Youth Films Screen Tonight at Alameda Theatre

Alternatives in Action will unveil 12 outstanding Bay Area youth film shorts at its eighth annual Project YouthView tonight at the historic , 2317 Central Ave. The film festival is co-presented by Comcast and sponsored by HBO.

The screening features the winning Bay Area youth film shorts, selected pieces by students at Alameda Unified School District and , and the award-winning documentary Deaf Jam, followed by a discussion with filmmaker Judy Lieff.

Audience members will have a chance to vote for their favorite youth film. The evening also includes the announcement of a Judges’ Choice Award Winner selected by a panel of judges that includes Steve Buscemi and Terence Winter of the award-winning HBO drama Boardwalk Empire, Russell Simmons, William H. Macy and Pauley Perrette.

Both the Audience and Judges Choice winners will receive cash and prize gifts. New this year, the Judges Choice winner will be flown to Los Angeles for a private screening of their film with HBO executives.

Tickets are available online at www.projectyouthview.org. Tickets are $5 for youth, $10 for adults and $100 for two tickets in the catered VIP balcony, which includes appetizers and drinks during an early VIP reception.

The VIP reception starts at 5:30 p.m, and doors open at 6 p.m. The film program begins at 6:30 p.m.

Proceeds benefit the multi-media programs of Alternatives in Action's Project YouthView, which creates a venue for youth to tell their stories, opens dialogue between youth and adults about the issues young people face, and inspires youth to pursue a career in arts and media. Additionally, in partnership with adult “coaches,” youth participating in Alternatives in Action help to plan, organize and implement every aspect of the Project YouthView event.

ABOUT THE FILMS

The selected 12 youth-created films were chosen from over 75 submissions from across the Bay Area. The shorts use powerful images, animation and narrative storytelling to shed light on issues of importance to young people, with topics as diverse as urban street culture and dance, cyber-bullying, defining female identity, drunk driving and young love.

”Whether through the visual feast provided in footage taken of a small African village in the film Osuto or the filmmakers’ playful use of sarcasm in a serious film on the consequences of drunk driving, Plastered, these often provocative films will make you think deeply about the issues and perspectives on young people’s minds,” said Project YouthView Coordinator Kandra Rivers.

In the feature documentary, Deaf Jam, Aneta Brodski seizes the day. She is a deaf teen introduced to American Sign Language (ASL) poetry, who then boldly enters the spoken word slam scene. In a wondrous twist, Aneta, an Israeli immigrant living in the Queens section of New York City, eventually meets Tahani, a hearing Palestinian slam poet. The two young women embark on a hearing/deaf collaboration, a performance duet that is a metaphor for the complex realities they share.

This year’s screening also highlights additional youth shorts created in Alternatives in Action’s afterschool multi-media production programs and select films by the students of Alameda Unified School District.

Project YouthView is also supported by .