November 8, 2012
By Matthew Williams
On a beautiful fall Saturday in Oakland, students, educators and families filled the Kaiser Center’s 400-seat theater to watch 20 compelling youth-produced films that focused on social change and the high school dropout crisis.
The Rise to the Occasion Youth Media Festival was organized by KQED, along with other members of the Bay Area Youth Media Network (BAYMN), a consortium of more than 20 non-profits that believe in the power of media production to engage youth voice, self-expression and empowerment as well as to inspire social change.
Films not only expressed the complexity of issues that cause students to dropout of high school, they also explored the topics of health, race, sexual identity and discrimination.