Fil-Am creative, storyteller and community organizer Luann Algoso has written and developed a screenplay for a web series about a team of people working in a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon.
“Nonprofit” is centered on the story of Gabby Antonio: a quirky, spunky, and idealistic Filipina-American who works as an organizer at a social justice nonprofit for Asians and Pacific Islanders in Portland, Oregon. She’s a workaholic who loves her job so much and takes it way too seriously, that her job often infiltrates other aspects of her life.
The pilot focuses on Gabby working through a series of obstacles - like a youth training gone wrong, being stopped by a canvasser with a white savior complex, and gathering the nerve to interact with her biggest crush – in order to achieve her goal of planning a successful neighborhood block party.
Watch the pilot here:
I met Luann years ago when she was a wonderfully energetic volunteer-turned-staff member for the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. She played a key role in bringing social justice-focused arts and culture engagement programs that amplified Asian Pacific Islander voices and elevated creative pursuits that intermingled with culture and identity.
Luann's new project is testament to her creative tenacity and energy around centering the narratives of communities of color. Luann is seeking support for the project through a “Seed & Spark” crowd campaign. Here, she answers a few questions from Colors of Influence about her inspiration and vision for the web series.
Why this project and why now?
There is an emergence of several television shows starring people of color (sometimes with a majority POC ensemble cast) and to me, this inspired me to actually see it as a possibility that a Filipino American can be a lead character on a show. Seeing shows like “Master of None;” “The Mindy Project;” “Fresh off the Boat;” etc. – the list of shows that feature more narratives of people of color, and particularly Asian American voices are landing in major networks slowly. But with a growing base of support from our communities that I don't think was necessarily as strong in years prior. Much of the stories that feature Asian Americans have been successful on YouTube because of the large and loyal audiences that several web series have.
For "Nonprofit," I'm simply following in the footsteps of so many filmmakers and writers before me that have found success in sharing their work, both online and off. There's also this somewhat new wave of people that are becoming more involved as activists in social movements and I want "Nonprofit" to show the many ways activism can look like whether you're working at an advocacy organization, at a direct service agency, with a community-based organization, with a direct action group, or as an artist.
How does this project reflect your values as a woman of color?
In so many ways!
This project seeks to recognize the emotional labor that women of color provide, from what we do in work, within our families, and within our communities. Because nonprofit work is often seen as rewarding jobs in itself (because we're "making a change in the world"), the idea that those that work in nonprofits should work for little pay or we should be working ourselves to death because it's the right thing to do, is ultimately accepted and you're often frowned upon if you're not engaging in that same work ethic. The same can be said for most professions that women predominantly work in.
My values around the full representation of gender in the media is inherently connected to this project as well, as I want more women of color, more trans women of color, more immigrant, more refugee, more queer people of color (POC), as protagonists of their stories. And I have so many other reflections but I'll keep it to those two!
Why is it important for people of color to establish themselves as leaders in the creative industry? It's not enough to simply have more performers of color in the creative industry, in film and television in this case. If we only had performers of color, but a production crew, writers, and studio executives/funders that were predominantly white, the stories written to the ways in which we create the films, wouldn't be as fully representative or authentic to the experiences of communities of color.
So, not only do we need plenty more actors of color, but we also need plenty more directors, producers, and writers of color with the understanding and analysis of the experiences that impact people of color directly.
The more people of color that are working at every level of the making of films and shows, the more impact we can make in not only creating these projects with authentic narratives, but also in shifting the perception that making art is a profession and is a route that is possible for people of color.