On June 10, 2009, EVC’s Youth Organizers Television team (YO-TV) premiered their latest documentary The War Within: Youth Depression to a packed house at HBO’s Screening Room. The screening was followed by a powerful discussion about youth depression among audience members, the YO-TV producers, and the young people and mental health professionals they interviewed.
As the youth filmmakers discovered in making The War Within, depression is a hidden crisis among young people of color, one that impacts their families, schools, and communities. They found that too often there is a stigma and a sense of denial associated with depression. Youth in communities of color often feel they have no options for affordable, culturally relevant therapies. In The War Within, youth tell powerful stories of their experiences with depression and the treatments they have found to cope with it. Through interviews with youth, clinicians, and mental health advocates, this film gives important information and a message of life-affirming hope for others who may be struggling with this widespread problem.
The War Within was produced by a team of 6 youth producers who participated in EVC’s 2008-2009 Youth Organizers Television (YO-TV) Program. YO-TV is a ten-month pre-professional paid internship that jumpstarts the college and media careers of graduates of the EVC Documentary Workshop.
The War Within will be screened at Lehman College, Hunter College, and NYU this fall. It is also available on DVD for purchase via the EVC online store.
Thanks to our funders who made this possible.
Support for the Educational Video Center is provided, in part, by: Adobe Systems, Inc. The Altman Foundation Brenner Family Foundation Citi Private Bank The Cricket Island Foundation HBO The Hearst Foundations The Jed Foundation The Maxine Greene Foundation The Milton A. and Roslyn Z. Wolf Family Foundation New York Community Trust Open Society Institute Time Warner, Inc. The W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation The W. K. Kellogg Foundation Wellspring Foundation
With on-going support from: Individual donors Anonymous
In-kind support is provided by: The New York City Department of Education Satellite Academy High School Taproot Foundation
All of EVC’s activities are supported, in part, by public funds from: The National Endowment for the Arts The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The New York State Department of Education The New York State Council on the Arts: Arts in Education and Electronic Media and Film Programs