Upcoming Youth Classes

EPFC YOUTH CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE TO NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH AGES 12 – 19.

ALL NECESSARY EQUIPMENT, MATERIALS, INSTRUCTION AND FIELD TRIPS ARE PROVIDED BY EPFC.

* Since 2002, Echo Park Film Center has offered 23 free filmmaking workshops to more than 400 youth between the ages of 12 and 19.
* All equipment, materials, instruction and field trips are provided at no cost to students by EPFC thanks to the generosity of our program sponsors.
* Classes culminate with a free public screening and a DVD release on EPFC Films. Films produced by students at EPFC workshops have screened at film festivals, museums, community centers, libraries and schools all over the world.

Check out EPFC's YouTube channel for a selection of youth films made at EPFC...

http://www.youtube.com/user/Echoparkfilmcenter

 

2009 Youth Classes

Winter Session - 4 weeks: Feb 2009 (10 students)
HARD TIMES FOR THE AMERICAN DREAM
An intensive one-month workshop taught by EPFC Youth Film Program alumni that focuses on themes provided by the Bresee Foundation Youth Film Festival for Social Justice. EPFC projects received first prize at the festival in 2007 and 2008. This year’s theme addresses issues of how the economic downturn is affecting the lives of students, families and businesses in the community.

Spring Session - 12 weeks: March – May 2009 (24 students)
PERSISTENCE OF VISION
A celebration of street art as a quintessential Los Angeles art form. Students will learn and practice the fundamentals of documentary filmmaking and oral history technique as they interact with Echo Park’s muralists, graffiti artists and taggers in examining the power and complexity of public art in its many guises. The project provides students with an opportunity for creative input on issues that interest and affect them--artistic expression, communication, vandalism, cultural heritage and the changing urban landscape while gaining enhanced historical, political and cultural perspectives on their hometown through interaction with community artists, activists and historians. A one-hour mandatory orientation meeting for all interested students and their parent or guardian will be held at Echo Park Film Center (1200 N. Alvarado Street at Sunset Blvd.) on Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 pm.

Summer Session - 2 weeks: July 27 - August 7, 2009 (12 students)
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE SUMMER WORKSHOP: ANIMATION CHA CHA CHA!
Each year, the EPFC Artist In Residence teaches an intensive two-week workshop for youth. Past workshop topics have included Super 8 Filmmaking, Action Storytelling and Animation. This year's Artist In Residence is Elena Pardo, a documentary and experimental filmmaker from Mexico City.

Fall Session – 12 weeks: September – December 2009 (24 students)
SISTER AIMEE: THE MUSICAL
In the big dreams/small budget Depression-era tradition of “Hey kids, let’s put on a show!” this session will introduce students to the musical genre as they learn about one of Echo Park’s most dynamic historic figures. “Sister” Aimee Semple McPherson (1890 – 1944) was a pioneering evangelist and media sensation in the 1920s and 1930s who presented religion as a form of popular entertainment.  Angelus Temple, the 5300-seat home of the Foursquare Church built by McPherson in 1923, still stands right around the corner from the Film Center at the edge of Echo Park Lake. Students will create original sets, costumes, songs and choreography in bringing the story of Sister Aimee to the silver screen. A one-hour mandatory orientation meeting for all interested students and their parent or guardian will be held at Echo Park Film Center (1200 N. Alvarado Street at Sunset Blvd.) on Tuesday, September 15 at 7:30 pm.

 

2008 Youth Classes

SPRING SESSION: March 4 – May 22, 2008
City of Angels: A Family & Community History Project
City of Angels focuses on the unique strengths, concerns and experiences that come together in 21st century Los Angeles. During the 12-week program, students will learn the fundamentals of research, interview technique, storytelling, lighting, cinematography, sound recording, special effects and editing. These technical and artistic tools will form the foundation for a series of short documentary films examining and celebrating our students’ neighborhood and family histories as well as the local and global issues that affect them. The project will debut with a community potluck dinner and screening as part of the 4th Annual EPFC Youth Film Fest on Saturday, May 17.
A mandatory orientation meeting for all participating students and their parents/guardian will be held at the Film Center on Tuesday, March 4 @
7:30 pm.

SUMMER SESSION: August 11 – August 22, 2008
Super 8 Filmmaking with Dagie Brundert
Dagie Brundert, our Summer 2008 Artist In Residence, will teach an intensive 2-week workshop on Super 8 Filmmaking. Interested students are invited to contact us during the first week of August for more details. Class limited to 10 students.

FALL SESSION: September 17 – December 11, 2008
Show & Tell: Experiments In Artistic Collaboration & Narrative Filmmaking
Working from scripts created by young writers at the new Echo Park location of 826LA, EPFC students will recontextualize their neighborhood and its realities as fiction on film. Focus will be on the partnership between writer and filmmaker on the path from page to screen as well as components such as visual storytelling, sense of place, and character development. The project will debut with a community potluck dinner and screening on Saturday, December 6.
A mandatory orientation meeting for all participating students and their parents/guardian will be held at the Film Center on Tuesday, September 16 @ 7:30 pm.

2007 Youth Classes

SPRING SESSION: March 13 – May 19, 2007
Edendale Follies: An Exploration of Silent Films in Echo Park
Working with local film historians, students will create a collaborative silent film that explores the history of pioneer film studios of Echo Park. The class will end with a community potluck dinner and screening.
A mandatory orientation meeting for all participating students and their parents/guardian will be held at the Film Center on Tuesday, March 13 @ 7:30 pm

SUMMER SESSION: August 13 – August 24, 2007
Topic & Instructor: TBA

FALL SESSION: September 11 – November 17, 2007
This Is The LA River: An Examination of the Great Waterway of Los Angeles
Students will collaborate on a documentary film that examines the many issues surrounding the LA River’s past, present and future. The class will end with a community potluck and screening.
A mandatory orientation meeting for all participating students and their parents/guardian will be held at the Film Center on Tuesday, September 11 @ 7:30 pm

2006 Youth Classes

RED HILL (Spring 2006)
Our Spring 2006 youth documentary project will center on the “Red Hill” era, a time during the 1930s, 40s and 50s when Echo Park was a center of leftist political activity. Working in conjunction with Echo Park Historical Society, students will utilize oral history and archival research techniques to explore our neighborhood’s radical past and examine how this history has continued to affect and influence neighborhood activism in the years since.

A mandatory orientation meeting for all participating students and their parents/guardian will be held at the Film Center on Wednesday, March 1 at 7:30 pm.

Instructors: Paolo Davanzo, Lee Lynch, Shauna McGarry, Lisa Marr

2005 Youth Classes

CITY OF ANGELS (Spring 2005)
The City of Angels Community History Project focused on the unique strengths, concerns and experiences that come together to form our contemporary urban community. During the ten-week program held in the spring 2005, students between the ages of 12 and 19 learned the fundamentals of research interview technique, storytelling, lighting, cinematography, sound recording, special effects and editing. These technical and artistic tools formed the foundation for 20 collaborative short documentary films examining and celebrating our students’ neighborhood and family histories and the local and global issues that affect them.
City of Angels stands as a document of our rich cultural diversity and heritage while providing students with the opportunity to learn, grow, and create a meaningful and relevant multi-cultural media arts project.
City of Angels debuted as part of EPFC’s Youth Film Festival in May 2005 and was the featured Summer 2005 exhibit at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Selections from City of Angels have been shown on Street Level TV, Rough Cut LA and LA 36 Reel Community, at Edendale Public Library and Not A Cornfield Film Night, and as part of Hilton Hotels Corporation Diversity Week. City of Angels DVD available now!

Instructors: Paolo Davanzo, Lorraine Bautista, Lee Lynch, Lisa Marr

SUPER 8 SUMMER (August 2005)
This intensive two-week program was a crash course in all things Super 8, from the mechanics of shooting small format film to experimental storytelling and direct animation!  

Instructor: Artist-In-Residence Roger Beebe

LOOK + LISTEN (Fall 2005)
Our fall 2005 youth project, Look + Listen, explored experimental cinematic form, using sound as a doorway into creativity. Music, created especially for the project by an array of talented composers, formed the basis of 20 short films conceived, shot and edited by EPFC students during the 8-week program. Look & Listen DVD available now!

Instructors: Paolo Davanzo, Shauna McGarry, Lee Lynch, Lisa Marr