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Human Rights Watch and Adobe Youth Voices Present San Francisco Film Premiere
Wednesday 09. March 2011 - Youth Producing Change Works by Teen Filmmakers Defend Human Rights, Call for Action
Human Rights Watch, in partnership with Adobe Youth Voices, will present the 2011 San Francisco Bay Area premiere of “Youth Producing Change” on March 10, 7 p.m. PT, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, as part of Human Rights Watchs annual film festival. Youth Producing Change is a collaborative effort of Adobe Youth Voices (the signature program of the Adobe Foundation) and the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, providing youth with the opportunity to submit their work in a worldwide competition and, if selected, present their films on the international stage.
Works by 11 teen filmmakers from around the globe invite audiences to experience the world as they do every day – as a Kenyan teenager living in Africas second largest slum; as a 14-year-old Afghan seeking asylum in the U.K. after fleeing the war-torn country where his father was killed; and as a young U.S. Air Force enlistee whose life changes forever when she learns that toxic waste has been seeping into her communitys ground water.
Several young filmmakers will attend the film festival, including 18-year-old Alexander Oakes Camera whose film, “Growing Up in India,” exposes child labor practices there.
“Its extremely important for the world to know about these issues to help build better communities, grow as people and learn to understand that not everything revolves around our Blackberrys, iPods and designer clothes,” Camera said. “There are children, people like you and me, who struggle on a daily basis to obtain that single piece of bread. We need to raise awareness and unite to help create change.”
“Adobe Youth Voices is proud to partner with Human Rights Watch in providing an international platform for these remarkable young filmmakers,” said Michelle Mann, executive director, Adobe Foundation. “By calling attention to human rights issues, these youth are inspiring audiences worldwide and demonstrating the power to express ideas, engage stakeholders and effect change through digital media.”
Since 2006, more than 76,000 youth in 45 countries have participated in the breakthrough Adobe Youth Voices training programs which use video, multimedia, digital art, Web, animation and audio tools to enable youth to explore and comment on their world. In the Bay Area, Adobe Youth Voices is working with hundreds of teens at sites that include: Abraham Lincoln High School; Balboa High School; Burton High School; Delancey Street Foundation Life Learning Academy; Everett Middle School; Galileo Academy of Science and Technology; Independence High School; and Principal’s Center Collaborative High School.
“Young people speak with a captivating rawness – they are more honest, curious, optimistic and willing to be vulnerable than their adult counterparts,” said John Biaggi, director of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival. “When they open up their worlds and share their personal stories, we are compelled to listen. What makes the Youth Producing Change program an ongoing success is the fact that youth share universal traits that not only transcend differences in nationality, race, religion and culture, but also imbue their voices with the power to move audiences. What better way to open the 2011 Human Rights Watch Film Festival?”
The films being screened in San Francisco are part of a global film festival that premiered in New York in June 2009, appeared in Boston last year, and will be screened in London later this month. The San Francisco screening is open to the public, with tickets available online: www.ybca.org; by phone: 415-978-2787 daily 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.; or in person at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) Box Office, 701 Mission Street at 3rd. Regular admission is $8. YBCA Member/Student/Senior/Teacher admission is $6.
In addition to the screenings, the Youth Producing Change films will reach an estimated 32 million homes across the U.S. on March 15 at 8 p.m. PT, in a broadcast premiere on Link TV, the nations largest independent broadcaster.