Menlo Park, CA– The California Arts Council has announced a grant award of $38,000 to The Riekes Center for Human Enhancement as part of its Riekes Film program in its second round of funding.
We will be developing and implementing a three-week documentary filmmaking summer program to be offered initially in July and August 2023, and a second time in July and August 2024 with support from the California Arts Council. The course will target school-age students between the ages of 13 and 18. Because the Riekes Center has offered introductory filmmaking programs at several local charter schools and afterschool programs, we anticipate a large cohort of applicants who already have basic skills they can build on to produce and direct documentaries about environmental issues in the semi-urban settings where they live as a result of gentrification, and about experiences in their lives and in their communities that will affect their development as adults.
All instructional and editing activities will take place at the Riekes Center in Menlo Park, while interviewing and filming will occur in the immediately surrounding communities of Fair Oaks, Redwood City, and East Palo Alto. We anticipate working with 30 students each summer, for a total of 60 student participants. We will offer 24-28 hours of instruction per session from working professional documentarists, filmmakers, editors, and sound artists based in California, supplemented by technical support from existing Riekes Center staff, who staff the editing lab and assist students as they prepare their final films.
Students will build skills in visual composition, organization, planning, critical thinking, interviewing, storytelling, and storyboarding, use of camera equipment, digital editing, and directing subjects and crew as well as social and interpersonal skills. All films will be presented in a showcase screening at the Fox Theatre in Redwood City or the Icon Theatre in Mountain View (seating capacity: 200) for family, friends, and members of the local community at the end of each program.
To learn more about California Arts Council Cycle B Grant, please visit http://tiny.cc/CACGrantees_2022CycleB
Read the full press release here.
