by Robyn Bykofsky I have been facilitating media literacy and
video production workshops with Bay Area youth and educators for
over 12 years and the Youth Film Lab was the experience of a
lifetime. It was the first workshop I taught in which teens
produced and edited their videos within 4.5 hours and then an
hour later screened the videos to a live audience at the Oakland
School of the Arts Black Box Theater. How did we accomplish this
task? First, we had a talented and motivated group of 14 teens
from all over Oakland. Second, TILT (the youth media program at
Ninth Street Independent Film Center) and Disposable Film
Festival (DFF) crafted an action-packed curriculum that had the
teens on the flip cameras right away. Teens were able to express
themselves in the hands-on video activity When People See Me.
This effective icebreaker allowed the teens to quickly get to
know each other and therefore they were ready to jump into a
brief discussion about using mobile media for social action and
change. The next hand