Last week, BRIC announced the 2023–2024 BRIClab artists-in-residence in film and tv, video art, and contemporary art. The film and tv year-long residency incubates innovative and ambitious documentary filmmakers working on short-form, episodic, and feature-length non-fiction films. The video art year-long residency provides support through free courses, video and audio equipment, 80 hours of access to BRIC’s community media studios, editing suites and laptops, and mentorship. Both of those residences include a capstone public screening of the work in 2024.
The film and tv documentary project descriptions are listed at the end of this article. The video art cohort is Olivia Rose Barresi and Emily Barresi, DaeQuan Collier, Eliza Lu Doyle, Rachael Guma, Yasi Ghanbari, and Eriko Tsogo.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of BRIC hosting a contemporary art residency, and it will be the first time in its history that it has accepted collectives and collaborations and allows artists to participate virtually, hybrid, or in person. This residency includes facilitated workshops on topics such as mutual aid and peer education, mentorship, and studio space, and is facilitated by danilo machado. Selected artists and collectives are Pelenakeke Brown, CAO Collective (Laura Li嘟嘟, huiyin zhou徽音, and fran yu/jiao jiao), Alex Dolores Salerno, Steven Anthony Johnson II, and Cinthya Santos Briones.
In prior years, BRIClab included a performing arts track, which is still paused “due to economic constraints felt across the arts & culture sector.”
In a prepared statement, Wes Jackson, who was appointed as BRIC’s president last summer, said: “We’re excited to welcome this new cohort of artists into BRIClab—a program that truly embodies BRIC’s mission to provide vital support for artists and media makers in Brooklyn. BRIClab alumni have gone on to play the stage at BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn!, hold solo exhibitions at BRIC House, and more. It’s an honor to invite these brilliant creatives into the BRIC family.”
In addition to its educational programs and artist fellowships, BRIC, Brooklyn’s longstanding community media and culture nonprofit, operates two significant media programs: Brooklyn Free Speech, Brooklyn's Public Access initiative, and BRIC TV, a nonprofit community TV channel and digital network. In recent years, BRIC TV has produced and broadcast dozens of documentary series in addition to original scripted shows.
The BRIClab: Film + TV cohort is:
Lucy Adams: Coywolf
Coyotes are not native to New York City. As they have become more and more adept at surviving in urban environments, their habitats have expanded across the US. There are currently an estimated 30-40 coyotes in the city, and certainly more to come. As their population increases, so does a need for the public to understand how to coexist with urban wildlife. Conservation efforts have historically been focused on preserving natural areas without human intervention. Rather than separate natural versus manmade spaces, there is a new approach to urban conservation that embraces these hybrid, shared spaces that are undeniably a result of human settlement and settlement of non-native wildlife. The coyote is an emblematic species for this type of relationship, and can provide a jumping off point for a crucial reassessment of nature in urban spaces.
Sally Tran: Still A Go Between
Still A Go Between is a mixed media short documentary that tells the story of a young Vietnamese refugee who found himself in New York City in the late 80’s after the fall of Saigon. The film follows a young Vietnamese man’s journey from his time as a go-between for GIs in Saigon during the Vietnam War to his treacherous journey to America as a refugee "boat person," and to his involvement as a go-between for Chinese gangs in NYC. He later created the infamous Born to Kill gang, made up of Vietnamese refugee teenagers who left Vietnam in the hope of finding better opportunities in America.
Brit Fryer & Lydia Cornett: En Travesti
Weaving through present-day narratives of opera singers, musicologists, and a laryngologist, En Travesti explores the entangled relationship between voice, gender, and opera through those who contend with these connections daily.
Read more about the selected filmmakers here.