FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2007
Julie Levak, Director of External Affairs, California Council for the Humanities
(415) 391-1474
jlevak@calhum.org
SAN FRANCISCO — Thirty-five teens from around the state will gather at San Francisco State University on October 4 and 5 for the launch of the How I See It: Youth Digital Filmmakers (YDF) project.
How I See It is the latest campaign in the California Council for the Humanities' acclaimed statewide initiative California Stories. Youth Digital Filmmakers is the new campaign’s first project and is being conducted in partnership with the Digital Storytelling Institute of the Community Technology Foundation of California.
The California Council for the Humanities (CCH) awarded $30,000 grants to eight organizations around the state for teens to create digital films exploring how they see California and their communities. Participants range in age from 14 to 18. They will work with experienced filmmakers, community mentors, and humanities scholars to examine the theme of “connections” and “disconnections” in their lives and communities, which include San Francisco, Concord, Oakland, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Fresno, Lodi, and Siskiyou County.
The films will explore the teens' perceptions and realities of growing up in a changing California. They take on topics including inner-city violence; being homeless; making their way as immigrants in California; the endangered culture of Native people; the struggles of farm workers; and being LGBT.
“Throughout the California Stories: How I See It campaign we want to give young people the chance to share‹in their own words‹what their lives are like, what they care about, and what it's like to grow up in today's California," says Dr. Jim Quay, executive director of the Council.
"It's important for them to have a voice in their communities and for our state's leaders to hear and consider young peoples' voices when making the decisions that affect their future," he continued. "The Youth Digital Filmmakers project is the first step in a campaign that will continue into 2009.”
At the YDF kickoff at San Francisco State on October 4 and 5, participants will meet one another for the first time, and attend workshops on storytelling and digital filmmaking techniques. A program-wide blog will keep the groups connected to each other as they pursue their films over the next year.
The California Council for the Humanities (CCH) designed the How I See It: YDF project as a way to connect young people to their communities, while helping them develop essential skills and confidence that will serve them as adults.
The films will premier in fall 2008. Screenings are planned at film festivals, in the grantees' hometowns, online, and on DVD.
The following projects received grants:
BAY AREA
San Francisco: Conscious Youth Media Crew
This documentary will focus on what it's like to grow up in some of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods, where gangs, drugs, teen pregnancy, and HIV are part of everyday life, and what young people see as their role in the struggle for social change in their communities.
Oakland: East Bay Asian Youth Center
The film will focus on Cambodian-American youth living in Oak Park Apartments, home to many recent immigrants in the impoverished San Antonio neighborhood of Oakland. Residents cope with gangs on one hand, and the rapid gentrification of their neighborhood, on the other. Their film, "I Ain"t Leavin,'" will describe their struggle for balance and security.
Concord: Ally Action, Inc.
This short documentary, "Don't Erase My History," will highlight portions of LGBT history in California‹a story largely ignored in the classroom curriculum. The filmmakers will explore their own perspectives on being LGBT in a culture that has largely erased LGBT history from the "official narrative."
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Long Beach: Khmer Girls in Action
The project, titled ³My Reality and My Vision: Stories from Long Beach,² will examine how young Cambodian women see their place now and in the future, as compared with their parents‹many of whom who arrived in California as refugees of war. The film also will explore efforts to designate the Anaheim Corridor area of Long Beach as an official "Cambodian Town."
Los Angeles: Covenant House California
Through interviews with young people who were recently homeless, the film, "My Spaces: Homeless Youth Explore the Geography of Disconnection," will trace the challenges and traumas of teens that lived on the streets and the circumstances that led them there.
CENTRAL AND NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Fresno: Center for Multicultural Cooperation
The film, "Common Ground, Sowing Seeds of Understanding in the San Joaquin Valley," will examine the connections and disconnections among cultural communities of the rural Central Valley through the stories of Hmong, Latino, and African American farmers and farm workers.
Lodi: Lodi High School
Lodi students will produce a series of documentaries on intercultural connection and disconnection among Lodi teens. The film will explore how race and the growing gap between the haves and have-nots are affecting their school and community, and how prejudice, stereotypes, and cultural differences play a role.
Siskiyou County: Siskiyou Arts Council
The film will explore the origins and influences of Siskiyou County's native culture and the challenges young people face bridging the gap between a world that is still partially rooted in the past, yet pulled toward the future.
The California Stories: How I See It Youth Digital Filmmakers kickoff event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University. The Stuart Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities provided significant support for the California Stories: How I See It Youth Digital Filmmakers program.
For more information on California Stories, the How I See It campaign, the Youth Digital Filmmakers project and the California Council for the Humanities please visit the Council’s website.
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