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1984

Dreams of the Future

EVC students explore career options and imagine what their futures will be in this whimsical film.

1985

2371 Second Ave: An East Harlem Story

EVC student Millie Reyes documents her family's conditions living in a rat-infested building with no heat or hot water, and leads the other residents to confront the landlord and go on a rent strike. JVC Tokyo Video Festival, President's Award, 1988 London International Annual Film & Video Competition, Gold Seal Award, 1988 National Educational Film and Video Festival, Bronze Apple, 1987

1985

Teacher Training Video Workshops

EVC offers its first video workshops and in-class coaching for teachers to integrate student video projects into NYC Alternative High Schools and Programs at Satellite Academy Chambers Street and Bronx Regional High School. This progam is soon expanded with support from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Office of the Superintendent of Alternative High Schools and Programs.

1985

EVC Summer Video Camp

Hosted by Marie Cirillo and the Woodland Community Land Trust, EVC students live, learn and produce documentaries in a summer camp together with youth from Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.

1985

Letta's Family

Young filmmakers from EVC's summer video camp in Tennessee document a nearby family's daily struggles amidst poverty and cultural richness in the Cumberland mountains of Appalachia.

1986

EVC Films Hormel Strike

EVC students from Bronx Regional HS film the Hormel meatpackers strike in Austin, Minnesota. While there, they meet Jesse Jackson and filmmaker Barbara Kopple.

1987

Awarded JVC President's Prize

JVC flies EVC student and staff to Tokyo to accept the top prize in the festival. They spend a week in Japan as the guest of JVC.

1988

Cracks Clouds Featured on Barbara Walters

Barbara Walters interviews an EVC youth producer and features his team's documentary on crack in her ABC series, Survival Stories. 13th Annual Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival, 1993 JVC Tokyo Video Festival Special Merit, 1988 National Educational Film and Video Festival, Gold Apple 1989

1988

First Summer Teachers Institute

EVC launches its first summer video institute for teachers in partnership with the NYC Writing Project. Teachers collaboratively plan, produce, and edit VHS video projects as they learn to use video inquiry as a strategy for developing student literacy and voice.

1988

Awarded New York Area Emmy Award

EVC wins an Emmy for three documentaries featured on the opening program of The Eleventh Hour with Robert Lipsyte on WNET: Crack Clouds Over Hells Kitchen, 2371 2nd Ave: An East Harlem Story, and Life in the G: Gowanus Gentrified. Soon after, they are invited to screen segments of their films on the NBC Today Show with Bryant Gumbel.

1989

AIDS: Facts Over Fear

EVC youth travel to Washington, D.C. to interview former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to educate their peers about this new epidemic called AIDS. London International Amateur Fim and Video Competition, Gold Seal, 1990 National Educational Film and Video Festival, Silver Apple, 1990 Canadian International Annual Film Festival, Two Stars Award, 1989

1989

Nicaragua: Through Our Eyes

EVC students spend a week visiting the baseball fields, schools and prisions of Nicaragua to tell the story of everyday life there during a time of turbulence.

1990

Melissa Brockett, EVC Graduate, 1990

"Thank you to EVC for helping me pave my early career in media. It was because of my work with you guys that I realized how powerful media can be and that you can change and touch so many lives with just one story."

1990

Hard Times in Cypress Hill

Moved by the tragic death of their friend and fellow EVC student, students film this portrait of one student’s daily life in one of the most violent housing projects of the times. Opening her home to her son's friends, the grieving mother shows grace and resilience in the face of the crack and gang fueled gun violence in the surrounding community. Association of Visual Commuicators, Gold CINDY Award, 1991 National Educational Film & Video Festival, Bronze Apple, 1991 IAC International Film and Video Festival, Bronze Seal, 1992

1990

Video Workshops

EVC youth producers Derrick Dawkins and Isiah Miller travelled to Croatia to conduct video workshops.

1990

Youth Crime Who's To Blame?

Investigating the causes and possible solutions to youth crime, students talk with youth offenders and those working to help them. National Latino Film and Video Festival, Honorable Mention, 1990 Big Muddy Film Festival, Jury Award, 1991

1990

Trash Thy Neighbor

EVC youth producers document recycling and garbage reduction, and take their cameras to Staten Island where the largest landfill on the east coast is running out of space. National Educational Film & Video Festival, Gold Apple,1991 JVC's Tokyo Video Festival, Work of Special Distinction, 1990 CINDY Competition, Gold CINDY Award,1990

1991

Black & Jews: Are They Really Sworn Enemies

EVC students collect stories from both sides of the conflict between the African-American and Hasidic communitites in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and explore the historical relationship between African-Americans and American Jews. The documentary was screened at both the Jewish Museum and the Black International Cinema in Berlin. 7th Annual Black International Cinema Berlin, 1992 14th Annual WNET Student Arts Festival, 1992 Rochester International Amateur Film Festival, Certificate of Merit, 1992 National Educational Film and Video Festival, Silver Apple, 1993 Birmingham International Educational Film Festival, Finalist, 1993

1991

New York City & The Hudson River

EVC youth producers highlight the importance of the Hudson River and examines the causes and consequences of its pollution. The Hudson Riverkeeper warns of the dangers of DDT and other chemicals dumped into the river by GE and other corporate polluters.

1992

7th Annual Black International Cinema

EVC youth producer Julius Bogen presented Black & Jews: Are They Really Sworn Enemies at the 7th Annual Black International Cinema in Berlin in 1992.

1992

Unequal Education: Failing Our Children

Following two gifted and talented students over their 7th grade year in two schools located in the same Bronx district, one in a low and the other in a middle income community, "Unequal Education" bears witness to the failure of NYC's inequitable school system - a tragedy of national proportion. Finalist,International Monitor Awards, 1993 National Educational Film and Video Festival, Bronze Apple, Best College Documentaries: Society's Concerns, 1993

1992

We the People

Produced on the quincennial of Columbus' "discovery" of America, students give voice to Native American youth and elders living in New York City. They also analyze popular culture stereotypes and misconceptions about America's indigenous peoples. National Educational Film and Video Festival, Silver Apple, 1993 Black Maria Film and Video Festival Director's Citation, 1993 The American Indian Film and Video Competition, Non-Indian Production, Student Category, 1997

1992

PBS Listening to America with Bill Moyers

Unequal Education: Failing Our Children is broadcast nationally on the PBS series, Listening to America with Bill Moyers. Aired during the1992 Bush-Clinton presidential campaign, the documentary was followed by a debate on educational equity that Bill Moyers moderated between Jonathan Kozol and John Chubb.

1993

Home Sweet Gone

Angry at the abandoned buildings and vacant lots in their neighborhoods in the early 1990s, youth producers investigate poor housing conditions in New York City owned apartments and bank “redlining” policies that prevent investment in low income housing. 10th Annual Suffolk County Film and Video Festival, 1st Prize, Student Documentary

1993

That's What They Call Art!

A collaboration between YO-TV and The Whitney Museum of American Art documents the making and unmaking of the controversial 1993 Whitney Biennial, interviewing the curators and artists as they are installing, and in some cases, even creating their works. Among the artists interviewed by the students are: Janine Antoni, Jimmie Durham, Glenn Ligon, Byron Kim, Zoe Leonard Leone & Macdonald, Daniel Martinez, and Pepon Osorio. 26th Annual Sinking Creek Film/Video Festival, Juror's Merit Award International San Francisco Film Festival, Golden Gate Awards, Special Juy Award, 1994 National Educational Film & Video Festival, Gold Apple, 1994

1994

Student Portfolio Assessments

The Center for Children and Technology conducts a study of EVC's inquiry based documentary workshops and supports the staff in developing its portfolio assessment process for students to collect evidence over time of their learning and creative work at EVC. The Nathan Cummings Foundation supported the project, which EVC still uses to asses student learning.

1995

Interview with Secretary of Health and Human Services

EVC youth producers travelled to Washington, DC to interview the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala, for their documentary The Vicious Cycle of Domestic Violence.

1995

New Home: School for the Physical City

EVC moves into shared space in Manhattan's Flatiron district in the newly built School for the Physical City. The partnership not only includes shared rent free space, but also shared methodology with its inquiry based, expeditionary learning, alternative school, educational philosophy.

1995

Co-Sponsored National Conference

EVC co-sponsors the National Conference on Media Education and School Reform with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Wingspread near Racine, Wisconsin. The gathering brought teachers, media activists and education reformers together at the Johnson Foundation's Frank Lloyd Wright designed conference center.

1996

Coming Up Taller Ceremony at the White House

First Lady Hillary Clinton congratulates Steve Goodman at the White House Reception

1996

Students at the Center Initiative

A 4-year grant from the DeWitt Wallace Reader's Digest Fund enabled EVC to provide professional development for teachers in small and reforming schools throughout the city as part of this national "Student and the Center" Initiative, in partnership with the NYC Writing Project, the Social History Project, the City College Workshop Center, and others.

1996

Media Education: Culture and Community in the Classroom

This essay lays out the guiding principles and practices of EVC's pedagogy. As a manifesto of sorts, it calls for a pedagogy that teaches both with, and about, media arts, and engages students and teachers in critical explorations of their local community that engender reflection, dialogue, and action.

1996

ATL Youth Media Exhibit in New Museum

EVC and youth advisors are invited to co-curate a selection of video projects in this groundbreaking exhibition at the New Museum. EVC youth produced videos are also featured in the exhibition.

1997

US/UK Models of Media Education

Executive Director Steve Goodman co-taught "Media Education and Media Studies: Comparative Views," an undergraduate course at New York University and University of London, Institute of Education - London Study Abroad.

1997

Disorderly Conduct: Are the Police Killing Us?

COTV community activist documentary the growing epidemic of police violence in poor neighborhoods and communities of color and those organizing to resist it.

1997

Young Gunz

Combining images of violence in the media, poetry and brutally honest interviews, students interweave stories from victims of gun violence, some who admit to shooting others, and those who struggle to survive.

1998

Out Youth in Schools

Weaving together moving personal stories, archival news footage, street interviews and dramatizations, this documentary examines the critical problem of homophobia in schools and the national movement of gay/straight alliances that has grown up in response. Featured: Nashville Independent Film Festival, Best Young Filmmaker; 2nd Annual Urban Visionaries Video Festival

1998

AWOL: From the Fatherhood

EVC youth producers set out to find whether the role of fatherhood has become an outdated concept. Interviews and family self-portraits among the youth team help address their documentary's question.

1998

Hidden Faces: Women Seeking Refuge

COTV community activists explore the lack of serious U.S. immigration policy regarding gender-based persecution, and look at women's rights as human rights. Featured in: Other American Film Festival, Esperanza Center; South Bronx Film & Video Festival

1999

Featured in NY Times: "Video Verite"

EVC is featured on the front page of the New York Times Education Life Section. EVC is described as, "A media literacy program [that] helps teenagers document their lives on cameras and discover truths about themselves along the way." "Video documentary enables students to bear witness to their social conditions and look for solutions," says Steven Goodman, the center's founder and executive director.

1999

Shared Space: University Neighborhood High School

University Neighborhood HS generously provides space for EVC's workshops. YOTV and the Documentary Workshops are temporarily relocated in the new school on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

1999

Hip Hop: A Culture of Influence

Commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum of Art for an exhibition on Hip Hop and African American fashion, this documentary includes interviews with Mos Def and Talib Kweli, among other hip hop artists and music critics, to give a critical look at hip hop culture while celebrating Hip Hop as a unifying force among youth of different backgrounds and communities. Featured In: CINDY Competition, Silver Award; 43rd Rochester International Film Festival, Honorable Mention; 34th BAC International Film & Video Festival; Fledgling Film Festival; H20 Hip Hop Odyssey International Film Festival, Honorable Mention

2000

New Home: Satellite Academy HS

EVC moves to Satellite Academy HS midtown site

2000

Toronto Youth Literacy Summit

EVC presented on its methodology at the "Toronto Media Literacy Conference Summit 2000: Children, Youth and the Media, Beyond the Millennium" Conference

2000

EVC Staff Retreat

Blue Mountain, NY

2000

Turn On The Power!

With an introduction by community media pioneer George Stoney, this guide is an indispensible resource for grassroots community activists who want to use media production for community empowerment and social change. Funded by the New York Foundation, this handbook was disigned to support EVC's COTV (Community Organizers TV) training program.

2000

ICC: A Call for Justice

Produced in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, EVC students report on the need for the International Criminal Court through stories of Chilean survivors of Pinochet's torture chambers of the 1970s. This film was screened at the Hague, in the Netherlands where the ICC sits. Featured in: Human Rights Watch International Film Festival; 4th Annual Urban Visionaries Video Festival; 4th Human Rights in Images Festival, Lisbon

2001

Tough on Crime, Tough on Our Kind

YO-TV producers examine the New York City juvenile justice system incorporating personal stories of incarcerated youth and interviews with lawyers, community activists and social workers. While producing their documentary, the crew also gives video training workshops to court involved youth participating in the CASES alternative to incarceration program. Featured in the 6th Annual Urban Visionaries Youth Film Festival

2001

Coming Up Taller

EVC was awarded the "Coming up Taler Award" sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities

2003

Whose Streets? Our Streets! The True Face of Youth Activism

Youth producers skillfully weave a historical overview of student and social protest movements together with current testimonies from young, outspoken New York City activists.

2003

Teaching Youth Media Published

Published by Teachers College Press, EVC Executive Director Steve Goodman's book "Teaching Youth Media: A Critical Guide to Literacy, Video Production and Social Change" explores the power and possibilities of using media education to help students develop their critical thinking and literacy skills. Foreward is by Maxine Greene.

2004

National Youth Media Staff Retreat

EVC staff and students attend a national youth media staff retreat at Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

2004

Back Off: The Inside View on Youth Anger

EVC youth producers go behind the scenes of youth violence and investigate how many young people are raised to deal with their anger. Feature in: Tribeca Film Festival, Urban Visionaries Film Festival, Museum of Television & Radio, NYC

2004

Actions of Today, BluePrints for tomorrow

With funding from The Ford Foundation, on the 50th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decisions, EVC youth producers examine the current state of this civil rights cause -- equitable school reform. In their documentary, they examine school reform through the perspectives of education youth organizers from 'Make the Road by Walking,' and 'Sistas and Brothas, United' who were starting new schools. Featured In: Human Rights Watch International Film Festival; San Diego Latino Film Festival; Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival; Urban Visionaries Film Festivals, Museum of Television & Radio, New York City; Westport Youth Film Festival, Most Outstanding Documentary Award

2004

All That I Can Be

Segments of All That I Can Be are featured in Eugene Jarecki's critically acclaimed film, Why We Fight, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. The documentary follows the stories of William, Dorian and Shinel as they embark on a separate journeys with the U.S. Army. Their stories shine a light on the problem of the economic draft as they enlist with few options in a time of war and economic downturn. Featured in: Los Angeles Film Festival; Tribeca Film Festival; Media That Matters Film Festival, Economic Justice Award; Human Rights Watch International Film Festival; Council on Foundation Film Festival.

2004

Alienated: Undocumented Immagrant Youth

Alienated gives voice to undocumented youth immigrants facing life after high school with no options for legalized work or college. Featured in: Urban Visionaries Film Festival, The Museum of Television and Radio (2006); Brooklyn Arts Council International Film & Video Festival (2006); 12th Annual Los Angeles Film Festival (2006); 24-Hour Film Festival (2006); Locomotion International Youth Film Festival, Short Documentary (2006); Ocean County Library Festival (2007); New Orleans Human Rights Film Festival (2007).

2005

Patriarchy is Malarkey

EVC youth producers weave interviews with peers, feminist scholars and social workers, and join a demonstration in Washington to examine the causes of discrimination and violence against women. Featured in: Human Rights Watch International Film Festival; Women of African Descent Film Festival, Juror's Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary; Locomotion International Youth Film Festival; Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival; 2nd International Children's Film Festival, Istanbul, Turkey

2005

The Practice and Principles of Teaching Critical Literacy

Using examples from EVC's Documentary Workshop contextualized by Dewey and Freire's learning theories, this chapter explores the ways in which EVC's dialogic pedagogy teaches students multiple literacies, continuous inquiry and reflection.

2005

2nd International Children Film Festival, Istanbul Turkey

Invited by the Istanbul University Faculty of Communication, Executive Director Steve Goodman speaks about EVC's methodology and its role in the youth media field.

2005

Fifth Annual Media That Matters Film Festival

EVC documentary 'All That I Can Be' awarded and screened at the Fifth Annual Media that Matters Film Festival.

2006

Youth Powered Video Curriculum Published

EVC publishes 'Youth Powered Video: A Hands-on Curriculum for Teaching Documentary.' This guide offers a collection of over 200 pages of lesson plans, hand-outs, assessment rubrics and model student journals. Two DVDs accompany this guide: one for teachers showing EVC instructors guiding their student groups through project activities, and the other for students giving models from student videos of documentary elements such as narration, interviews and edit styles.

2006

London Educators at EVC Summer Teacher Intsitute

EVC facilitates intensive "Youth Powered Video" workshops for London teachers and youth workers. EVC provides follow-up coaching remotely, with support from Adobe Youth Voices

2006

Keeping America Open, OSI U.S. Programs Tenth Anniversary Report

Amplifying Young People's Voices provides an overview of the goals and impact of the youth media field that had grown with the support and leadership of OSI's Youth Initiatives program. Youth Initiatives included both the Urban Debate Program and the Youth Media Program, which was established in 1999 to place young people at the center of public discourse, promoting youth development, raising visibility of youth voices and youth-generated media more generally.

2006

Still Standing

Still Standing provides an intimate portrayal of the challenges faced by Hurricane Katrina survivors six months after the storm. Featured in: The Soros/Sundance Documentary Fund - A Tenth Anniversary Film Festival; Cine, Golden Eagle Award; Reel Teens Festival, Best Short Documentary; Media That Matters Film Festival, Jury Award; Los Angeles Film Festival; Tribeca Film Festival; Oakland International Film Festival; Worldfest - Houston International Film Festival, Bronze Remi Award

2007

Council on Foundations' 40th Annual Film & Video Festival

Grantmakers in Film and Electronc Media select the EVC documentary 'All That I Can Be' to be featured in The Council on Foundations 40th Annual Film and Video Festival. The festival celebrates films of independent filmmakers that were made possibly by the support of the Council's funds and philosophy. Selections cover a broad range of issues; economic justice; the impact of incarceration on adults and children; identity; human rights; genocide; and immigration.

2007

5th World Summit on Media for Children, Johannesburg, South Africa

EVC staff present a workshop and panel at the 5th World Summit on Media for Children in Johannesburg. While there, they also lead a three day documentary production workshop for young adults in Soweto, sponsored by the US Consulate and the Hector Pieterson Museum.

2007

Production of Documentaries: Bangalore, India

Teachers and youth workers, trained by EVC staff, created documentaries on issues in their communities. The project was supported by Adobe Youth Voices and explored runaway children, railway stations occupants and globalization in India.

2007

Shame on You: That Can Be Reused!

Shame On You: That Can Be Reused! uses interviews, puppetry and even a recycling game to teach about environmental justice and recycling in NYC's urban communities, with a focus on the South Bronx.

2008

It's Not About Sex

Shocked by the statistic that more than half of all rapes happen to people under 18, student producers search for the roots of the violence. They examine why many survivors are afraid to report their assaults, and challenge their own assumptions, while calling for society to take prevention seriously at an earlier age.

2008

Open Society Institute Youth Initiative's BarCamp: Istanbul, Turkey

EVC alumni Luis Arcentales presents EVC documentary 'Still Standing' and co-facilitated a workshop on youth media and activism at the Open Society Institute Youth Initiative's BarCamp in Istanbul.

2008

Harlem 2 Guadalajara

EVC youth producers worked with Major League Soccer and travelled with a Harlem-based youth soccer team to Guadalajara, Mexico, to document their community service for an orphanage there.

2008

Drop It to the Youth: Community Based Youth Video as a Tool for Building Democratic Dialogue in South Africa

Reflecting on their experiences teaching video workshops to young adults in Soweto, EVC staff and graduates propose strategies for using video more broadly to promote community dialogue.

2008

Outreach Campaign: Clevland and Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia, PA

EVC youth producers travel to Ohio and Pennsylvania to screen 'Journeys Through the Red White and Blue' and register first-time voters.

2008

People's Inaugural Ball: Washington, D.C.

EVC students present their documentary 'Journeys Through the Red White and Blue' at the People's Inaugural Ball. This was an alternative, grassroots event for people who couldn't afford to attend the official festivities of President Obama's inauguration.

2008

Journeys Through The Red White and Blue

Exploring young adults understanding of, and complex relation to, the voting process, this film captured the hope and enthusiasm of the 2008 presidential election. Youth producers screened it in Ohio and Pennsylvania to register young voters and at the People's Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. when President Obama was elected.

2009

Participatory Media Forum: England, United Kingdom

EVC presented a case study of its methodology and model of work at this international Participatory Media Forum in England

2009

The War Within: Youth Depression

YOTV producers focus on the problem of depression among youth of color and collect powerful stories of their experiences and the treatments they have found to cope with it.

2010

Media Artist Residency

EVC Director Steve Goodman is an Artist in Residence at Muhlenberg College and gives a lecture on youth media, critical inquiry and social change.

2010

Shadows of Ignorance

Combining personal stories with historical and contemporary struggles for gay rights, EVC youth producers give voice to the discrimination and in some cases, acceptance, that LGBT youth experience with their friends and family on a daily basis.

2010

Crossing Waters

Liberian immigrant youth tell stories of their struggles to heal from the traumas of war and make a new life here in Staten Island, support of their local school and community center. Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting provided mentoring for the project.

2010

As the Sun Comes Up, the Bricks Fall Down

Through the process of exploring gentrification in their own Bronx and Brooklyn neighborhoods, landlord harassment, and neighborhood displacement, EVC students discover critical information about how long-time tenants can maintain their homes and their civil rights.

2011

A Clouded View

In partnership with Harlem Hospital, EVC students investigate why, every day, thousands of teenagers pick up their first cigarette, what addiction means for them and their families and how they can kick this habit.

2011

Our Inheritance: Growing Up in a Decade of War

EVC students producers explore what 10 years of war have meant to today's generation of youth both here and overseas.

2011

The Great Divide: Wealth Inequality in America

Interviews with Professor Fances Fox Piven, David Jones of Community Service Society, and Occupy Wall Street protestors give a critical perspective on the growing wealth gap.

2011

Mad Hard Fun: Building a Micro-culture of Youth Media in NYC Transfer Schools

A case study that takes a close look at the challenges and success two transfer schools experience bringing EVC's student-centered media program into their classes for overage and under-credited students.

2011

Mortgage Mayhem

EVC students investigate the foreclosure and predatory lending crisis in New York City and document a crew member's own family struggles to hold on to their home.

2012

New Home: City-As-School

EVC moves its offices and workshops to City-As-Schools HS. Along with generously sharing space with EVC, City-As-School shares EVC's values and practices. Its students and teachers have participated in EVC workshops for the past three decades. As CAS Principal Alan Cheng says, "EVC has been a tremendous resource for our school community. We are excited to be entering the next stage of this collaboration.

2012

Under 21

Turning their cameras on themselves, the team creates an intimate portrait of how two youth get access to alcohol, why they drink and the potential consequences.

2012

Life Under Suspicion

The NYPD stopped and frisked nearly 700,000 people in 2011 in an effort to remove guns from the streets. But 90 percent of those stopped are black and Hispanic males. In this powerful film, EVC youth producers give a human face to this critical problem that is criminalizing and dehumanizing their generation. The Manhattan Borough President's Office and the NYCLU were among EVC's partners on this project. "The Educational Video Center has done a remarkable job empowering youth in our community," says Melissa Mark-Viverito, Speaker of the NYC Council.. "This project is giving voice to those who are most victimized by the alienating stop-and-frisk policy. These young people are being trained to be journalists and documentary film makers who can fight this injustice and make a difference." Winner of Honorable Mention in the New York Civil Liberties Union’s 2012 Freedom of Expression Contest Media for a Just Society Award, 2014

2012

Not Me, Not Mine: Adult Survivors of Foster Care

Nine years after the production of Some Place to Call Home, the YO-TV crew set out to learn what happened to the seven youth who originally appeared in this documentary. As the, now adult, survivors reflect on their struggles to "age out" of foster care and move on to their current realities, we gain a profound understanding of the long-term challenges facing both foster care youth and the policy-makers working to support them and to reform "the system."

2012

Breathing Heavy: Breathing Easy: Environmental Hazards in Public Housing

EVC students partner with West Harlem Environmental Action to investigate the harmful impact that lead poisoning, mold, and pesticides in low-income housing have on the health and wellbeing of their communities. They report on a team member's family suffering from asthma and a widespread infestation of black mold in their apartment.

2013

Beyond Buillying

Through personal stories of their friends and family members, youth producers challenge the common idea that the bully and victim are dissimilar.

2013

Critical Teaching in Action: Los Angeles, CA

Executive Director Steve Goodman participates in Mount St. Mary's College conference on Teaching, Technology and Social Justice as the keynote speaker.

2014

The International Forum on the Development of Children's Films

EVC travels to China to present "Youth Media Trends in the USA" at The International Forum on the Development of Children's Films supervised by the Film Bureau of State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film & Television, People's Republic of China.

2014

Unequal Education Revisited

EVC youth producers reunite 22 years later to film the followup to Unequal Education. This film bears witness to the long-term impact that inequities plaguing our society -- in education, justice, and healthcare -- have on those struggling to survive poverty without a safety net.

2014

High on Perceptions

Turning the cameras on themselves and their friends at home, in therapy offices, and secret hangout spots, EVC youth producers give an intimate portrayal of teens and their families trapped in a world of pain and addiction.

2014

Gender Power

Through startling interviews with street harassers and the harassed, the EVC team investigate the causes of street harassment and possible solutions for creating more equitable gender power relations in society.

2014

US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Recognizes EVC

US Senator Gillibrand congratulates EVC saying: For three decades The Educational Video Center (EVC) has been a transformative force in the lives of our youth... It is my hope that all your efforts inspire others to be as impactful in their communities as you have been in New York City.

2014

EVC 30th Anniversary

EVC celebrates its 30th Anniversary at the Film Society of Lincoln Center

2014

Media for a Just Society Award

EVC youth producer Raelene Holmes accepts a "Media for a Just Society Award" on behalf of her team for their stop and frisk documentary, Life Under Suspicion, at the National Council on Crime and Delinquency gala in San Francisco, CA.

2014

Conversations Across Cultures Youth Media Visions

Co-sponsored by Teachers College Columbia University and the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, this publication grows out of an international symposium where EVC was invited as one of the only seven participating youth organizations. EVC's chapter describes the pedagogic possibilities of its work teaching youth with and from media.

2014

Spaces of Action: Teaching Critical Literacy for Community Empowerment in the Age of Neoliberalism

Featured in the English Teaching: Practice and Critique journal, this article examines the theories of critical literacy, identity and communities of practice that effect the development of youth voices and social activism.

2015

BronxNet’s OPEN 2.0

Following the broadcast of the documentary Making A Way, focusing on college access, YDW co-director Tanya Jackson and Youth Producers Giovonni Rodriguez appeared on BronxNet’s OPEN 2.0 television program to discuss the film.

2015

Media Lab Capital Project

Thanks to capital funding from Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and New York City Council Member Corey Johnson, and in partnership with City-as-School EVC renovated our media lab with new production, digital editing, and archive facilities.

2015

16th Vermont International Film Festival, Burlington Vermont

EVC documentary 'All That I Can Be' was screened at the 16th Vermont International Film Festival.

2015

Video Workshops: Belfast Ireland

EVC staff and graduates were invited by the Nothern Ireland Film and Television Commission and the British Film Institute to give video workshops for Protestants and Catholic youth in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

2016

Know Your Rights: Transfer School Students and Police presentation

Three transfer school students who were involved in the making of “Policing the Times,” Orlando Ramos (Innovation Diploma Plus), Jordi Perez (High School for Excellence and Innovation), and Sharington Haynes (City-As-School) were invited to participate in a screening and panel discussion for teachers and principals at the annual Transfer School Conference.

2017

We Are All Connected revived

EVC revived it’s urban rural exchange program from the early ‘80’s. Youth from NYC and Appalachia lived and worked together during the summer and winter breaks to collaboratively produce documentary films and websites focusing on the opioid crisis, as well as the digital divide.

2017

Harlem NeON Arts premiere at National Black Theater

Court involved youth participating in EVC’s program with Harlem NeON Arts premiere their community inquiry film on gangs at the National Black Theater.

2017

EVC films air on Manhattan News Network

EVC Youth Documentary Workshop films “Family Portrait: Growing Up With Divorce and Family Separation” and “Moving Without Direction” air on Manhattan News Network, Manhattan’s public access TV station.

2018

Steve Goodman retires, Ambreen Qureshi welcomed as new Executive Director

After almost 35 years at the helm of the organization, EVC’s incredible founder Steve Goodman retires. Ambreen Qureshi, is welcomed as EVC’s new Executive Director, the first woman, person of color, and immigrant to lead the organization.

2018

20th Annual Allied Media Conference

Youth and staff across all EVC programs facilitate 3 workshops at the 20th Annual Allied Media Conference in Detroit, MI. This national convening cultivates media-based organizing strategies for a more just and collaborative world.

2018

“It’s Not About Grit” by Steve Goodman Published

Teachers College Press published “It’s Not About Grit: Trauma, Inequity, and the Power of Transformative Teaching” by our founder Steve Goodman. This overview of EVC’s work over 35 years, shares the stories of our youth and their formidable resilience and sense of agency, and references the scholars and education movements that have informed EVC’s pedagogy.

2019

We Are All Connected on MNN

Manhattan Neighborhood Network’s Artists Forum program featured two films made by EVC students in the We Are All Connected Program. EVC Youth Producers Mediba, Yhenni, and Illiana appeared on the program to discuss their experiences working collaboratively with students in Central Appalachia.

2019

Inaugural District 79 Film Festival

EVC’s Professional Development Program organizes the first District 79 Film Festival as part of their spring art show “Changing the World With Our Work,” at the Queens
Museum.

2019

Represent Film Festival Selection

The Ones Who Bought Bushwick is an official selection at the Represent Film Festival in Los Angeles.

2020

EVC receives Google News Innovation funding

EVC is one of 33 organizations in North America to receive prestigious Google News Innovation funding to encourage diversity and sustainability in local media.

2020

EVC alum profiled as Filmmaker Making a Social Impact

EVC alum and staff member, Raelene Holmes, profiled in Authority Magazine and related publications as a filmmaker making a social impact.

2020

Youth Eco-media in Appalachia article published

“Connecting Youth, Eco-Media and Resilience in Appalachia” article collaboratively written by EVC’s We Are All Connected teams in NYC and TN published in the Journal of Sustainability Education.

2021

EVC alumni speak at Media Literacy and Social Justice Conference

EVC alumni from the films Cops Are(n’t) Colorblind and What’s Gender Got to Do with It? speak on a panel at the 2021 National Association for Media Literacy Educational annual conference.

2021

EVC youth in conversation with Abigail E. Disney

EVC youth producers in conversation with documentary filmmaker Abigail E. Disney, about the future of documentary filmmaking and the importance of young people’s voices in media.

2021

EVC films selected for BHERC Youth Diversity Film Festival

EVC films The Ones Who Bought Bushwick, Cops Are(n’t) Colorblind, Melanated: The Color Underneath, and Living with the Enemy are official selections at the 11th Annual Black Hollywood Educational Resource Center Youth Diversity Film Festival in Los Angeles.

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