** Please support this youth film festival, which includes several pieces regarding police violence.  PJ conducted a Know Your Rights training for some of the film-makers during their production process. 

NYC Film Festival Features Student-Made Documentaries Exploring Problems in Teen Lives

Gritty Dramas Aim to Provide Help for Young People dealing with Issues of Police Brutality, Drug Use and Peer Trust 

When:  Mon. June 6, 11am-2pm

Where:  Loew's Theater 34th St. Street 14, 312 W. 34th St. New York, NY 10001 (between 8th and 9th Aves.)

Youth producers from Satellite Academy, a New York City transfer highschool for overage and under-credited students, present thirteen new documentaries that inform other young people and the public about problems they face and possible solutions for addressing them.

Through semester-long documentary classes taught by the Educational Video Center, students learned to interview peers, teachers, and community leaders to create compelling videos about issues including police brutality, drug abuse, coming out and abusive relationships. In Know Your Rights: How to Deal with Police Confrontations, student producers, many of whom have been stopped by police officers themselves, reported stories of people being questioned and arrested unjustly by police officers and go onto inform their audiences about their rights if they find themselves in this situation, and what resources are available to fight back if they are arrested. Don’t Influence Me is a powerful portrait of two teenagers’ understanding of their parents' struggles with drug addiction. In Facilitating Choices, youth producers look deeper in to what Harm Reduction is and how it affects the community of drug users. The film Trust? poses the question that the producers feel young people often ask themselves in relationships, "Why is it so difficult to gain trust, but soeasy to lose?" The youth producers will be there for a Q & A sessionafter the screening.

This festival was co-produced by Satellite Academy and the Educational Video Center. This is the premiere public screening of these documentaries.

The Educational Video Center is a non-profit youth media organization dedicated to teaching documentary as a means to develop theartistic, critical literacy, and career skills of young people, while nurturing their idealism and commitment to social change. Founded in 1984, EVC is an internationally acclaimed leader in youth media education. EVC students have won hundreds of awards including an Emmy, and were presented the JVC President’s Award at JVC headquarters in Tokyo, and the prestigious President’s Committee’s Coming Up Taller award at the White House.