Official Selections

Personal Essay Program One:

Who Am I?
Cortez Davidaz
Age 20
Street Level Youth Media

An in depth look at the life of the filmmaker, who has struggled to explain himself, come to terms with his personality and understand his environment.

Fat Free
Angela Christodoulou
Age 18
Reel Works Teen Filmmaking

This film chronicles the lifestyle of a young girl who strives for perfection, not only physically but mentally as well.

Confessions
Multiple Filmmakers
Video Machete

At Risk
Will Quinones
Age 18
Reel Works Teen Filmmaking

A young man born and raised in Sunset Park, Brooklyn has a difficult childhood causing him to cut school. As days pass into weeks and weeks into months, he wonders if he can ever get back on track.

Personal Essay Program Two:

Seventeen
Jenny Kwon
Age 18
New Trier High School

This film explores a girl's coming of age as she must come to terms with growing up.

I'm Not a Boy
Julie Joyce, Johnny and Matthew Khan
Ages 16
House of Frame by Frame Fierce
c/o Listen Up!

Julia Joyce demonstrates fierce determination and community building by defining herself as a trans-gendered youth.

I Was Born Into This Mess
Miguel Rojas
Age 20
Conscious Youth Media Crew

This short narrative shares the life story and transformative experiences of a young man living in San Francisco's mission district.

Rich Girl
Stephanie Adams
Age 16
Downtown Community Television Center

By showing some of the activities in her life, Stephanie proves that regardless of the fact that she and her family are living in a homeless shelter, she is rich.

History Lessons
Alex Cheng, Daniela Glusberg and Daniella Strandbug
Ages 17
Evanston Township High School
c/o Listen Up!

Daniela Glusberg and her fellow students organized to fight injustice and oppose the American invasion of Iraq, eventually leading the largest student walkout of the high school anti-war movement in the United States.

Sahar: Before the Sun
Joe Babarsky and Sahar Adish
Ages 18
Light House, Inc.
c/o Listen Up!

Sahar, at 18, speaks powerfully about her family's struggle for intellectual freedom and education rights after fleeing Afghanistan.

Scrolii
Vanessa Bateau
Age 17
Reel Works Teen Filmmaking

A filmmaker's new perspective on life after she was diagnosed with Scoliosis.

Personal Essay Program Three:

Hear Me Out
Gilma Urias
Age 17
Conscious Youth Media Crew

A young teen shares her views on poverty, as she looks at the two sides of San Francisco.

To Survive or Not to Survive
Anna Roper
Age 18

This piece is symbolic of the inner struggle cancer patients experience between the anguish of chemotherapy and an untimely death.

Going Away
Catherine Fernandez
Age 14
Arts, Imagination, and Inquiry

Going Away is based on how the artist felt when her father when to Iraq, and how it affected her everyday life.

Video Diary
Susannah Davidson
Age 17
New Trier High School

A personal documentary about the filmmaker's congenitally malformed hand and her parent's intervention.

Hurt
Margaret Seldeen
Age 15
MPower

A film about the filmmaker's mother's addiction.

Juan Rocha (I Am)
Juan Rocha
Age 14
Street Level Youth Media

A film that surveys the mundane life of a teenager who sees himself in a daily routine of school and homework but having no life of his own.

In Any Other Form
Matthew Ecclesiastre and Ryan McCarthy
Ages 17
Raw Art Works

In a world where routine is law, one teen tries to break away from this controlled lifestyle.

Change
Mara Greenwald
Age 16
New Trier High School

A film about change by looking at it in years of life, comparing and contrasting childhood with young adulthood, capturing moments and not knowing what comes next.

Generations and Diaspora
Multiple Filmmakers
Video Machete

Infitus Aedifico
Joe Burns
Age 17
Perpich Center for Arts Education

This stop-motion animation tells the story of a humanoid replicating itself into countless copies and then the copies combine to create a gigantic copy.