The Voice of Our Youth: YEY Social Documentaries Celebrates its Fourth Year at the SCFF

Youth Empowering Youth (YEY) uses social documentary filmmaking to teach digital arts.Come see the student’s films: The Santa Cruz Film Festival will screen the annual 2009 showing of these films for the public on May 9 at 11:30 at the Regal Riverfront Twin Theater, and an Awards Party at Woodstock’s after — all in the Galleria Shopping Center, Santa Cruz.


The Voice of Our Youth: YEY Social Documentaries Celebrates its Fourth Year at the Santa Cruz Film Festival

Youth Empowering Youth (YEY) uses documentary filmmaking to teach digital arts, community engagement, career skills and personal empowerment to high school and college age youth working together. YEY, a program of Visionary Arts and Media Foundation (VAM), a Santa Cruz non-profit organization, is in its fourth year. It has grown each year with more young people making more exciting short films. The Santa Cruz Film Festival will screen the annual 2009 showing of these films for the public on May 9 at 11:30 at the Regal Riverfront Twin Theater, followed by an Awards Party at Woodstock’s in the Galleria Shopping Center, Santa Cruz.

This year YEY has expanded to include an independent after school group, GirlZ Space, and Renaissance High School students, a continuation school. Cabrillo Community College’s Digital Media students have also joined the YEY family as mentors. There are also the three Santa Cruz County high schools veterans of the program; Aptos, Watsonville and San Lorenzo Valley.

YEY empowers the voice and point of view of young people in our community through digital arts. The program is designed to encourage young people to become journalists, aware and engaged citizens, with tools to be able to critically evaluate and influence the shape of the future expressed through the creative technologies of new media.

Several of the participating YEY High School students have been considered at-risk or second chance youth. The many positive impacts the YEY program has on their lives are beyond measure. One of the films is on youth and their relation to correction authority. With limited equipment, sometimes using just cell phones and small cameras they capture images in new creative ways. The students who began their project "angry at the system” are being transformed by the experience of making their documentary. Their new, more positive outlook inspired them to change the focus and name of the film to reflect what they learned. Forty-six high school students and mentors work as teams to tell compelling stories about community solutions. Experts with technical and expressive skills, such as sound, interviewing, and visual composition coach the students. The skills for collaborating, project planning, making deadlines throughout film production are part of the artists' discipline. Twelve UC and Cabrillo students serving as mentors, practice leadership skills by guiding the high school students through all phases of the filmmaking project from developing the story’s message, through stylizing and editing the final product. This Year's Films

The nine upcoming films are: Education Outside the Box, comparing several approaches to education, Homelessness, the reasons people end up with the label homeless, Foundations of Education, explores how education shapes a child to prosper in life, AIDS, how is AIDS affecting the local community?, Emission Addiction, exploring the alternative options and practicalities of using sustainable transportation in Santa Cruz, Graffiti vs. Art, the similarities and differences between art and graffiti, Get Wheels, the advantage of riding a bike, Authority and Youth: Working Together, investigates attitudes about treatment of youth by adults, law enforcement, and Grades in Perspective, do grades reflect the whole student?. Leonora Clow is the founder and Executive Director of Visionary Arts and Media (VAM), the parent organization of the Youth Empowering Youth Program. Leonora's vision is to get students and young people involved, through media and film, with the incredible community work that happens in Santa Cruz County. Hina Pendle is the Program Director and Zoe Jacobson is the Mentor Coordinator of YEY. VAM has been teaming up with the UCSC Community Studies department’s Mike Rotkin and the Film Department Students, as well as Beth Regards of the Digital Media Department of Cabrillo College. We are also grateful to the ROP (Regional Occupation Program) teachers in the high schools and the staff of the Walnut Street Women’s Center for their support and participation.

Budget cuts are greatly affecting schools. VAM is privately funded to help high schools, UCSC and Cabrillo students learn more about their community. VAM welcomes local support http://www.vizartsmedia.org

We welcome the community to view the films. Bring the whole family. The films will shown by the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Saturday May 9th at 11:30 at the Regal Riverfront Twin at the Galleria Shopping Center at Front Street. Admission is Free. Join us for a complementary Awards Party and fun-raiser at Woodstock Pizza immediately after the films. For more information, call Hina Pendle, 831.662.2232.