World Today

Three Grad Students Dedicate Summer to Teaching Inner-City Students Art of Filmmaking

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JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: In an attempt to narrow the divide between the haves and the have-nots, three graduate students dedicated their summer to teaching inner-city students the art of filmmaking. Based in the Bronx, the program teaches students useful skills, while boosting their esteem and confidence.

CNN's Brian Palmer reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Camera rolling -- action.

BRIAN PALMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 163rd Street in the South Bronx is a far cry from Hollywood, and Akeenah Thomas (ph) isn't your average filmmaker.

(on camera): So how are you going to use this again?

AKEENAH THOMAS: Well, I'm going to use it -- how am I going to use it? I am going to use it...

PALMER (voice-over): She and a dozen other teens are students at what's called the "Ghetto Film School."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spike lee does this a lot in his movies.

PALMER: Started by a University of Southern California film student and a Bronx community group called "Banana Kelly."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you are looking through the camera and framing it up, ask yourself these questions.

PALMER: USC film students and professors are teaching kids how to use camcorders and computer programs to make movies.

JOE HALL, FOUNDER, GHETTO FILM SCHOOL: One of the aims of the project is really to imbue their voices with information and resources from outside, but also based on the foundation that they are at is equally as strong and as powerful.

PALMER (on camera): They turned an offensive term into a badge of pride. Although they call it the Ghetto Film School, the founders designed the program as an apprenticeship. These budding filmmakers get paid, minimum wage for a 30-hour week. And with that paycheck, some certain expectations.

YOLANDA RIVERA, BANANA KELLY: This is a work setting. They are learning not only about how film is made, but how to be responsible within a job setting that is training you to do these things.

PALMER: Discipline and responsibility are stressed, but the focus is creativity.

ANTHONY RIVERA, STUDENT: To me, making movies is like being in your own world. You create the rules, you create the environment, you create everything.

PALMER: Sharay Smith took her reality as the starting point for her film.

SHARAY SMTIH, STUDENT: I live on Park Avenue, 166th, and it's like, and it's like nothing; it's like the slums, like, the city don't even really care about that particular part of my neighborhood. It's like -- I mean, you look at it, like, people actually lives here, and you go downtown to Park Avenue, 86th, that's -- I did part on 86th and on 59th, and it's, like, so pretty.

PALMER: School founders aim to branch out from their Bronx storefront.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to see kids marching out of the South Bronx, marching out of the suburbs of Indiana and Iowa, with stories to tell.

PALMER: Sparking, they hope, a new youth-led film movement.

Brian Palmer, CNN, New York.

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