Posted in Blog, Immigration
Latino Teen 48-Hour Film Festival empowers Columbia teens to share their voice with the world.
Funded by a generous grant from the National Black Programming Consortium, the The Nickelodeon Theatre and SCETV will hold a 48-hour Latino Teen Flash Festival this Friday, June 14, 2013 through Sunday, June 16, 2013 in Columbia, SC.
Over the course of this weekend, the Latino youth participants will have the opportunity to create five-minute videos that shed light on immigration issues from their perspective. The student teams will work with local media professionals who will serve as a producers/mentors to assist the groups with creating scripts and storyboards, as well as filming and editing of the short videos.
Latino community partner, Palmetto Luna, along with festival collaborator, Latino Communications, identified 15 middle and high school students in South Carolina to participate in this three-day film festival to produce powerful stories on the topic of immigration. To get the students ready, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center is providing the students with the latest information on immigration and the current reform efforts.
Tammy Besherse, the staff attorney for Immigration Policy at SC Appleseed, explains the importance of this project:
“We really see this as a unique opportunity for these Latino youth. As young people, they are of course excited to gain new skills while producing their own short films. But we want this experience to show them the importance of sharing their voice and telling their stories. We understand the significance of young people in the immigration reform debate, but we must empower them to to speak up. Through the short films, these 15 students will provide their own personal perspectives on immigration reform and how the lack of immigration reform impacts their lives every single day.”
The goal through these short films is for their voices to become a central part of the current immigration debate in South Carolina. We hope these films have the opportunity to reach and educate hundreds of people.
It truly is a team effort and we can’t wait to see the finished products!
The short videos will be available at http://publicmediacorps.org/once they are completed.