Breaking Boundaries: New Media Academy

VIDEO MASTER TITLE:

1.The New Media Academy: Enabling Success through Digital Literacy

2.A program of VSA International and the Victor Pineda Foundation

3.With Grover Cleveland High School and the participation of Joaquin Miller Career and Transition Center

4.In association with the Center for Digital Storytelling

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Cleveland HS campus shots

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Ability Times with headlines

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Production activities,

David on-cam

David:  I think for a lot of people with disabilities, you close doors for yourself before you even get there.  And so for a program like this, I think the most valuable aspect of it, beyond the films themselves, is the instilling in the students the notion that you can make a film, you can tell your story, and people will want to hear that story because it actually speaks to something universal.

Production activities,

James on-cam

James Gleason:  When you see them get it—that spark of knowledge, that excitement that people get when they are creating—there’s nothing like it.

Title Graphic:

Production is Engaging, Learning, Creating, Sharing demonstrating what “inclusive” education really means.

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Production activities,

Victor on-cam

Victor: Media is a currency.  A currency for communication.  We’re here to give those tools to a new generation.

Production activities,

David on-cam

David:  This wasn’t recess.  This wasn’t finger painting.  It was production.

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GOAL: Develop and Pilot Inclusive Curriculum for Digital Storytelling and Media Production with only 20 hours of instruction

RESULT: 20 Films Demonstrating the Potential and Power of Inclusive Education

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Production activities, VSA people,

Victor on-cam

Victor:  VSA has been leading the way for decades.  And we approached VSA with the concept:  let’s teach people with disabilities how to make films.

Article, production activities,

Lhana on-cam

Lhana:  A project like this is really crucial, especially as a high school student, that you’re able to interact with people you wouldn’t normally see.

Jimenez sisters on-cam

Melissa:  I know we’re different.  But I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

Catherine: There’s a billion people on the planet.  We’re bound to be different anyways.

Title Graphic:

Inclusive Education at Work

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Production activities,

Evelyn on-cam

Evelyn:  We had two people in wheelchairs, we had one person on crutches, we had two people that had autism, we had four people that were developmentally disabled, and we had one partially blind. So we had the gamut of what you can be in terms of disabled.

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Leland Helfing’s “Sense of Humor!

Leland: When I play UNO with my friends, I like to make the game fun and exciting by playing around with them.

Leland on-cam

Leland:  The reason I make this movie, because I want everybody feel happy. And the movie is called Sense of Humor.  You look at me; you don’t know that I have a sense of humor.

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The Role of Team Leaders

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Production activities,

Brandi on-cam

Brandy: The team leaders were all great at helping their team members access their skills, get the creativity going, working with each other.  They also showed they all had different disabilities whether it be hearing impaired or eyesight or physical.  But it just shows it didn’t matter.  We all have disabilities, we all have abilities and we can do anything as long as we’re given the right equipment and the learning process—there’s someone there to help—and we can end up helping each other.

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Rhianon on-cam

Rhianon: I never personally just worked with people with disabilities before in this capacity.  It was challenging or me because filmmaking is a challenging occupation.  It’s challenging to learn it, it’s challenging to engage in it and it can certainly be challenging to teach it. 

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Excerpt from Melissa Jimenez’s film.

Melissa: I’m afraid of being in a deserted area by myself.  When I say deserted I mean I’m afraid of being in a busy area when its completely empty.

Jimenez sisters on-cam,

Production activities.

Melissa: Sometimes it was a little bit stressful when it was crunch time and we’re trying to meet our deadlines.

Catherine: Especially, because, I remember the tension when everyone was trying to finish their film on time.

Lhana on-cam

Lhana:  The two twins, it was also great to meet them because, obviously they are very similar but their projects turned out to be very different.  And both very inspiring about art and fear of being alone.

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Excerpt from Catherine Jimenez’s film.

Catherine: The pictures let me to show my weirdness and quirkiness to the world.

Stephen on-cam,

Production activities

Stephen: I was just simply amazed at the transformation that took place.  Not so much even in my own daughter but within all the participants. E verybody was sharing just joyfully and truthfully.  And it was a very, very moving experience.

Screening activities,

Evelyn on-cam

Evelyn:  When these kids came on that last day and they saw each others work, and then they saw their own work, and they saw people laughing and crying and clapping and responding to what they had to say, no matter how simple and basic they thought it was…they saw the power of their authentic voice.  Telling the truth about yourself is OK.

James on-cam,

Production activities

James:  Really, for me as a teacher, and I’ve taught for a long time, it was challenging.  But it can be done.  You know, it has to be worked on, but as a first time I was surprised that we got everything done.  It’s a miracle when you got everybody to finish their project in a short period of time.

Victor on-cam,

Production activities

Victor:  This is a multimedia, multi-intradisciplinary hands-on initiative.  And its never been done before.  And here, not only did we break ground, we broke boundaries.

Group shot

Group: Thank you VSA!

Title Graphic:

Inclusive Education At Work

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