By Monica F. Helms
The following are the videos from the Atlanta Eagle protest at the Atlanta City Hall, September 19, 2009 I was only able to get seven out of the 11 speakers. Either I didn’t get footage on the speaker, or the footage I got was corrupt. The four missing speakers were Craig Washington, Deepali Gokhale, Alex Hicks and myself.
Jeff Graham:
This is the first time I have used my blog to ask for people respond to a new project I am working on. I have gotten into video production for the first time in 20 years, and as you probably know, a lot has changed in the past 20 years. I was using huge, clunky three-tube cameras and 3/4 inch video tape. Today, you can get high-quality images with the small digital cameras. The editing programs makes the process a dream. I’m in love with this new century.
The one thing about video production over the years was that it was not a one-person job. This is why I am posting this new blog article. I would like to put together a list of people that have different talents that could be helpful in video production. The following is a list of talents I am looking for.
Actors, voice-over talent, camera people, sound engineers, video editors, marketing people, graphic artists, animators, special effects techs, stunt people, musicians, and composers.
Also, those who have equipment can also be important:
People who have studio cameras, camcorders, digital still cameras, mics, mic stands, lights, tripods, audio recorders, appropriate cables and adapters.
I’m sure you maybe asking what do I bring to this. The first time I picked up a movie camera, it was a regular 8 camera when I was in my early teens in the 1960s. In the Navy, I owned Super 8 cameras, some with sound, and all the proper editing equipment.
When I got out of the Navy, monochrome analog video equipment became available, but a a very high price. Equipment improved, and I got better at using. I was in the video production business for seven years and received an AA degree in video production.
Today, I use Sony’s Vegan Movie Studio 9.0 for editing. I have a Tascam US-122 audio interface a Marantz professional audio recorder, a Sony mic mixer, and a Panasonic digital camera. What I need is be able to call a person who has something that can be used for a production. Eventually, we may even make money.
The bottom line is to have a database of talent and equipment where my production company can become the place to provide contacts with the proper people. I hope that if you have the talent, equipment or both, you would consider allowing me to put you in this database. Send a private E-mail to monicahelms@earthlink.net.
The following video is something I was asked to do. A friend asked me to send in a bio of myself for Southern Comfort, so I decided to do it in a unique way, on video. The music is by Kevin MacLeod and it is called “Long Road Ahead.”
By Monica F. Helms
The year 1969 has become an important year in history for many reasons. Some huge events affected the entire world, such as Neal Armstrong walking on the Moon, July 20, 1969. Others affect me in a more personal way, such as my graduation from high school. Hurricane Camille affected the lives of over a million Gulf Coast people on August 17, 1969. And one event, the Stonewall Riots in New York City, impacted my life many years into then future.
However, another event, the Woodstock Music Festival, defined my entire generation and in many ways, defined who I am and who I have become. It lasted from August 15 to August 18, 1969.
At age 18 and living in Phoenix, AZ, I didn’t hang out with the right crowd of people who would have known of Woodstock ahead of time, or would have driven the 2500 miles to get there. I saw bits and pieces on the evening news, but had no idea the scope of the event. My friends and I starting talking about it a month after because all of the print media on it. Information didn’t get out as quickly in 1969 as it does today. The World Wide Web was nothing more than a gleam in Al Gore’s eye at the time.
By Monica F. Helms
Over the 12 years of living my life as Monica, I have been privileged to learn many things about the TBLG community, but mostly about the trans community. The biggest lesson in my short life as a woman has been the diversity of our people. Trans individuals have covered every segment of human experience since the dawn of time. We span all races, all sexual orientations, all gender identities, all gender expressions, all social and economic levels, all job experiences, all education levels, all ages and all health issues. If every American trans person populated just one city in America, it would be the third largest city in the country and every job in the city would be covered.
When I moved to Atlanta in 2000, I received the most important part of my education on diversity, that of the African American community. Living in Phoenix most of my life, I received a big education on the Latino and Native cultures of our population, but not much on the African American culture. But, coming to Atlanta had been the biggest eye-opener for me in finding out about the rich history – and sometimes tragic history – of my African American brothers and sisters. Moving here has proven to be one of the best decisions in my life.
By Monica F. Helms
It took my awhile, but I finally edited the video of the March for Transgender Rights.
This is the video of the March that took place through Little Five Points to the First Existential Church. Before the march started we see speeches from Dee Dee Chamblee, Cheryl Courtney Evans and Sir Jesse McNulty.
by Monica F. Helms
On June 27, 2009, the Transgender Community of Georgia gather at the First Existential Church in Atlanta, to honor the transgender heroes of the Stonewall Riots, 40 years ago in Greenwich Village. We had 300 people packed into the church to hear inspirational speeches from Pastor Paul Turner, Tracee McDaniel and Dr. Maxwell Anderson.
The six people who spoke that day are shown here in videos. We made a video for each speaker, presented in order from when they spoke.
We also presented to Georgia State Senator Vincent Fort and State Representative Karla Drenner a parchment with three of the most important concerns of the Transgender Community of Georgia. They promised us that they will read the list on the floor of the Georgia House and Senate during the next session in January.
The first video is that of Pastor Paul Turner. Pastor Turner gave the opening prayer and then spoke later on. I edited these two together for convenience.
By Monica F. Helms
I have this wonderful part of my being that I like to pull out and play with every so often. Okay. I suppose that sentence could have been written differently. I am referring to my “imagination.” My imagination has play tricks on me quite often, but then I get many chances to tame it with the wave of my typing fingers. This happens to be one of those times.
On June 28, 1969, at about 3 AM EDT, one of the most pivotal events in LGBT history took place in front of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St. in Greenwich Village. Like a super nova, the explosion that happened that morning expanded rapidly outward to engulf the entire planet with the sounds of millions clamoring for their equality and freedom. The events from that moment in time have continued to expand even today, 40 years later.
But, I have to ask the one most important question that hides within my imagination, waiting for the next time to appear. “What if?” Countless fiction writers have made a comfortable living asking those two famous words. So, I ask the question with the qualifying words that allow this piece of writing to continue. “What if the trans people at the Stonewall Inn that night did not have the guts to start the riots?”
By Monica F. Helms
As an activist for the transgender community, I never know when an opportunity will come up to educate a company or an organization. Sometimes it’s by accident and other times it’s intentional. However way it comes about, myself and others have to take the time to help them understand. To me, the opportunity happened with Boost Mobile, whose parent company is Sprint Nextel, the company I’ve worked for nearly twenty years.
The education of Boost Mobile on trans issues started with this commercial featuring Danica Patrick as their new spokesperson:
As you can see, this commercial just looks plane dumb on the visual level, but it also uses men in women’s clothes in a negative context. Trans people who saw this commercial went ballistic. Even though the commercial does not specifically make fun of trans people, out of the 300 million Americans, many will use this as another excuse to discriminate and hold back equality for Transgender Americans.
By Monica F. Helms
Others have been doing this, so I thought it would be interesting to do the same.
Then:
1.) I liked girls and women, but also liked what they wore.
2.) I loved science and science fiction.
3.) I launched model rockets and even started a model rocket club.
4.) I was very mechanically inclined and loved building things with wood, plastics, metal and various moving parts.
5.) I was a wimp. I didn’t play sports except Little League, because I had good hand/eye coordination when batting.
6.) With my friends, I was the follower. No one would listen to my suggestions or my opinions.
7.) I was a mediocre Navy person and employee, doing the least I needed to do to get by.
8.) I loved wearing dresses whenever I could, and for as long as I could.
9.) I did not care about causes or what happened in our country politically.
10.) When making love as a man, it was too short and I wasn’t very thrilled with what my part was in the “process.”
(The first picture is me at age 8 and the second picture was when my captain gave me my Dolphins, April 1974.)
(This piece is what I submitted for the book called “Trans People in Love,” published by Routledge, June 6, 2008. The editors are Tracie O’Keefe and Katrina Fox. “Sex and the Single Trannie” is Chapter 12, on page 111.)
By Monica F. Helms
“NO! I refuse to believe you!”
“Sorry, Monica. Once you start hormones, you’ll lose your libido.”
“I will NOT let that happen.”
“You’ll have no choice.”
“We’ll see about that.”
One may ask, “What does libido have to do with love?” This is, after all, an anthology of transsexuals and love and very little about sexual desires. That maybe so, but I cannot separate the strong connections between all of those parts of my personality.
Most people understand that humans are extremely complex biological organisms that have the capacity to experience a large range of emotions, including the elusive one known as “love.” They also can feel a multitude of physical sensation and understand what they all mean, especially sexual pleasures. Over the course of the last decade, I’ve experienced love and sexual pleasures on so many levels that it would be hard to isolate one special moment or one special person. Others in this book may have a partner or someone special, but I don’t. Yet, I have loved and lost enough times to know what the experience feels like.