Young filmmakers turn their cameras on their schools

What makes a teacher worth paying attention to? What makes a school worth going to? Recently, Listen Up!, a network of 60 youth media organizations nationwide, invited ten youth production teams to answer these questions.

From inner city Oakland to a Native American reservation in rural Montana to suburban Chicago, the teams wrote, shot, edited, and produced short documentaries about what they think makes an excellent teacher and an exceptional school. In the tradition of masterful storytelling, their work is beautifully crafted. It’s the way they see it -youth speaking out on education. “In our schools, youth are the driving forces and ultimately the central focus of schools themselves,” said 17 year-old youth media producer Vicki Chan in Oakland, CA. “Who best is there to produce a documentary about the trials, successes, and progress than the students? In a place like Oakland, where many have lost hope in the public school system, I hear cries for an inspiration to revitalize students.”

The “Youth Speak Out on Education” project includes youth production teams from Communication Arts High School (San Antonio, TX), Education Video Center -EVC- (New York, NY), Española Valley High School (Española Valley, NM), Evanston Township High School (Evanston, IL), Frazer School/Vid Kids (Ft. Peck Reservation, MT), New Orleans Video Access Center -NOVAC- (New Orleans, LA), Spy Hop Productions (Salt Lake City, UT), SCOOP (Detroit, MI), Wide Angle Community Media (Baltimore, MD), and Youth Media (Oakland, CA).

See below for short clips from three of these films. To see film descriptions and clips from the entire collection, please go to Listen Up!

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