Youth Cinema Project
Stand And Deliver (1988)
When I was a child, my parents showed me a film called “Stand And Deliver,” based on the true story of Jaime Escalante, a Bolivian educator who transformed lives in one of the poorest, and most hopelessly gang-ridden neighborhoods of Los Angeles by — of all things — teaching calculus. Determined to provide hope in a part of the world that had largely abandoned it, Escalante wasn’t just teaching numbers: he was showing these students how to rediscover their self-worth, and change the narrative society had handed them with about how their lives should unfold. Legendary actor Edward James Olmos (Coco, Bladerunner, Zoot Suit, Mi Familia) was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Escalante in the film, which shook my heart deeply as a child. Little did I know that one day I would be working for Olmos doing the same work as Escalante, but through teaching filmmaking instead of math. Eventually even at the school where Escalante once taught.
WATCH: An Introduction To The Youth Cinema Project
Edward James Olmos founded the Youth Cinema Project to bring filmmakers directly into the classrooms of the roughest, struggling neighborhoods of Los Angeles, providing students with comprehensive training in all aspects of filmmaking. Starting in fourth grade, students are given creative control of every part of the process: writing their own scripts, forming production companies, casting actors, directing, filming, editing, and even marketing their films. The students are treated as colleagues, empowering them to recognize the value in their own stories, work successfully in teams with people they might otherwise live in conflict with, and become competent, resilient, real world problem-solvers.
Students Repairing Gear And Learning How Lighting Can Express Inner Emotions
Students Rehearsing Steadicam, Dolly Shots, and Makeup Tests
Steve Elkins And Co-Mentor Chris Gallego Wong With Students
Students Screening Their Films At Creative Artists Agency (Beverly Hills)
Grauman's Chinese Theater (Hollywood)
At the end of the year, students walk the red carpet at the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, where they screen their films and speak on panels about their work at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF), alongside the greatest Latino actors and filmmakers working today: Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro G. Iñarritu, and Pedro Almodovar (to name only a few).
Edward James Olmos With Students On The Red Carpet
It's profoundly humbling what even the most at-risk children can achieve when they are treated as colleagues and creative artists, rather than simply receptacles for information. And to witness how the experience transforms them right down to their body language: students whose postures once slumped from the weight of depression and apathy now hold their heads high as they begin to perceive the untapped depths they've always carried within. As one student put it while being interviewed on the red carpet: "I don't see the Youth Cinema Project as a program. I see it as family"
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF)
LALIFF At Grauman's Chinese (Hollywood)
Students are often the greatest of teachers. They have taught me that even the most brutal and seemingly hopeless circumstances are not powerful enough to define our lives or write our story for us. They remind me that walls aren’t there to stop us, but only to help us recognize how far we’re willing to climb to achieve our dreams. If the darkest hours of life can produce youth with this caliber of resilience, integrity, optimism, and work ethic, then it speaks volumes about the potential we all carry within us. It has truly been one of the great honors of my life to work with Edward James Olmos and the rest of YCP team enabling the next generation to cultivate hope in place of heartache.
Fellow Mentors And Friends In Youth Cinema Project
Each night of LALIFF, stars attending the festival join together with Youth Cinema Project mentors to celebrate the year with Edward James Olmos in an epic multi-day after party at the Roosevelt Hotel across the street from Grauman's Chinese. Among the most memorable parts of this experience for me was meeting one of my heroes, Robert M. Young (a close friend of Edward James Olmos), who could be described as the unrecognized Werner Herzog of American cinema. His films reflect his experiences living in an igloo with eskimos at 60 below zero, walking 400 miles behind enemy lines with Angolan rebels during their civil war, following a man-eating tiger for months in India, crossing the Kalahari with desert bushman, spending six years filming deep under the ocean, following wildebeest migrations, and inadvertently inspiring the development of Chicano cinema in the United States after living and working with undocumented Mexican immigrants, portraying their lives from their point of view in films such as “Children Of The Fields” (1973) and "¡Alambrista!” (1977).
Celebrating At The Roosevelt Hotel (Hollywood)
