Cityscapes

By the 2010 Film Fellows

This spring, the Tribeca Film Fellows, 20 dynamic young filmmakers who are invited to the Tribeca Film Festival for a backstage look at the Festival and the film industry at large, descended on all five boroughs to capture the essence of the city they live in. Presented as an introduction to Our City, My Story, Cityscapes introduces a series of short films which pay homage to the young filmmakers featured in the program and the city that all of them live in and love. 

Lippy

MIX NYC's "A Different Take "
By Aishah Abdullah

Young people of different shapes, sizes, colors, races, and gender stand in front of a blank wall.  Black and white, fast and slow-moving images combine to form this meditation on humanity.

Beauty and the Box

Global Action Project
By Karla Cano, Whitney Galaher, Kari Lindberg, Lily Mai, Natasha McKenzie, Veno Ntutela, Sofiya Romendik, Justin Simon, Randeva Simpkins, Andrew Sinelov, Warren Williams

Meet Loreal; a TV casualty in a world where people see and judge each other through the lens of media. Her search to replace a broken television sends her to a land she never imagined.  What happens when racial divisions and impossible beauty standards are let loose on an unsuspecting world?

The Image of My Perception

Downtown Community Television Pro TV
By Ashley Turizo

The pressure of graduating from high school is already overwhelming as Ashley approaches applications to colleges.  During this stressful time, a lot of issues from the past come up.  From her parents' divorce to her brother's incarceration, Ashley describes how she can change her reality through changing her perception..

Fightback.com

Thomas Jefferson High School
By Donovan Cooper, Akeem Gill, Kandacy Jones, Shedall Courtney Ventour, Isaac Russell, Winnifer Estevez, Khamar Douglas, Jose Guzman

Public Service Announcement exploring Teenage Spousal Abuse.

I'm From 

Fannie Lou Hamer Middle School
By Melanie Santos, Rodrigo Bravo, Stephanie Castro, Cilmi Corporan, Mariah Morris, Stephanie Castro, Jasmine Rodriguez

I'm From is a short experimental poetic piece that tells where Melanie is from throuth imagery and song.

Teenage Motherhood

Academy for Careers in Television & Film
By Jacquelyn Gutierrez, Erick Echevarria

New mother, 16 year old Ashley Gutierrez, shares her joys and problems, from trying to conceal her pregnancy, through her new lifestyle with her 9 month old. Jolted, by her  responsibilities, but ably supported by her mother, she is determined to get back onto her feet while providing a loving home to her son..

Make it Happen

Summer Arts Institute
By Caroline Handel, Rayhan Islam, Milo Finnegan-Money, Rhakwaun “Rocko” Seymour

Three people in New York City, disillusioned by their political situations, have taken matters into their own hands. Make It Happen profiles each of these non-traditional activists as they tackle issues in their local communities through unusual forms of protest and with innovative ideas to make change.

L'espwa Kan  (Sugar Cane Hopes)

Global Potential
By Leandro Perez, Xu Xiang, Freddy Ogando

This film is about two Haitian migrant workers struggling to survive in a Dominican Batey while working in the sugar cane fields. The film depicts parallel stories of Roberto, 18 years old, and Junior, 24 years old. Both came to the Dominican Republic with hopes of finding a better life. Junior has been living in Batey Ocho for three years while Roberto only recently arrived one month ago at the time of the filming.

With the Bomber or With the Bombed?

The Institute for Collaborative Education
By Moie Uesugi

With the Bomber or With the Bombed? is about the atomic bomb, Japan, America, and how twelve year old Moie's life as a child with Japanese ancestry, born and raised in America, relates to all of them. 

A Word From Your Sponsor: Underage Drinking

The Young Women's Leadership School of East Harlem
By Talia Charlton, Tatiana Perez, Jennifer Marroquin, Samantha Ojeda

One of four PSA's developed by the film class at The Young Women's Leadership School, East Harlem dealing with issues faced by urban young women.  Definitely not your Mother's PSAs.

Ghetto Talks

Urban Arts Partnership
By Brittney Clough, Craig Wallace, Cristina Guerra, Daniel Familia, Dequane Jeffrey, Fatima Rainey, Joshua Davis, Marlin Almonte, Omar Cyrille, Regina Bonsu, Robert Matos, Sham Lockwood, Sotonye Douglas, Nicholas Mendez, Bertrand Edouard, Dequane Jeffrey

Ghetto Talks, a short documentary created by Urban Arts Partnership Media Lab students, explores historical and contemporary uses of the word ghetto through interviews with peers, artists, experts and activists; photographs, original graphics and soundtrack.  Language is a core human rights issue, often the most powerful tool at our disposal.  Language can cause discord or bring about a sense of community and peace; reinforce stereotypes and disenfranchise or empower and afford opportunity; fuel ignorance or shift perceptions, attitudes and behaviors.  As a stimulus to discussion on how the words we use have a personal, cultural and social impact on our communities, Ghetto Talks encourages viewers to see themselves as agents of choice and develop their own call to action around the word ghetto. 

Little Dominica NYC

Life Academy High School for Film and Music
By Jose Valdez, Dionis Quezada, Slimane Rabout

Follow the adventures of a kid as he searches for Dominican culture and history in New York City. See how he finds it and who he meets along the way. 

My New York ! 

Downtown Community Television ProTV
By Derek Horton, John Dargan, Jawara Drigo, Bertil Gaspard, Emily Lu, Aaron Mincey, Jonathan Cheng

A young girl, bored by school and her daily routine, has an English assignment to write a poem about her home, New York City.  The poems and prose of famous authors are uninspiring until she finds a pair of magical glasses. The beauty all around her is revealed.  Suddenly she understands why these writers were enthusiastic about New York, and she finds her own voice to express her love for home.