How I made it out of Hollywood and other tales of survival

By Dawn Valadez

The summer when I was 14, I needed a job. My single mother, a daughter of Mexican immigrants and a migrant farmworker, was working hard, but money was tight. “Mi’ja, why do you want to get a job now? You are going to have to work for the rest of your life!” I wanted my freedom, and I wanted to be discovered.

In my rollerskates, dolphin shorts, and rainbow suspenders, I skated from Vermont & Franklin to the Pantages Theater in Hollywood. With my fake ID, I got a job ushering, and I loved it! I felt like I was a part of something big, and that I could be something big. When Burgess Merideth (aka “The Penguin”) gave me a $20 tip and told me I’d be a star I was over the moon!

But I realized people like me don’t get discovered. There were so few Chicanas in the “industry.” I rejected the idea that someone like me could be successful in the arts. I returned to school, and although I never stopped making art, I didn’t think of myself as an artist, but as an activist.

Dawn Valadez

I worked with homeless youth, getting them out of jail. I went to grad school at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare. I worked with teen moms. I co-founded a youth development AmeriCorps program (BAYAC). In every single program, I was in or created, I made films–with fellow Cal students, with youth, with community leaders. But I wouldn’t call myself a filmmaker!

In 2008, my college friend Kristy Guevara Flanagan and I were curious about what life was like for girls of color in the 21st century. We made GOING ON 13 to explore these themes. It was my first dedicated full-length film, and after that, I was hooked! I claimed the title of a documentary filmmaker and created space in film for myself and other queer Black and Brown people who need to tell their stories.

Over a decade later, I’m a strong voice in film. I’m a member of the Film Fatales, The Bay Area Women’s Directors Collective, and Brown Girls Doc Mafia. I produce films that range from students who get pushed out of school to young Chicanas surviving on the border, from water protectors in California to a queer filmmaker elder, from Native and Japanese communities to a queer Vietnamese comedian. I get awards and funding, and I share these resources with my communities.

I direct the Youth and Artistic Development programs at BAVC Media, and it’s the perfect place for me. One of the programs I co-lead is Reel Stories - a program for girls, young women, and gender-expansive aspiring filmmakers. We are always seeking support for our programs for emerging filmmakers. Donations can be made here.

Representation matters–in front of and behind the camera. I am grateful for how far I’ve come, and that I get to play a part in making space for our stories to be told.