Our programs aim to elevate the voices of emerging filmmakers of color who don’t see themselves represented in the TV and film industry due to nepotism, unpaid internships and exclusionary hiring practices. We also give access to arts to youth and families in communities of color where an arts education is sorely lacking. Our programs reach 2000 participants per year and include:
Afterschool Arts Programs: Healing-centered art classes for youth ages 10-18 at parks throughout LA County. Students receive filmmaking, photography, and painting classes as part of a holistic effort to use arts education as a tool for liberation. In each class students create individual or collaborative pieces of art.
Nuevas Novelas: A job-training storytelling and environmental justice intensive for teens of color, ages 13-18 which includes media literacy and film production training. Students create short films in teams which are then screened in partnership with film festivals, schools and community centers.
Video Diaries: First-time filmmakers develop autobiographical documentaries and improve their videography and editing skills with support from Justice for My Sister. They exhibit their work in a film festival that we host.
BIPOC Sci-Fi Screenwriting Lab: Fellows author original sci-fi TV pilot scripts through a lecture series and one-on-one mentorships. Fellows exhibit excerpts of their scripts in a table read in which they direct actors to interpret their characters.
Production Assistant Certification Program: A 100-hour job-training certification program geared towards working adults entering the TV & film industry. Participants receive on-the-job training and subsequent paid job placements on BIPOC-led film productions.
Teen Dating & Healthy Relationships: four 50-minute sessions designed to equip middle & high school students with knowledge about the cycle of violence, its normalization in the media, and how to recognize signs to prevent it, to set boundaries and develop emotional regulation tools to decrease violence in their communities.