Filipino Filmmaker Sheds Light on America’s First Transgender Person Elected to a City Council: Joanne Conte

This morning’s guest is Oriana Ledesma, who identifies as a queer, Filipino, American, veteran, woman, and filmmaker with brown skin whose work brings humanity to people subjected to social marginalization. Ledesma is the associate producer of the upcoming film Conte: A Short Story, highlighting a different side of the late Joanne Conte, the first transgender person elected to a city council in US history who went to work as an investigative reporter for our KGNU community radio station.

Oriana Ledesma, the storyteller of color works with El Dorado Films and the SFAU-based Veteran Documentary Corps, focusing on research and story development. The award-winning journalist, who covered the Iraq War, shares with KGNU’s Rossana Longo-Better her interest in the representation of race, gender, and sexuality in media throughout U.S. history, and its legal and cultural effects.

Filipino Filmmaker Sheds Light on America’s First Transgender Person Elected to a City Council: Joanne Conte Rossana Longo-Better

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Storytellers of Color airs on the second Monday of each month as part of A Public Affair on KGNU. The main goal of the show is to provide a safe space for communicators of color, through a series of conversations, to elevate their voices and discuss issues of equality in the media. The show is inspired by recent gatherings of various working groups, including Latinx Voices, organized by Diamond Hardiman from Free Press’ News Voices Colorado Project, and Journos of Color Network led by Tina Griego, reporter, editor, and coach from Colorado News Collaborative.

The Storytellers of Color series are a collaborative effort, with an open invitation to other storytellers to come into our airwaves, to tell their stories, and occupy the safe space we are providing every second Monday of the month.