We had the good fortune of connecting with Marisa Ginger Tontaveetong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marisa Ginger, what do you want people to remember about you?
I believe that life is about a lot about the actions you take and decisions you make while the legacy is the byproduct. While there’s a lot of learning throughout my journey, I hope that my legacy is to leave the work with a bigger net positive impact and encourage those I met to care more about being a part of a community and the world we live in. I would like the organizations I work with to be able to sustain itself without my presence and stay true to its mission. It’s okay if no one remembers who I am or what I do in the future but if the actions I take serves as a stepping stone to a more empathetic world where kindness and accountability is championed.

What should our readers know about your business?
ASIFA-South could have been the Fyre Festival of animation festivals.
Instead, through tough love, deep reflection, and unwavering dedication, we became one of the largest animation organizations in the South today.
And that’s not an exaggeration.

In January 2017, we received a letter from a respected figure in our community that changed everything. It was brutally honest. Not cruel, but unflinching. Here’s an excerpt:
“ASIFA-South is at an exciting, but critical point where it needs to decide what it wants to be… I’m going to sound harsh, but I call it like I see it. ASIFA-South is coming across as very unprofessional. As a result, I can’t, in good faith, promote it to my students or recommend attendance at events… There’s a perception that the current members are very self-congratulatory, no matter what. Not good for a professional organization… and still too ‘Roll Yer Own’ for my tastes.”

At the time, we were a nonprofit run entirely by volunteers just taking over from some really big shoes to fill. Most of us were fresh graduates taking over from legacies, starting anew and still figuring things out. We could have pointed to all the valid reasons for our roughness because we had no funding, no infrastructure, just a passionate team trying to keep a legacy alive. But deep down, we knew she was right.

Our screenings didn’t start on time. Our events weren’t always well-organized. A screening even cut in the middle of one of our sponsor’s film. We were trying to position ourselves as a professional organization while still operating with a student club mindset. That letter made us ask the hard questions. And the answers weren’t easy.

It’s always easier to judge from the outside. But I’ve been with ASIFA-South since 2014. I’ve seen us stumble and rebuild. I’ve watched our team evolve, alumni return to mentor, and former members become leaders in the industries. There were so many tears and nights where some of us would call each other before or after events to cry either out of exhaustion or relief. We were never perfect, but we never stopped growing.

Running a nonprofit is hard. Running an all-volunteer nonprofit is even harder. We were all juggling full-time jobs, career searching, leadership transitions, and figuring out what it really meant to run a professional organization. At first, we had no funding and very little experience, especially in the non-profit sector.

But we learned.

We learned how to be a nonprofit, thanks to scholarships, classes, and mentorship through Georgia Non Profit Sector and other partnering organizations.
We learned how to write grants. A huge thank you to our grant writer Grace Kim, who not only wrote the initial few for us but taught us how. We were able to win grants and support from the Fulton County Arts Council and craft better sponsorship decks. We became more realistic with our plans and focused on delivering what we could do well: an animation festival that ran every two years instead of one.

And we kept showing up.

We still don’t have a physical office. We don’t have a big budget or paid staff. But we have a mission, a team that meets online every month on the weekend, and a board that believes in what we’re doing enough to support us with their own resources and money. We’re not always consistent yet, and we still have work to do. But we’re transparent about where we are, and we’re committed to where we’re going. Feedback fuels us because we care about what we do and who we do it for.

That 2017 letter? I still reread it sometimes. Not out of resentment, but as a reminder. It was tough love, and it made us better. It lit a fire that still fuels me. And what keeps that fire going is knowing I’m surrounded by people who care as deeply as I do. We’re here because we believe in the mission. We’re not bound by obligation, but by purpose.

At the end of the day, ASIFA-South is powered by community. We’re ordinary artists trying to create space for others. Every event, every member, every donation: it all matters. And it all helps. Our committee members are made up of folks from our community that simply reach out and asked “how can we help?”
We’re a business that operations on putting people first and the fundraising we do is to support this. That’s why ASIFA-South exists. And we hope to be here for as long as the community needs us, passing the torch to the next generation. We operate like we want to, not because we need to and I hope that love shines through in everything we do.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
If my best friend was visiting, I would take them out to the Georgia Aquarium. It may be a cliche answer but that’s because the aquarium is amazing and my favorite out of any I’ve currently been to. The cute beluga, big shark tank, and well designed placement of the facility is great. If they were here longer, I would recommend the Shark Dive where they can get into a large tank and see the sharks from inside the aquarium.
After that, we’ve stop by the National Center for Civil and Human Rights which is just adjacent to absorb the important history of the American Civil Rights movement, the MLK Collection, and Atlanta’s role during the period of time. This, to me, is the core of what makes Atlanta unique to any visitor in understand the history.

After that, we would have dinner at Georgia Boys, having made advanced reservation because of the unique experience of entering into the secret kitchen through the speakeasy secret entrance and delight our senses with a whimsical full course of whatever surprise the chef whips up.

For the rest of the week, I would also make sure we hit up the Alchemist Trading Co in Johns Creek for unique coffee brew and tea, Juicy Crab for some seafood boil, and (I know I’ll get some rap for this) but Dreamland Bar-B-Que for some vinegar based ribs.

If they had more time and up for a trip to experience the movie magic, possibly also a tour at Trillith Studio to see the soundstages of their favorite movies.
That being said, that’s because most of my friends are from abroad, so it would be great to show them around and get a taste of the southern goodness.
I also haven’t been but planning to, but the Delta Flight Museum also seems like a great place to check out and I hear they sell cool flight memorabilia.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I think this has always been a hard one as I feel like a lot of my success is through collaborating with others so just about everyone I’ve met I feel deserves some type of shout out. Especially my family, my wonderful life partner Jeff, my extended family friends, my best friends, mentors, juniors, and all my professors. For this article, I would specifically like to focus on our nonprofit animation society ASIFA-South so I would like to emphasize our recognition to our board of directors, past board of directors, committee, volunteers at ASIFA-South, past ASIFA-South Legacy, sponsors, partnering organizations, our community, and ASIFA-International.

Website: https://www.asifa-south.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asifasouth

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asifa-south

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ASIFASouth/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@asifa-south7800

Image Credits
ASIFA-South

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