With the inauguration of Donald Trump as 45th president of the United States, our nation’s core values and the safety of our communities—especially the most vulnerable among us—are at risk.
For 30 years the Educational Video Center has supported young media-makers to foster hope, create dialogue, and resist injustice. EVC helps youth thrive as both students and community leaders, and many of EVC’s media-makers go on to work on the front lines of social justice work.
Perla Lopez is one remarkable example. In her words, EVC “inspired me to finish high school and go to college, and now I am the first woman in my family to go to college.” At EVC she learned to use filmmaking as an art form to educate the community to speak up and defend their rights as undocumented immigrants. Perla is now a community organizer with Make the Road New York. and is working to safeguard immigrant families, fight homophobia, and push back against police brutality. We need creative young leaders like Perla now more than ever.
Click here to watch Perla reflect on her experience as an EVC Youth Producer
Perla is an extraordinary woman, but she is not unique among EVC alumni. EVC has help hundreds of young people like Perla connect to the power their stories and their ability to lead. Because of young leaders like Perla, we at EVC remain hopeful that our families and community will continue to do the hard and necessary work of ensuring youth and our most vulnerable populations are safe, supported, and well equipped to resist.
We at EVC are proud to celebrate our graduates from the past three decades whose documentaries have challenged us to think critically about pressing social issues in our lives. And we’re proud that they’ve gone on to make a difference in the world in countless ways—through the films they create, the communities they serve, and the students they teach and mentor.
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