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JULY 2004

Teen Filmmakers In the Spotlight
by Michelle Accorso

Most of us are familiar with the recent documentary Super Size Me, in which Morgan Spurlock, the film’s director, producer and self-proclaimed guinea pig underwent thirty days of eating only McDonald’s. Similarly, many of us flocked to the theatre to see Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and are even more excited about Fahrenheit 9/11. However, there are other documentary makers out there that the majority of us don’t even know about—they are the youth of New York City and part of the Educational Video Center (EVC).

On a recent evening in the Walter Reade theatre at Lincoln Center, three documentaries were showcased displaying just a taste of what these students explore on a daily basis.

The EVC is run by a board of directors, including Bruni Burres, Director Human Rights Watch International Film Festival (HRWIFF) and Gail Gant, VP and Treasurer, who were present to provide opening remarks and gratitude toward sponsors that have made the program possible, specifically Time Warner, for consistently supporting the aspirations of EVC’s youth producers.

“This is our third year doing this,” commented Gant, “And it just keeps getting better and better.” “We’ve been able to see these pieces as well as the youth producers grow,” added Burres.

The first two documentaries, Patriarchy is Malarkey! And Actions of Today, Blueprints for Tomorrow: Youth Organizing to Transform Education by the Basic and Advanced Documentary Workshops, respectively, displayed solid themes that managed to be successfully portrayed in fifteen minutes each.

Patriarchy is Malarkey! opened with voice-overs stating “There’s a war going on and it’s not the one you see on TV. It’s the war on women” and ended with the March on Washington to protect women’s reproductive rights.

Actions of Today, Blueprints for Tomorrow followed the lives and dedication of a group of Bronx students eager to create their own school, based on what they feel other schools are lacking, including over-crowding and a lack of respect.

The third documentary, All That I Can Be, produced by Youth Organizers Television (YO-TV), followed the decision of an EVC alum, as he joined the US Army in search of a way out of poverty. Although the audience only received a thirty-minute clip, it was enough to create a powerful message and a reiteration of the seriousness of war.

Along with producing documentaries, EVC has created a curriculum DVD to be distributed throughout schools in the U.S. and other countries. “In a time when we’re being told more than ever not to question, these students are acting on what they find instinctual, and they’re asking ‘why’,” commented Tim Dorsey, the program’s Managing Director.

EVC has created an outlet for students’ questions and a possible way to acquire answers. As one student put it, “Even though it takes up a lot of my time, from 1:30 to 4:30 pm every day after school, I think it has helped my performance in other classes, along with making me a better person overall.”

Gant said it perfectly when she opened the night’s event with the words, “You’ll see tonight…you’ll want to get involved with EVC.” With such a solid cause and powerful implementation, it’s hard to disagree.#

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