Professor Jonathan Pope Evans took a group of California State University, Los Angeles Television and Film students and a handful of East Los Angeles teenagers and over the course of a 10-week semester, produced four successful short films. On December 5, Plaza de la Raza, a community cultural arts center, hosted "Through the Eyes of Eastside Youth: An Evening of Community Films" showcasing the result of a service learning course called "Community Filmmaking" at Cal State Los Angeles.
Over the course of a semester, the college students served as mentors
to East Los Angeles students ranging from ages 10 to 18 while they
developed original story ideas into the final productions Payback, Girl
Drama, The Get Back, and The People's Voice. The service learning
course experienced bureaucratic and technological setbacks as well as
obstacles such as limited time and money, but the commitment of the
program directors and students ultimately resulted in a success.
"The kids wanted to make these films, but to do it we literally had to figure out how to move mountains with nothing," says Jonathan Pope Evans, the Cal State Los Angeles film professor of the filmmaking course. Evans, who is also a producer and director of independent films, compared the class' filmmaking strategy to "guerilla warfare" in terms of their limited resources and their unconventional style.
"You have to be kind of crazy to do it. There were a lot of times I'd be on the phone in the middle of the night getting voicemails with problems about production, or I'd be on the phone at midnight telling someone, 'Ok, I need four extension cords, a bag of rice, and a coffee maker,'" says Evans, describing the types of unforeseeable scenarios he would encounter over the course of the semester.
Christie Young, a Cal State undergrad who served as Pope Evans' assistant during the course of the semester, reveals that the night before the opening of the film screening, they found out that Plaza de la Raza, which runs a Performing and Visual Arts program, lacked the facilities to hold a movie screening.
"They told us they could hold a screening, but forgot to tell us we needed to bring all the materials," says Young. Evans spent the remaining hours leading up to the screening searching for and setting up projectors and stereo equipment, paying out of his pocket if he needed to.
While the fact that these eastside teenagers and film students only had ten weeks to start and finish films with no experience is amazing, they are also the first group of students to have done so.
"It's something we've been wanting to do for awhile and this fall we finally made it happen," says John Ramirez, the Acting Director of Communication Studies at Cal State Los Angeles. "The fact that nothing went wrong proves we did something right."
For a long time it looked as though the Community Filmmaking class wouldn't happen. Ramirez and Michelle Hawley, the Faculty Director of Service Learning at Cal State Los Angeles pushed for the class for years before it finally began this fall. Ramirez recounts that the hardest part was getting through the bureaucracy of the University system.
"New ideas tend to scare them," he said. Ramirez says that it took countless consent forms, background checks, insurance agreements, and release forms in association with the University as well as Plaza de la Raza, which hosted the site of the class. "It's not just that your renting out equipment to college students, but that your renting it out to minors as well and they're going to be taking these cameras off campus, off of Plaza de la Raza, and going to shoot scenes. What happens if one of them drops a camera? What happens if someone gets hurt?"
After the logistics were taken care of, Evans took over as the instructor of the service-learning course.
"I think that a crucial aspect was having the right people. The students had to know what they were getting themselves into beforehand and not be afraid to get their hands dirty. They had to jump in and make things happen," says Evans.
On the first day of the course, only six teenagers showed up at Plaza de la Raza in East Los Angeles, which was in charge of advertising for community involvement for the class.
"I pointed at each one of them and I said, "You, go bring back five people to next class with you." By pulling people in from local high schools and elementary schools, Evans gave himself more responsibility, but also more local youth involved in the program.
On the night of the film screening, the auditorium was filled with friends and families of the college students and teenagers. Gina Knox had a supporting role in Girl Drama, which features a boy who manipulates two unknowing girls and starts a fight between them. The film features a physically choreographed fight between the two girls and the repercussions they each face at home later that day. Knox, a Senior at Montebello High School, got involved in the program because she wanted to produce and direct, but ended learning how to act as well through the program.
Jasmin Lerma, a 15-year-old from Wilson High School who also starred in Girl Drama, received a notice in the mail from Plaza de la Raza about the class and decided to enroll instead of taking piano lessons. She also brought her friends along, who after watching the screening became interested in joining the program.
"Girl Drama was one of my favorites because it's a real story from their experiences in High School, and I think that shines through," says Evans. He describes the films have a common thread in their autobiographical nature, "They're all about bullies, in a way."
The youngest student in the course was 11-year-old Albert Celis from Polytechnic School in Pasadena. In addition to starring in Payback under his Cal State mentor Victor Castineda, Celis directed The People's Voice by himself about the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election.
"I think Victor had mentioned in passing that he was gay and I had mentioned my own situation with my husband and son," explained Evans. "I think the result of the election made him really angry, so he went out and shot this movie virtually by himself."
In the film, Celis travels around to interview people such as the Director of the Democratic Headquarters in East Los Angeles and people on the street at the "No on Proposition 8" rally.
In addition to asking people to explain why they voted for Barack Obama or John McCain, he asks them how they feel about Proposition 8 passing in California. The selection of voices he includes in his video all seem to defy a different stereotype. There is a woman who describes herself as Mormon standing on the corner of Caesar Chavez Boulevard who explains that she doesn't think Proposition 8 is fair. Another student at John Marshall High School who is Christian explains, "The bible also says love thy neighbor. A hundred years ago I wouldn't have been allowed to attend this school. It's discrimination" about the passing of the proposition. The Campaign Manager in the East Los Angeles office for the "No on Proposition 8" campaign tells the camera, "Latinos don't just vote one way." Throughout the entire time the audience is reminded who made the film, as it is shot from the camera angle of someone under five feet tall.
After the premiere, Albert's father goes to shake the hands of John Ramirez and Jonathan Pope Evans to thank them for the filmmaking class. He says of young people like Albert in the class, "They have great things to say, they just need a way to say it."
Jonathan Pope Evans plans on running the class again next fall, this time expecting more involvement. The films, which he still describes as a work-in-progress, will continue to be edited so that they can be entered in film festivals such as "Reel Rasquache 2008: Festival of the U.S. Latino Experience in Film & Art" hosted by Cal State Los Angeles in late May.
"The kids wanted to make these films, but to do it we literally had to figure out how to move mountains with nothing," says Jonathan Pope Evans, the Cal State Los Angeles film professor of the filmmaking course. Evans, who is also a producer and director of independent films, compared the class' filmmaking strategy to "guerilla warfare" in terms of their limited resources and their unconventional style.
"You have to be kind of crazy to do it. There were a lot of times I'd be on the phone in the middle of the night getting voicemails with problems about production, or I'd be on the phone at midnight telling someone, 'Ok, I need four extension cords, a bag of rice, and a coffee maker,'" says Evans, describing the types of unforeseeable scenarios he would encounter over the course of the semester.
Christie Young, a Cal State undergrad who served as Pope Evans' assistant during the course of the semester, reveals that the night before the opening of the film screening, they found out that Plaza de la Raza, which runs a Performing and Visual Arts program, lacked the facilities to hold a movie screening.
"They told us they could hold a screening, but forgot to tell us we needed to bring all the materials," says Young. Evans spent the remaining hours leading up to the screening searching for and setting up projectors and stereo equipment, paying out of his pocket if he needed to.
While the fact that these eastside teenagers and film students only had ten weeks to start and finish films with no experience is amazing, they are also the first group of students to have done so.
"It's something we've been wanting to do for awhile and this fall we finally made it happen," says John Ramirez, the Acting Director of Communication Studies at Cal State Los Angeles. "The fact that nothing went wrong proves we did something right."
For a long time it looked as though the Community Filmmaking class wouldn't happen. Ramirez and Michelle Hawley, the Faculty Director of Service Learning at Cal State Los Angeles pushed for the class for years before it finally began this fall. Ramirez recounts that the hardest part was getting through the bureaucracy of the University system.
"New ideas tend to scare them," he said. Ramirez says that it took countless consent forms, background checks, insurance agreements, and release forms in association with the University as well as Plaza de la Raza, which hosted the site of the class. "It's not just that your renting out equipment to college students, but that your renting it out to minors as well and they're going to be taking these cameras off campus, off of Plaza de la Raza, and going to shoot scenes. What happens if one of them drops a camera? What happens if someone gets hurt?"
After the logistics were taken care of, Evans took over as the instructor of the service-learning course.
"I think that a crucial aspect was having the right people. The students had to know what they were getting themselves into beforehand and not be afraid to get their hands dirty. They had to jump in and make things happen," says Evans.
On the first day of the course, only six teenagers showed up at Plaza de la Raza in East Los Angeles, which was in charge of advertising for community involvement for the class.
"I pointed at each one of them and I said, "You, go bring back five people to next class with you." By pulling people in from local high schools and elementary schools, Evans gave himself more responsibility, but also more local youth involved in the program.
On the night of the film screening, the auditorium was filled with friends and families of the college students and teenagers. Gina Knox had a supporting role in Girl Drama, which features a boy who manipulates two unknowing girls and starts a fight between them. The film features a physically choreographed fight between the two girls and the repercussions they each face at home later that day. Knox, a Senior at Montebello High School, got involved in the program because she wanted to produce and direct, but ended learning how to act as well through the program.
Jasmin Lerma, a 15-year-old from Wilson High School who also starred in Girl Drama, received a notice in the mail from Plaza de la Raza about the class and decided to enroll instead of taking piano lessons. She also brought her friends along, who after watching the screening became interested in joining the program.
"Girl Drama was one of my favorites because it's a real story from their experiences in High School, and I think that shines through," says Evans. He describes the films have a common thread in their autobiographical nature, "They're all about bullies, in a way."
The youngest student in the course was 11-year-old Albert Celis from Polytechnic School in Pasadena. In addition to starring in Payback under his Cal State mentor Victor Castineda, Celis directed The People's Voice by himself about the aftermath of the 2008 presidential election.
"I think Victor had mentioned in passing that he was gay and I had mentioned my own situation with my husband and son," explained Evans. "I think the result of the election made him really angry, so he went out and shot this movie virtually by himself."
In the film, Celis travels around to interview people such as the Director of the Democratic Headquarters in East Los Angeles and people on the street at the "No on Proposition 8" rally.
In addition to asking people to explain why they voted for Barack Obama or John McCain, he asks them how they feel about Proposition 8 passing in California. The selection of voices he includes in his video all seem to defy a different stereotype. There is a woman who describes herself as Mormon standing on the corner of Caesar Chavez Boulevard who explains that she doesn't think Proposition 8 is fair. Another student at John Marshall High School who is Christian explains, "The bible also says love thy neighbor. A hundred years ago I wouldn't have been allowed to attend this school. It's discrimination" about the passing of the proposition. The Campaign Manager in the East Los Angeles office for the "No on Proposition 8" campaign tells the camera, "Latinos don't just vote one way." Throughout the entire time the audience is reminded who made the film, as it is shot from the camera angle of someone under five feet tall.
After the premiere, Albert's father goes to shake the hands of John Ramirez and Jonathan Pope Evans to thank them for the filmmaking class. He says of young people like Albert in the class, "They have great things to say, they just need a way to say it."
Jonathan Pope Evans plans on running the class again next fall, this time expecting more involvement. The films, which he still describes as a work-in-progress, will continue to be edited so that they can be entered in film festivals such as "Reel Rasquache 2008: Festival of the U.S. Latino Experience in Film & Art" hosted by Cal State Los Angeles in late May.
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