Youth Film Fest Left Me Inspired
Posted by anastasia on 10-01-2004
I can't really think of a better way to have spent my birthday last night than watching videos made by children and teens from as close as the Bay Area and as far as Israel, Japan and the U.K. I was transported by their work and very inspired by what happens when youth are given cameras and begin documenting the world from their point of view. You can see a lot of the work on Youthspace.net. You can also check out some great photos of the young media makers at fellow blogger J.D. Lasica's site New Media Musings.
When I sat down before the event started, I immediately noticed the two teenage girls in front of me breathlessly texting with their thumbs faster than I can type with all 10 fingers. Once the films began I was really struck by how much old school hip hop (DJs, breakdancing, grafitti) is making a comeback both in the dance styles I saw in a film called Inertia where bored students incite a "dance off" with their teacher and in a documentary shown by the Bay Area TV and the local Invisible Fire Movement (which is all about celebrating hip hop culture) that interviewed girls about the role of women in hip hop. Keep reading the extended entry for more…
A trio of brave girls from the UK made a film about self harm (what we commonly refer to as cutting in the U.S.). I didn't realize it was such a big issue in England. Other films that really affected me included a look at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through the eyes of teen boys living in a community near Gaza; a film about a young cancer survivor named Sammy; and a film looking at gun violence in Brooklyn where one of the filmmakers close friends is shot by police in the course of making the film.
I was really impressed by the Salesforce Foundation. This is the kind of hands-on corporate philanthropy all companies should be doing. I couldn't find links to all of the films. I'm hoping they'll put up a page of all the films shown at the fest…
