Connexions Youth Forum

The Documentary Media Society is pleased to present the second year of the Connexions Youth Forum, a special DOXA project dedicated to encouraging the artistic potential of BC’s young people. Connexions is designed to give youth the opportunity to gain valuable access to Vancouver’s vibrant filmmaking community and the world of documentary film.

In 2006, Connexions hosted ten participants from outside of the Lower Mainland, providing youth from small towns or remote communities with an unforgettable experience. This year DOXA is working in collaboration with Projections, a film and video training program for youth with limited access to resources, to bring a group of local aspiring documentary filmmakers to the Connexions Youth Forum.

Located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Projections works with youth and community partners to develop and deliver projects that support and build creative and economic capacity for youth. The focus is on developing creative and individual capacity through projects that are relationship-driven and provide transferable skills through hands on experience, internships, placements and mentorship.

As part of the Projections/Connexions collaboration, DOXA will present a free screening of short films produced by youth participants of previous Projections sessions (May 25th, 3 pm, VIFC / program details at bottom of this page).

As well as attending the festival, Connexions participants will meet daily with mentoring filmmakers for discussion sessions. These seasoned documentary filmmakers will provide information and guidance throughout the week. Emphasis will be placed on the art of documentary filmmaking, the importance of telling relevant stories, and the means by which young filmmakers can go about planning their own documentary projects.

Throughout the week the youth will be working on their own short film, under the mentorship of Claudia Medina, a filmmaker, activist, and educator born in Powell River, British Columbia. Medina received her BA in sociology and Latin American studies from Simon Fraser University and went on to work as a consultant for Latin American themed documentaries, which inspired her to make her own films. Claudia's filmmaking deals with the stories and influences of her tri-national background (Mexico, Italy, Canada) and how they are transposed onto the Canadian cultural landscape. As well as mentoring youth through the Projections film program, she has worked at the Gulf Islands Film and Television School and recently mentored a group of Israeli and Palestinian youth in a peace building through film project sponsored by the Peace it Together Network.

In addition, the participants will tour local film and television production and educational facilities to get an insider view into the world of filmmaking.

By bringing together young aspiring artists from under-served communities and providing them with the opportunity to network with practicing filmmakers, the hope is that Connexions will motivate and inspire the participants to pursue their filmmaking aspirations.

A warm welcome to this year’s participants!

SPECIAL EVENT:

Projections Youth Mentoring Project Screening
Friday, May 25th, 3 pm Free admission

Stories of Carrall Street: An Exploration of Participatory Video

1. Carrall Street Photo Album: A Flowing Story of Stories uses sounds, images and stories from times past infused with present conceptions of Carrall Street (created by Erick Green, Diana Leung and andre Vallillee).

2. The Spinning Images explores the way big “revitialization” projects are explained to citizens by developers, governments and planners (created by Fraggle, Adam Hunt and Chris Pollard, with conceptual help from Kata Douglas).

3. Wishlist uses visual representations of ideas taken from people in the Downtown Eastside to explore how Carrall Street could meet the needs of the local community (created by Elana Cosever, April Curry, jessica hallenbeck and Ian Marcuse).

A Long Night

A Long Night takes place in the Downtown Eastside and chronicles the trials and tribulations of a businessman (played by Noah Davis), who has chosen to "rough it" on the streets for a corporate fundraising event. His guide for the night is a young, street-involved woman (played by Sarah Lind), who schools him on the realities of street life. The short film takes a comic look at many of the stereotypes of street life by focusing on the "culture clash" between the businessman and the young woman (created by Angel Gaeta, Ryan Jackson, Blad Lubin, Mary Martin, Chris Meyer, Wesley Scrivens, Kate Sugrue and Ryan Tamburi). Although not a documentary film, A Long Night is a docu-drama based on real events. Produced in association with CityTV Vancouver.

Connexions was made possible through the support of: