|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The Windrider Bay Area Film Forum is ready to return to the Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center April 13-15, where it will screen several award-winning documentaries, including two full-length films and a short program that features the diverse stories of young filmmakers.
Now in its 14th year, Windrider celebrates independent films with public screenings and moderated discussions aimed at sparking in-depth community conversations. The short program showcases four documentaries from Youth Documentary Academy (YDA), which helps high school students from underserved communities direct and produce their own films. The four short film screening at Windrider are among 10 YDA documentaries that will be shown in the second season of “Our Time” on public television, a series created and produced by YDA in partnership with PBS.
YDA emerged from the creative vision of Executive Director Tom Shepard, a filmmaker who grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Stanford University as an undergraduate. Troubled by the industry’s unequal access to filmmaking programs, which were based largely in California and New York, Shepard decided to create an academy for aspiring filmmakers in Colorado.
“Ten years ago, I went back to my childhood home and started talking with media artists about what it would look like to level the playing field and create a more elite film arts training academy in the middle of the country. And really asking the question, who gets to tell their story in America?” Shepard said.
The two-month summer program selects 12 students from southern Colorado who collaborate with professional filmmakers on stories that reflect their lived experiences. Students may not have previous training in filmmaking, which is not a barrier to participating in the program, according to Shepard. “Because these kids have some emotional skin in the game, they’re very motivated to learn, and we have industry-standard gear and professional filmmakers that are mentoring them at each stage,” he said.
As a result, the documentaries have a high production value that also reflects the voices of the storytellers. For Will Stoller-Lee, co-founder of Windrider and a YDA board member, this is what makes the films so unique. “The stories are their stories. And that’s the piece that I think is the most inspiring and compelling … because they’re pretty unfiltered and honest with the way they tell their stories.”
The four YDA films selected for Windrider speak to many of the societal challenges that youth face today, something that Shepard credits to the varied backgrounds of the filmmakers. “The films really represent very diverse issues. We have films about teen mental health and teen suicide. We have films about race and colorism. We have films about growing up with a disability, like autism, and films about LGBTQ lives.”
The variety of stories, in turn, challenges popular perceptions about middle America and places like Colorado Springs that often have a reputation as being conservative, Christian and intolerant of difference, Shepard said. The films also facilitate conversations that typically are not talked about candidly, especially between youth and adults. “We’re finding that the films and filmmakers are powerfully opening doors to courageous conversations that make people uncomfortable. They’re humanizing politically delicate issues,” Shepard said.
The discussions at film festivals have been so productive that Colorado high schools also have started screening YDA films to promote conversations around difficult topics, like teen mental health, domestic violence and immigration – a development that Stoller-Lee hopes will continue at a national level as more than 80% of PBS stations, including KQED, plan to broadcast the second season of “Our Time,” which features 10 YDA films, to local audiences.
The YDA filmmakers and Shepard, meanwhile, will be in attendance at Windrider, where they will moderate a discussion after the screening of the short program on April 14. In keeping with Windrider’s theme of breaking down barriers and inspiring change, each film offers a message of hope despite the filmmakers’ experiences of trauma and hardship.
“Blind Sighted,” directed by Mitch Davila-Armendano, addresses prejudices directed against people with disabilities; “Skinned Knees,” directed by Olive Van Eimeren, probes the trauma of domestic abuse and alcoholism; “Leaving Africa,” directed by Rose Nseya, focuses on the perils of immigrating from a war-torn country; and “Under the Wire,” directed by Madison Legg, addresses the stigmas of teen mental health and suicide.
The film festival’s two full-length documentaries, “Refuge” and “Waterman,” will be screened on April 13 and 15 and also include discussions with the films’ subjects and creators.
The Windrider Film Forum takes place April 13-15, 7 p.m. at Menlo-Atherton Performing Arts Center, 555 Middlefield Road, Atherton. For more information about Windrider and purchasing tickets, visit windriderbayarea.org.
Emily Margaretten is a freelance writer.
Emily Margaretten is a freelance writer.
Emily Margaretten is a freelance writer.
