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BALTIMORE

YOUTH FILM ARTS

 

 YOUR STORY.  YOUR CITY.

YOUR FILM.

 

The Baltimore Youth Film Arts Program offers Baltimore City residents ages 16 to 29 the opportunity to learn
camera skills, refine storytelling techniques, and create films and photographs to be shared at public screenings
and exhibitions, and on the program website.  Participants are paid stipends for their contributions
and receive certificates for successful completion.

    Our mission is to build an online archive of Baltimore voices; a representation of our city, current and historical, real and imagined.  Be part of the project.  We want to hear from you!

             Baltimore Youth Film Arts is an affiliate program of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, and is made possible by the financial support of Johns Hopkins and the Mellon Foundation.

 

BYFA VOICES

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

GLIMPSING THE PRESENT

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

MORE BYFA VOICES

workshops

“A very open environment, encouraging.
—Christopher

I love the variety of ages.
—Eddie”

SPRING 2024

Spring workshops are fully enrolled.

BALTIMORE NEIGHBORS: A COMMUNITY PORTRAIT IN SOUND
Ages 16-29 (this workshop is fully enrolled)
Saturdays, 9-1, March 23-May 4, JHU-MICA Film Centre (map)

In this workshop, student fellows will explore the auditory landscapes that define their shared environments, together creating a collaborative experimental project grounded in sound. Working in parks and playgrounds, at bus stops and on street corners, and in landmark locations like the Farmers’ Market and Lexington Market, they’ll collect interviews, personal narratives, and ambient sounds--from traffic to bird song to rain.  They’ll also create photographs and short moving image clips, and ultimately weave together a textured, dynamic audio-based portrait of Baltimore life.  Their collaborative work will be shared on the program website and at a public exhibition.  Limited to 14 student fellows. 

Jamal Evans teaches in the Interactive Media Production program at Edmondson-Westside High School.  For over fifteen years, he has inspired students to enter the world of media production.  He also has a passion for social media and does freelance photography and video throughout the Baltimore region and beyond.  

Alisha Mona'e Coates graduated from Morgan State University with a B.S. in Multi-Platform Media Production.  A BYFA participant since 2016, she started her photography career at Edmondson Westside, and hopes to eventually open an art/photography studio.

THE HAND OF THE STORYTELLER
Ages 16-29 (this workshop is fully enrolled)
Saturdays, 10-2, March 23- May 4, JHU-MICA Film Centre (map)

It may be that everyone has a story in them, but how to make that story interesting to others?  In this videography workshop student fellows will refine their storytelling skills, working to shape stories that are personally expressive, rewarding to tell, and also accessible and moving, rewarding to hear.  They’ll dig deep from the start, delving into three key themes: grief, joy, and confusion.  And they’ll confront a crucial choice of how much of themselves to infuse into their material.  They might craft a piece that’s rawly intimate, or step back, becoming an elusive presence even as they explore personally meaningful events and emotions.  Process and product might include direct testimony or more indirect poetry or memoir; images of personal items or of shared landscapes.  They’ll work in the field and in the studio, making spontaneous discoveries and actively crafting, each developing a short video with a distinct voice--their own.  Their work will be shared on the program website and at a public exhibition.  Limited to 12 student fellows.

Charles Cohen's recent documentary films include Riding Wild, which follows a group of BMXers into Baltimore's urban wilderness, and The Crooked Tune, an Old Time Fiddler in a Modern World.  He holds an MFA in Film and Digital Media from American University and has written for The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Post, and Baltimore City Paper.

Stephanie García is an independent journalist who covers labor, housing, climate justice, and education equity. Her work has been published with The Independent, PBS NewsHour, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, AP, USA Today, and The Ground Truth Project. 

Gaybriell Paredes is a a Chicago native and graduate of the TV arts program at Columbia College Chicago. Since relocating, she continues her work in post for a D.C. media publication.

ARTFUL RESISTANCE: DEFINING THE SELF AGAINST INFLUENCE
Ages 16-29 (this workshop is fully enrolled)
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6-8, March 26-May 7, Online

In this interdisciplinary distance learning workshop, student fellows will consider art-making as a practice of resistance.  Through writing exercises and discussion, they'll identify what influences them, from political agendas and cultural norms, to family and social circles, to their own unconscious routines or patterns; and they'll consider what they want to embrace and what they want to resist.  In a time when relationships and self-images may be defined by attention given to and through digital communication and social and news media platforms, they'll consider how they pay attention, and also how they might exert attention.  How might we as artists wield our attention as a tool of resistance, or direct the attention of others towards what is meaningful to us? They'll study examples of art as resistance, and through creative writing, photography, and video explore how to direct their attention, how to find and feel their own voices in the din. Final projects may be short documentary films, experimental videos, animation, spoken word performances, or a combination of these things. Their work will be shared on the program website and at a public exhibition.  Limited to 14 student fellows.

Caroline Preziosi is a poet, artist, and educator.  She is currently studying at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and splitting her time between the Midwest and her home in Baltimore.

A BALTIMORE IMAGINARIUM
Ages 16-29 (this workshop is fully enrolled)
Saturdays, 1:30-5:30, March 23- May 4, JHU-MICA Film Centre (map)

In this workshop, student fellows will collaborate to create a live-action and animation video that celebrates Baltimore as it is found and Baltimore as the fellows imagine it.  They’ll work together as a crew in the field to collect footage of ordinary street scenes and settings, from residential blocks to markets to bus stops and storefronts, then conjure up experimental scenarios, events, and characters, layering fantastical beings onto real locations.  Characters may be human, animal, technological, or some combination; each with a distinct voice, attitude, and style of movement.  Fellows will challenge and inspire each other as artists, becoming themselves part of a Baltimore imaginarium. They’ll review fundamentals, including script-writing, storyboarding, illustration, and audio recording, while gaining proficiency in Adobe Animate, ultimately seamlessly integrating 2-D animations into real-life footage captured with both cellphones and DSLR cameras. Their final project will be shared on the program website and at a public exhibition.  Limited to 10 student fellows.

Alfonzer Harvin is a graduate of the Screenwriting and Animation program (SWAN) at Morgan State University.  He is Media Specialist and Web Designer at NorthBay Education Inc., and has created animations for Comcast and the Baltimore Parking Authority.  He is skilled in all phases of production, and believes that knowledge is all we need to change the world.

Kerstyn Myers is a member in the Phi Theta Kappa Honors Society at UMBC, where she is pursuing computer science. She believes technology and art are the connections to the future. 

BYFA FELLOWS

“A great way to gain connections
and friends with similar interests.
—Omega”

EVENTS

Saturday, May 18

Screenings and Exhibition for Winter and Spring Sessions

Saturday, May 18, 2-5 PM

110 Hodson Hall, Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus (map)
Free neighborhood parking and paid parking in the South Garage (map)

Free and open to the public!

 

Baltimore Youth Film Arts Program • Film and Media Studies Program • Johns Hopkins University
443-267-2126 • youthfilmarts@jhu.edu