Media Projects

Alaska Native Youth Media Institute, Koahnic Broadcasting Corporation
719 East 11th Ave., Suite C, Anchorage, AK 99501
Phone: 907-258-8880
Fax: 907-258-8914
www.knba.org
Each summer since 1992, the Koahnic Broadcasting Corporation has conducted the week-long Alaska Native Youth Media Institute in Anchorage. For each institute, more than a dozen Native high school students are selected from throughout the state to receive hands-on instruction in media. Some of the country's best Native media professionals guide the students through writing, recording, and producing audio for radio broadcast and Internet distribution. By the program's end, the students have produced a radio feature program that is offered for broadcast by Native radio stations across the country.

Indian Island School, Video Program, Penobscot Nation
10 Wabanaki Way, Indian Island, ME 04468
Contact: Mike Vermette
Phone: 207-827-4285
Indian Island School has actively incorporated video production into the classrooms for Penobscot youth in grades three through eight. This video program has produced award-winning short animated videos that incorporate traditional tales and Penobscot traditions from youth perspectives.

Native Visions Program, Center for American Indian Health, Johns Hopkins University
621 N. Washington St., Baltimore, MD 21205
Contact: Paul Santomenna
Phone: 410-955-6931
The Native Visions Program is a media training program that brings media professionals to reservation communities to conduct media training workshops with teens. Teens are trained in radio, video, and television production, and these workshops often result in the production of public service announcements related to health issues facing Native communities.

Sundance Institute, Gen-Y Project
Sundance Institute, P.O. Box 16450, Salt Lake City, UT 84116
Contact: Meredith Lavitt
Phone: 801-328-3456
www.sundance.org
The Gen-Y Project is an initiative to provide young people with opportunities to explore the world of independent film. During the Sundance Film Festival students and educators are invited to participate in the Gen-Y Studio, a gathering place for Generation-Y filmmakers to share ideas, explore film, and become acquainted with new film technology. To reflect the diversity of youth experiences, the Gen-Y project encourages the participation of Native American youth. Youth initiatives at Sundance also include the Gen-Y Summer Film Camp, a free ten-day intensive workshop for high school students interested in the art and craft of documentary filmmaking.

Taos Talking Pictures, Teen Media Conference
1337 Gusdorf Rd., Taos, NM 87571
Phone: 505-751-0637
Fax: 505-751-7385
ttpix@ttpix.org
www.ttpix.org
Taos Talking Pictures, Inc., is a nonprofit organization committed to media education and community service through the annual Taos Talking Picture Festival as well as screenings and media forums held throughout the year. Each year, the Taos Talking Picture Festival screens 120 short and feature-length films and videos from around the globe. The Teen Media Conference, part of the Taos Media Forum held every April at the Taos Talking Picture Festival, features four days of workshops, seminars, and screenings designed to help students explore the impact of mass media and share their own media productions.

Walker Art Center
Vineland Pl., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55403
Phone: 612-375-7622
www.walkerart.org
The Walker Art Center collaborates with the Native Arts Circle to cosponsor the Two Rivers Native American Film and Video Festival, an annual event showcasing works by, for, and about Native people. In addition, numerous programs are held in conjunction with the Native Arts Circle for Native youth, including printmaking workshops, lectures, and workshops in the Native community. The Walker Art Center is currently planning a media training program targeting Native American and Hmong youth to document personal identity and community issues.  

Resources

Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV)
Youth Programs, 87 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10013
Contact: Clarivel Ruiz, Youth Programs Director
Phone: 212-966-4510
www.dctvny.org
Founded in 1972, Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV) has a grassroots mission to teach people, particularly members of low-income and minority communities, how to produce insightful and artistic television. DCTV's youth media programs are designed to open opportunities for at-risk minority students from New York City high schools. DCTV also distributes more than 100 youth-produced media works. Descriptions of the works available from the video library can found on the DCTV Web site.

Educational Video Center
120 West 30th St., New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-465-9366
info@evc.org
www.evc.org
The Educational Video Center (EVC) is a community-based media organization that teaches documentary video production and media analysis to youth, educators, and community organizers. EVC's mission is to serve at-risk youth and their communities by offering video and digital media arts programs that develop capacities for critical thinking, real-life work, creative expression, and self-empowerment. EVC distributes youth-produced video and publishes a student-produced introductory guide to video production.

Listen Up!
Learning Matters, Inc., 6 East 32nd St., New York, NY 10016
Contact: Austin Haeberle
Phone: 212-725-7000
Austin@listenup.org
www.listenup.org
Listen Up! Messages from America's Youth, part of a PBS initiative, is a network of youth media producers who are conducting a national public service campaign to connect youth media projects across the United States. The organization serves as a way for youth producers to connect and critique each other's work, to get their work seen, and to gain basic information about production skills. Individuals can subscribe to a monthly email Newsletter on their Website. Listen Up! also provides small grants for youth media organizations.

Open Society Institute, Youth Initiatives
400 W. 59th St., New York, NY 10019
Contact: Anna Lefer, Program Officer
Phone: 212-548-0394
www.soros.org/youth
The Youth Initiatives Program of the Open Society Institute (OSI) believes that actively engaging young people in media activities encourages them to be more socially conscious and to develop strong critical thinking and communication skills. The Youth and Media Communications Initiative creates opportunities for underserved youth communities to explore the world of media.

Street-Level Youth Media
1856 West Chicago Ave., Chicago IL 60622
Phone: 773-862-5331
http://streetlevel.iit.edu
Street-Level Youth Media educates Chicago's inner-city youth in media arts and emerging technologies for use in self-expression, communication, and social change. Street-Level's programs build self-esteem and critical thinking skills for urban youth who have been historically neglected by policy makers and mass media. Using video production, computer art, and the Internet, Street-Level's students address community issues and gain access to advanced communication technology.

Video Machete
1180 N. Milwaukee Floor 2 Chicago IL, 60622
Phone: 773-645-1272
info@videomachete.org
www.videomachete.org
Video Machete is a collective of community activists, artists, video producers, students, and youth committed to working toward positive social change. Through multi-media, video production, and alternative press, Video Machete develops skills that enable its members to think critically and to use their own life experiences as measures of social justice.

Film Festivals

The Backyard National Children's Film Festival
1551 S. Robertson Blvd., Suite 103B, Los Angeles, CA 90035
Phone: 310-203-0151
info@childrensfilmfest.org
www.childrensfilmfest.org
The annual Backyard National Children's Film Festival (BNCFF) celebrates movies made by kids ages eighteen and under. BNCFF strives to inspire young people to move beyond passively watching film and television and to interact with life through the lens of a camera. The festival features numerous awards as well as programs and workshops with directors, cinematographers, actors, and other industry professionals.

The Chicago International Children's Film Festival
Facets Multimedia, Inc., 1517 W. Fullerton, Chicago, IL 60614
Contact: Nicole Dreiske, Founder/Artistic Director
Phone: 773-281-9075
Fax: 773-929-0266
nicole@facets.org
www.cicff.org
The Chicago International Children's Film Festival is the largest children's film festival in North America. It showcases more than 180 works from all over the world each year and features media forums as well as screenings. The selection committee includes adult professionals and children.

The Do It Your Damn Self! National Youth Video and Film Festival
c/o The Community Art Center, Inc. 119 Windsor Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Contact: Saquora Lowe McLaurin, Festival Coordinator
Phone: 617-868-7100 x15
www.diyds.org
Now in its ninth year, the Do It Your Damn Self! National Youth Video and Film Festival was created by a group of inner-city teen video producers who felt that they were being misrepresented and underrepresented in mainstream media. The festival's mission is to provide local and national youth with the opportunity to give voice to issues in their lives, to display their video production skills, and to introduce other young people to the empowering potential of video and film production.

Greenlight Youth International Film Festival
Greenlight Youth Festival of the Arts Society, P.O. Box 3029
Mission, BC, V2V 4J3 CANADA
Phone: 604-852-4727
info@greenlightfilm.org
Every year the Greenlight Youth Festival of the Arts Society hosts an international film festival for youth twenty-one years old and under. Each festival includes a competition for film entries in various categories and a series of production and media workshops. The film festival is part of the broader mission of the society to develop youth talent in media arts.

Maine Student Film and Video Festival
P.O. Box 4320, Portland, ME 04101
Contact: Huey, Festival Director
Phone: 207-773-1130
huey@msfvf.com
www.msfvf.com/
Now in its twenty-eighth year, the Maine Student Film and Video Festival is open to Maine residents nineteen years old or under. The festival is sponsored by the Maine Alliance of Media Arts (MAMA), and the festival's public screening is held in July as part of the Maine International Film Festival.

Young People's Film and Video Festival
Northwest Film Center, 1219 S. W. Park Ave., Portland, OR 97205
Contact: Kristin Konsterlie, Education Outreach Coordinator
Phone: 503-231-1156
Kristin@nwfilm.org
www.nwfilm.org
The Young People's Film and Video Festival, produced by the Northwest Film Center's statewide Filmmakers-in-Schools Outreach Program, presents works by students in kindergarten through twelfth grade living in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Alaska. The festival identifies and celebrates artistic excellence, technical achievement, and originality in work created by individual students, schools, and youth organizations.  

Image credit: Cherokee High School students at the Native Youth Video Production Workshop, NMAI Native American Youth Media Projects - Photograph by Georgetta Stonefish, NMAI