youth media

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Youth Media Sanctuary

PROJECT PARTNERS 

 This project is managed by Media Alliance, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization. Its partners include the Missing Link Street Ministry. 

Media Alliance,  founded in 1977, moved its headquarters to North Troy in 2005 . Media Alliance is run by a six-member board of directors (all of whom are artists and educators living and working in Rensselaer County), a paid staff of three, and scores of volunteers. The budget is largely comprised of small contributions from hundreds of contributors, along with support  from the NY State Council on the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Community Foundation, and other  grantors .

“Youth Media Sanctuary” is a new community arts project in North Central Troy, one of upstate New York's most troubled urban areas.

Based on a prototype youth media summer camp held in 2008 and a pilot peer-training program currently underway, this initiative is designed to teach multimedia skills to young people on the margins of city life and to help develop urgently needed independent local voices in our economically devastated neighborhood.

Last weekend we had an AWESOME youth media workshop and film festival, as part of the N.Y. Shout Out Youth Media celebration. Huge thanks to everyone who came from near and far, to help make media, share ideas, brainstorm, act, write, edit, volunteer, cook food, and even just to watch and discuss the youth pieces.

We (fittingly) produced a ton of media during the day -- and the first finished pieces, which were completely produced between 2 and 4pm on Saturday, were four different short video public service announcements (PSAs). Each group got up on stage to screen and discuss their PSA, while other youth crew volunteers did a live video shoot of the discussion.

Here's what you made!

PSA 1: Youth Voices

Created by Andrew Vu, Darian Henry, Andrew Cullen, and Halle Prentice, with Branda Miller and Deyva Arthur.

PSA 2: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Created by Aden Suchak, Ben Maloney, Mike Mejia, Mike Irizarry, and Mohamed Gardner, with Gaetano Vaccaro, Amy Halloran, Jason Corwin, and Joe Lopez.

Community media groups in the Capital Region and surrounding regions are empowering young people to take back the media. Media offers a megaphone to the hearts and minds of young people. Come see the best of their work!

This youth media festival features the voices of youth active in organizations, including:

5:30pm Potluck: meet & greet the filmmakers, plus "Daddyless," an installation by Chelsea and Victoria Kereszi

7pm Screening

"MY SUICIDE is unlike anything you have ever seen ... A visual stream of consciousness."
—Mike Goodridge, Screen International