Wrapping up the 2014 ASA Annual Meeting

On the last night of the ASA meeting, we were joined by an even younger set of New Day filmmakers-in-training: Debbie Lum’s daughters Nina and Anna!

Later on, we got to attend the plenary session, where the keynote speech was by author and intellectual superstar Malcolm Gladwell. Gladwell spoke about privilege, discrimination and tokenism, focusing on the examples of Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler) and Moses Mendelssohn. The sociologists really gave him a hard time during the Q&A afterwards - challenging both his assumptions and methods (Gladwell comes from a psychology background, and openly acknowledged that his academic perspective might be different). But overall his talk was warmly received, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

A large conference room with a mostly full audience watching keynote speaker Malcolm Gladwell at a podium in the front. Two large screens magnify his image as he speaks. Between the two screens is a larger screen with an image of the golden gate bridge and the words “Hard Times” in big letters. — Malcolm Gladwell delivers the keynote speech at ASA 2014.

Attendance was really high in the exhibition hall on the last day - we had people still at our booth asking questions a full ten minutes after the 1pm cut-off! Yun and I were pretty exhausted by the end, but New Day classics member Frances Nkaracame to our rescue, helping us get everything packed up into a remarkably small number of boxes. We shipped everything out to the east coast team that will be representing New Day Films at the National Media Marketlater this fall.

New Day filmmaker Frances Nkara packing up the New Day Films booth into cardboard boxes and suitcases. In the background are a few ladders, cardboard bags, empty conference tables, and other people break down their booths. — Frances our Fairy Godmother takes charge of the packing-up process.