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cassandra herrman

@cassandra.herrman

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frames + re-frames | filmmaker | educator | @heylassandra |🏳️‍🌈

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💜 What a weekend. 💜
Following our @framelinefest premiere at the historic @roxie_theater, we packed @haightstreetart for a second screening of @herequeerontv and a dance party.
Thank you to everyone who joined us to share memories and memorabilia, dance, and celebrate queer history and community. Just like Lavender Lounge, the energy in the room was electric.⚡️🪩
Special thanks to Haight Street Art Center for hosting and partnering with us, to @newwavetothegrave (DJ C’est Jílle) for the music and visuals, and to @camins2dreams, @voonwines, and Chiotras Grocery @karetoff for generously donating wine for the celebration. To @talslott and @_btsueta_ for filming all the joy. Huge thanks as well to @athleteherinner, @flop415 and @lars_s_althoff for craft services, set decorating and that stunning disco ball! #queerdanceparty #frameline50
#pride2026

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Juneteenth Weekend included Frameline50’s Doc Shorts featuring Here, Queer, and On TV, directed by Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen. Smart, moving, and a reminder of how owning the narrative on community television helped shaped queer identity, visibility, and belonging. Then Boo and I walked to Chase AKA Ballhalla to see the Valkyries before grabbing a nightcap at Northlight. Saturday’s Crawfish Party in Half Moon Bay was a mini-festival! Today, Berkeley’s Juneteenth Festival was as Black as it could be in all the best ways. Then my Boo brought it home fixing Sunday dinner in our fancy new copper pans. Happy Solstice y’all! #Frameline50 #Valkyries # Juneteenth

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THIS SATURDAY! HSAC is thrilled to be hosting a screening of Here, Queer, and On TV + a dance party with DJ C’est Jille (@newwavetothegrave).

Meet Lavender Lounge’s creator Mark Kliem (@markkliem), directors Cassandra Herrman (@cassandra.herrman) and Kelly Whalen (@kellyfilmaker), along with crew members, dancers, artists, and community members who helped bring the groundbreaking weekly public access television show to life between 1991 and 1995.

Come celebrate queer media history and community with us. Link in bio for tickets!

#lgbtqhistory #queerdanceparty #pridemonth

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On March 9, 1991, in a Mission District production studio that rented for $10/hour, Mark Kliem looked into the camera and made a proclamation: “Welcome to ‘Lavender Lounge,’” said the host of the country’s first queer, “American Bandstand”-style dance party TV show. “We’re making history today.”

Kliem had read about public-access television in an SF Weekly article and thought the format presented an opportunity. If he hosted and produced a few episodes of a variety show, he figured, he could cut a demo reel and finally break into show biz.

But by the third episode of “Lavender Lounge,” he realized he was onto something bigger. The thrill in the room was palpable, from both the ragtag team of queer crew members he’d assembled and the young people who kept responding to the newspaper ads, which invited them to don their coolest outfits and dance on TV.

“Oh,” he remembers thinking. “I’ve created a monster.”

From 1991 to 1995, the show evolved from a dance party into a crucial source of connection, resistance, and historical footage. It remains, for example, the only broadcast of the city’s first-ever Dyke March in 1993.

Some 35 years after its debut, “Lavender Lounge” gets its due with a new documentary short that draws its title from the show’s tagline: ‘Here, Queer, and On TV.’ The film by directors Cassandra Herrman and Kelly Whalen premieres this Friday, June 19, at the Roxie Theater as part of Frameline50, and on Saturday, June 20, at the Haight Street Art Center, followed by (natch) a dance party.

Read the full story at coyotemedia.org

✏️: @emmaruthless
📷: courtesy of Jack Johnson

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🎥 Trailer Drop 🪩

Before YouTube, there was Lavender Lounge, San Francisco’s queer public access TV show. A 90s dance party. Rare archival footage not seen in 30 years.

Watch the trailer for Here, Queer, and On TV, a documentary short premiering at San Francisco’s #frameline50 (tickets at rush) 6/19 12:30pm at The Roxie Theater.

Screening + dance party Saturday 6/20 7-10pm at the Haight Street Art Center.
#lgbtqhistory #queerdanceparty #pridemonth

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As filmmakers who have spent decades working in public media, we wanted to tell a story that celebrates community-powered media making.

After discovering a footnote about a 1990s queer public access TV show in San Francisco called Lavender Lounge, we took a deep dive into the archives at the treasured @glbt_history and found a VHS tape of compiled moments from the show. We were immediately hooked by the colorful dance party footage and DIY spirit of a show that chronicled a transformative moment in San Francisco’s LGBTQ+ history.

We tracked down creator @markkliem who had kept all of the original taped episodes, teamed up with @bavcmedia to begin digitizing the tapes, and started making our movie.

We’re honored to be part of bringing Lavender Lounge back to life.

Come see us at @framelinefest or to our screening and dance party at @haightstreetart! Links in bio.

#HereQueerAndOnTV #Frameline50 #LavenderLounge #QueerHistory #LGBTQHistory

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We’re thrilled to announce another San Francisco screening of Here, Queer, and On TV + dance party at the Haight Street Art Center, with DJ C’est Jillie. 🪩🏳️‍🌈 June 20, 7pm -10pm 📍215 Haight St., SF
Meet Lavender Lounge’s creator @markkliem Mark Kliem, along with crew members, dancers, artists, and community members who helped bring the groundbreaking weekly public access television show to life between 1991 and 1995.

Come celebrate queer media history and community with us.

Tickets in bio. Shout out to @jamesmichaelcallahan0419 for sharing his fly moves in this clip. #queerdanceparty #lgbtqhistory #frameline50

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Lavender Lounge creator @markkliem assembled a volunteer crew of friends and artists to create the groundbreaking ‘90s queer and trans public access TV show, at a time when LGBTQ+ people were largely excluded from mainstream media.

Built through word of mouth, classified ads, and flyers, the weekly show became a space for visibility, resistance, connection—and JOY.

We’re thrilled that some of the folks pictured here will be joining us at our @framelinefest premiere screening of Here, Queer, and On TV, at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco, June 19th, 12:30 - 2:30pm.

Tickets available at rush.

If you miss us at the Roxie, we have an exciting update coming on another local screening! 🌈💜📺

#HereQueerAndOnTV #LavenderLounge #Frameline50 #QueerHistory #LGBTQHistory

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Masters degree from @ucberkeleygraduate @berkeleyjournalism ✅

Congratulations to the 2026 cohort! 🍾🍾🍾
Good luck to all of you and I can’t wait to see what everyone does next.

🛩️🛩️🛩️

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We’re so excited to premiere our documentary short Here, Queer, and On TV at Frameline50! @framelinefest 🏳️‍🌈🎥

Before YouTube, Lavender Lounge lit up public access TV with a groundbreaking queer and trans dance party show in the ’90s. Thirty years later, creator Mark Kliem brings rare footage back to light, reconnecting the original crew with younger generations at a moment when queer history is once again under attack.

Directed by @cassandra.herrman and @kellyfilmmaker, from a forthcoming documentary feature. 
Catch us in the Doc Shorts lineup at the @roxie_theater on 6/19 at 12:30pm. Tickets at the link in bio or here: https://www.frameline.org/films/frameline50/doc-shorts

Stay tuned for more SF events!

Follow us! @herequeerontv
More about Lavender Lounge and creator @markkliem at the link in bio.

Big thanks to @bavcmedia for partnering with us on the beautiful archival restoration.

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Lots of firsts in 2025!
First:
- Cinema camera purchased (sony FX6)
- DP and AC gigs in NYC
- Narrative shoots
- Contract to make a short documentary for an organization
- Fundraiser to turn my short film into a feature
- Newsletter
- Full year as a freelancer

Other highlights:

I was a judge on the Road to the Oscars initiative where I got to watch a ton of great films and give the selected ones the opportunity of qualifying for the Oscars

I emailed the Kazakh consulate to help fill a screening for the Asian American International Film Festival – Gingerbread for Her Dad directed by Alina Mustafina (great film!)

More virtual screenings of The Weight They Carry where I continued to break the silence on mental health and connect people with resources. Also decided to expand it into a feature film!

Started working with the amazing @amandamustard and discovered such a special community at the @slipperroomny

Also got to work with so many amazing, kind, and creative people!

Continued volunteering as an organizer for the Video Consortium and helped host happy hours, a mental health screening and a screening in collaboration with Al Jazeera with films and filmmakers from all over the world. Also moderated several Q&As including one in front of a hundred people!

Finally got to see my journalism professor and icon @cassandra.herrman ‘s feature film When I Say Africa

And so many other great films this year!

(Last photo is 16 hours into a shoot haha)

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Great having alum and ABC News Senior Producer Joe Rhee ('87) back at North Gate Hall to talk to students last week!

Photo I: Joe with award-winning documentary filmmaker and lecturer Cassandra Herrman (’01) and our beloved Director of Career Services @betsyrate, herself an Emmy-nominated producer for various PBS and network news magazines.

Photo II: Joe meeting with @cassandra.herrman's Video Reporting and Storytelling class.

#payingitforward @ucberkeleyofficial #jschool @abcnews

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