Young Filmmakers Program
The films created by the young filmmakers in our Young Filmmakers Program may not win an Oscar. They may not win great praise. Yet they may be the most valuable films ever made. Through Young Filmmakers, inner-city youth make documentaries about issues that impact their daily lives, including the impact of the war on drugs and the effect of incarceration on their families, friends, neighborhoods, and communities, and the challenges of teen pregnancy.
Young Filmmakers program is designed to provide a vehicle for self-expression which increases youth confidence, helps them develop new marketable skills, and expands their access to innovative educational opportunities. This program introduces underserved youth to career opportunities in the visual arts and helps them develop new filmmaking skills.
Purpose
The purpose of Young Filmmakers is to teach urban youth, ages 11-18, how to write, edit, produce, and film their own stories, under the tutelage of a young filmmaker. The goal of the program is to provide an outlet for youth to express their feelings, fears, challenges, and efforts to live sober productive lives, while living in neighborhoods plagued by poverty, illegal drug use and sales, and high rates of incarceration.
Young Filmmakers aims to put youth behind the camera. Youth write, design, edit, and film documentaries.
Young Filmmakers has a direct impact on the ability of youth to:
1) articulate and communicate their own stories
2) manage trauma
3) reduce their own stress and anxiety
4) feel a sense of empowerment over some aspect of their lives.
The primary goal of Young Filmmakers is to teach at-risk youth how to tell their own stories.
The expected impact of this program is that telling their own stories and having a vehicle through which to express their own trauma will help at-risk youth envision a different future for themselves and make better choices. The 4 expected outcomes of making these documentaries are as follows: First, making the documentary will have a cathartic impact on the filmmakers, and help them manage or highlight negative emotions, such as worry, anxiety, and depression. Second, youth will learn marketable production and filmmaking skills. Third, youth will create a permanent tangible manifestation of their work, which will be preserved in a medium that can be revisited and shared with their peers. Fourth, at the conclusion of filming, we showcase the films in a venue that allows filmmakers, their families, and the larger community to gather and watch the final work. We collect feedback about the films from our viewers, as well as video testimonials from the young filmmakers. We plan to expand our Young Filmmakers Program by creating a writer’s room. The writer’s room will be comprised of teens who will spearhead the next volume of our documentary series.
Collaboration
Resurgence Now collaborates with Blue Plum Productions Inc., a non-profit organization which produces short films at inner-city public middle and high schools. Blue Plum teaches middle school and high school students how to pitch, write, edit, produce, design, cast, and film their own short films, ranging from documentaries to horror films.
Sources of Funding
Resurgence Now receives donations from members of the public, an annual live auction, corporate sponsorship donations, grassroots fundraisers, and grants.