immigrant families, poor families, and families suffering from booming incarceration rates. We reject the idea that any relationship based on love should have to register with the state. Marriage is an institution used primarily to consolidate privilege, and we think real change will only come from getting rid of a system that continually doles out privilege to a few more, rather than trying to reform it. We know that most families, straight or gay, don’t fit in with the standards for marriage, and see many straight families being penalized for not conforming to the standard the government has set: single moms trying to get on welfare, extended family members trying to gain custody, friends kept from being each other’s legal representatives. We have far more in common with those straight families than we do with the kinds of gay families that would benefit from marriage. We are seeing a gay political agenda become single-issue to focus on marriage and leave behind many very serious issues such as social, economic, and racial justice.
Queer Kids of Queer Parents Against Gay Marriage!
I agree and disagree with this. The last sentence very much resonates with me - I really, really do not like that same-gender marriage has become The Queer issue, both because it results in other issues being ignored and because where I live, same-gender marriage is a national right, and people act as though that has taken care of all issues faced by the lgbtq community.
But on the other hand.
“We have far more in common with those straight families than we do with the kinds of gay families that would benefit from marriage.”
The kinds of gay families that would benefit from marriage. It is a line I see a lot when queer people talk about not supporting (or prioritizing) same-gender marriage, and it seems to come with the implication (or occasionally the outright statement) that the only people who would benefit from same-gender marriage are middle/upper class and white and non-immigrant and so on.
And this blatantly is not the case.
Marriage can mean inclusion on an insurance plan, which sure as hell is a benefit to everyone, but especially when you deal with chronic physical and mental issues. That insurance can keep you from thousands of dollars of debt, from avoiding treatment to avoid debt, can literally be a matter of life and death. And when suicide rates are far higher in the lgb community than in the straight community, and even higher in the trans community, access to mental health services is vital.
Marriage sure as hell is important when you’re a would-be immigrant or non-citizen resident. Marriage can be vitally important when it comes to sponsoring someone as a resident, and when it comes to the West’s incredibly racist immigration system, every little bit counts when you or your partner is a person of colour.
Marriage very much makes a difference when it comes to custody when you’re in a same-gender marriage.
There seems to be the idea that we have a choice between supporting same-gender marriage (and thus giving the rights that come with marriage to a few more) or making familial rights and benefits available to all families, regardless of marital status. But that choice really doesn’t exist. The families that do not benefit from same-gender marriage also fail to benefit from a rejection of same-gender marriage.
We live in a political system that is strongly resilient to change. In an ideal world, we could completely overhaul the system at once, but our world doesn’t work that way. Instead, we have to fight for every inch, for every minute change. And we’ve come to a point where we can make a change, where more families are slowly coming to be legally recognized as valid families, and to say “I won’t support this change because it’s not enough” helps no one.
Don’t settle. Don’t let same-gender marriage be the only way the legal definition of a family is expanded. Don’t let other families be left behind. Keep working for change.
But don’t reject this one change because it’s not the only change you want.
(via menelae)
Never forget!
On March 20th 2003, the USA Bush regime attacked Iraq and the world was about to experience some of the darkest years in modern history.
While the USA tend to forget and say; “Ok, a few bad apples made some errors but now we gotta move on”, the rest of us have to remember the medieval epoch under the Bush regime:
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- Dear morning, thank you for letting me live give another day.
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- The haunting and contemplative sound of forgotten memory.
(No streaming audio available)1023 plays - The sound of an inward revolution.
(No streaming audio available)80797 plays - I hope that this is what I will hear when my life flashes before my eyes.
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