TROUBLEMAKERS 5.0

The TROUBLEMAKERS 5.0 film program gathered a fresh team of aspiring young filmmakers and experienced troublemakers to work together through an eight-session filmmaking program that captured local queer and trans histories. We are in awe of the films they created, and excited to share them here!

FRESH CONNECTIONS

The FRESH CONNECTIONS Film Program was an online workshop made possible by the Real Estate Foundation of BC, that brought together people from across BC, to produce short video poems that explore young people's relationship to local land and water issues.

Kaapittiaq Film Program

In the Kaapittiaq Film Program, local people in Nunavut communities were employed to learn marketing skills, shoot footage, and collaborate in the creation of these nine short advertisements. The films celebrate Nunavut communities and advertise Kaapittiaq, an Inuit-branded line of coffee. The film program was a partnership between Reel Youth and Pitquhikhainik Ilihainiq Inc.

Age is More Virtual Film Program “Celebrating Joy”

The Age is More Virtual Film Program “Celebrating Joy” was an intergenerational film program, where young filmmakers worked with older adults in Ontario Revera Retirement Residences. Together they created poems based on the joyful moments in the older participants' lives, and adapted them into short films using iPads and Zoom to record and edit the footage.

CYC Youth & Grand Parents Film Release

The Youth and Grandparents Film Program was a filmmaking workshop in partnership with the Connaught Youth Centre, that brought youth together with their grandparents. Together, they made these two short films that connect the generations and celebrate family histories.

Nunavut Music Video Program

In this partnership with Kitikmeot Heritage Society / Pitquhikhainik Ilihainiq, youth in Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk, Ulukhaktok, and Gjoa Haven worked with Reel Youth facilitators to plan, shoot, and edit these beautiful, original music videos, set to music by The Beatrice Deer Band. We also created a compilation video that highlights footage from all of the program participants. Enjoy!

SUCCESS Video Poems

This Digital Storytelling project was a Vancouver-based virtual film program for youth, offered in partnership with S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and made possible by Telus Storyhive. The filmmakers fostered their creativity, self-expression, and leadership skills by learning video production techniques to tell stories about their lives and experiences using film. Enjoy and share!

Douglas College Filmmaking Program 

In early 2022, we ran a slam poetry / video production program with immigrant and refugee youth in Douglas College's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program. In this virtual program, new Canadians and program staff gathered with Reel Youth facilitators over Zoom, where they were introduced to principles of filmmaking, and created these powerful films about their experiences as newcomers and in the LINC Engage program.

Yukon Music Video Program

MUSIC VIDEO

In early 2022, we partnered with Western Arctic Youth Collective to work with young filmmakers in the Yukon Territory. Using music from Diyet, they planned, shot, and edited these original music videos. Check out these beautiful new works of Northern media art:

P.I.E. Film Program

The PIE Film Program was an online workshop that brought together students from the Partners in Education program across BC, to produce short video poems that explore local issues and personal stories. These video portraits of BC students are told in their authentic, fun-loving, and fierce voices. Enjoy.

SUCCESS

Our fourth Digital Storytelling Film Program was a virtual program for young Vancouverites, offered in partnership with S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and made possible by Telus Storyhive. Participants fostered their creativity, self-expression, and leadership skills by learning filmmaking techniques to tell stories about their lives. These new works of media art are expressions of longing, belonging, and beauty. Enjoy.

Black Brilliance 3

Our third Black Brilliance film program (and first in person!) was a place for youth of African descent to collaborate to tell their stories. Facilitated by the amazing Mariam Barry, Moumy Mbacké, and Michael Swana, participants explored their personal experiences of Blackness through film. Their films span drama and documentary, and are part of Reel Youth’s ongoing work to combat racism and amplify Black voices.

First Directions

In the First Directions Film Program, Indigenous youth from across BC came together to develop short videos on the theme of Art & Activism. This 3-day program was made possible by YouthCO and Yúusnewas, and with support from Telus STORYHIVE. These are the three powerful films that came out of the program:

Cortes Island Community School Senior Class

These films were made in the 2022 Cortes Island School video production program. Over the course of 5 days, students at the school worked with Reel Youth facilitators to explore issues that they care about, and then made these 3 charming short films to share their views.

Inter-Generational Mini Biographies

Reel Youth's Intergenerational Film Program brought youth together with their grandparents to produce short films showcasing the stories and wisdom of older generations. Additional advanced lessons were also offered, and we are so please to present the final films!

Reel Youth Slow TV

These beautiful films were created in Reel Youth’s first ever Slow TV Film Program, a filmmaking workshop that brought young people together for an exploration of this emerging genre. Funded by Telus, this program was inspired by the meditative Norwegian slow TV phenomenon that invites viewers to slow down and experience nature and the world in real-time.     

TROUBLEMAKERS 6.0

The TROUBLEMAKERS 6.0 film program gathered a fresh team of aspiring young filmmakers and experienced troublemakers to work together through an eight-session filmmaking program that captured local queer and trans histories. We are in awe of the films they created, and excited to share them here!

Old Crow Film Program

In 2022, Reel Youth visited Old Crow, Yukon with the Western Arctic Youth Collective and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation to facilitate a film and photography program that focused on inter-generational learning. The following documentaries feature Gwitch'in Elders and community leaders, whose stories are shared in Gwitch'in and English. 

2022 SUCCESS I AM FROM Poems

CIA FILMS

VIDEO PRODUCTION

These films were created in a filmmaking high school program with School District 72 at the Cortes Island Academy. Reel Youth created a curriculum to meet the grade 9-11 BC Media Studies guidelines, and facilitated it over five weeks, on Cortes, in an innovative, untraditional and out-of-the-box high school program. The students made personal video poems, group animations, and a group documentary showcasing the wisdom and stories of older Cortesians.

FRESH CONNECTIONS 2 

The FRESH CONNECTIONS 2 Film Program was an online workshop that brought together people from across BC, to produce short video poems that explore their relationship to places of personal importance, within the context of Indigenous land histories, rights, and reconciliation.

Youth Leadership Millennium

This Digital Storytelling project was a Vancouver-based virtual film program for youth, offered in partnership with the Youth Leadership Millennium program at S.U.C.C.E.S.S. and made possible by Telus Storyhive. The filmmakers fostered their creativity, self-expression, and leadership skills by learning video production techniques to tell stories about their lives and experiences using film. Enjoy and share!

During the 2023 First Directions Film Program, Yúusnewas hosted workshops to share information about Indigenous Resilience with youth from across BC. Reel Youth supported participants to work together to make short films about their visions for positive change.

This 3-day program is made possible by YouthCO and Yúusnewas, and with support from Telus STORYHIVE. These are the two powerful films that have come out of the program:

Information is Medicine

These films were made by Indigenous young people in the north in response to their visions for positive change to the healthcare system and addressing youth mental health.

These films were made as part of the project "Information is Medicine: Culturally Safe Vaccine Hesitancy Reduction Initiatives Driven by NWT Indigenous Peoples" a Hotiì ts'eeda project funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Sanikiluaq NU

In February of 2023, the Reel Youth team travelled to the Hamlet of Sanikiluaq, Nunavut, in the Belcher Islands, in Hudson’s Bay, to facilitate a two-week documentary filmmaking program at the Nuiyak School. Grade sixes learned filmmaking, interviewing, and post-production fundamentals and made films about local knowledge holders and Elders.

2023 Douglas College Claymations

CLAYMATION

n late 2023, we ran a claymation program with immigrant and refugee youth in Douglas College's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program. In this in person program, new Canadians and program staff gathered with Reel Youth facilitator , where they were introduced to principles of claymation, and created these short claymations about issues they were passionate about as well as experiences as newcomers and in the LINC Engage program.

FOCUSED TV - FILMS THAT ARE GROUNDED IN PLACE

These introspective films were created in Focused TV, a brand new Reel Youth program. In this program, participants chose a space close to them and dug in deep to make films specific to historical and cultural geography of their surroundings.

Through this program, that centred around decolonizing place and the structures of cinema, participants planned, shot, and edited their own meaningful short films.     

TROUBLEMAKERS 7.0

The TROUBLEMAKERS 7.0 film program gathered a fresh team of aspiring young filmmakers and experienced troublemakers to work together through an eight-session filmmaking program that captured local queer and trans histories. We are in awe of the films they created, and excited to share them here!

 Q̓a̓úƛ̓ini Qṇts Wáxv'w̓uísáx̌ - Learning on the Land and Water

In 2022-23, two professional Reel Youth filmmakers travelled to the Haíɫzaqv community of Bella Bella on the remote central coast of British Columbia to capture the Supporting Emerging Aboriginal Stewards (SEAS) program at the Bella Bella Community School. There are unique SEAS programs in several communities in this region.

The SEAS program is a K-12 land-based learning program that connects students with the lands, waters, knowledge holders, mentors, and seasonal harvest cycles of their traditional territories. These films were created to communicate the value of the SEAS program to potential stakeholders and funders, and to share with the Haíɫzaqv community to raise awareness around what and how the students are learning.

Gwich’in Caribou Summit

These powerful films were made by Gwich’in young people during an inaugural Caribou Summit in Ft McPherson in January, 2023.

The youth spent two days training with Reel Youth facilitators to learn the technical side of documentary film making and then were matched up with an elder at the summit to create a short film about their lived experiences and relationship to the Porcupine Caribou herd, one of the last intact herds in the world.

GLOBAL WATER FUTURES

In the summer of 2023, Reel Youth worked with Youth from the Sahtu region on the Decho (Mackenzie River), north of Fort Good Hope, NT to make a film about the importance of addressing local water issues as a community. The camp brought Youth, Elders, scientists, knowledge holders and community leaders together to learn from each other and was made possible by Global Water Futures, the Fort Good Hope Renewable Resources Council, the FGH Dene Band Youth On the Land Program, the Sahtu Renewable Resources Board and GNWT. The camp was organized by the K’ahsho Got’ine Foundation and Guardians, in partnership with the Western Arctic Youth Collective and Reel Youth.

The project’s participants, ranging from ages 15 to 92, and hailed from all five Sahtu Dene and Metis communities; Deline, Tulita, Norman Wells, Fort Good Hope and Colville Lake. The initiative took place at Nihts’iba Site, K’asho Got’ine Territory, situated on the Decho north of Fort Good Hope at the Arctic Circle.


BUFFALO RIVER

These powerful films were created by Grade 9 students at Buffalo River Dene School.

Through technical training, leadership building, and lots of laughs, the youth worked in small teams to create short documentary films about their elders.

Thank you Meadow Lake Tribal Council and Buffalo River Dene Nation School for having us work in your community.      

FRESH CONNECTIONS 3.0

The FRESH CONNECTIONS 3 Film Program was an online workshop that brought together people from across BC, to produce short video poems that explore their relationship to places of personal importance, within the context of Indigenous land histories, rights, and reconciliation.   

LOVE LETTERS TO CANADA

In late 2023, we ran a video poetry program with immigrant and refugee youth in Douglas College's Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada program.

In this in-person program, new Canadians and program staff gathered with Reel Youth facilitators, where they were introduced to principles of filmmaking, and created these short video poems about issues they were passionate about as well as experiences as newcomers and in the LINC Engage program.

Cortes Island Academy

In January 2024, Reel Youth facilitated a documentary film program with students in grades 9-12 at the Cortes Island Academy. The new filmmakers learned to produce mini-documentaries profiling beloved local community adults.

They learned skills in interviewing, cinematography, editing and production to capture the histories and wisdom of renown gardener Nori Fletcher, environmental advocate Christine Robinson, artist Elizabeth Anderson, and former Klahoose Chiefs, Duane Hansen and Jessie Louie. The program aimed to capture important stories for future generations and strengthen connections between youth and seniors on the island.

By facilitating intergenerational knowledge-sharing through film, students gained practical skills while honouring the contributions of those who came before them in building the unique community of Cortes Island.

To learn more about the Cortes Island Academy click here.

TERRACE BC YOUTH & ELDERS FILMS

These films were a part of Volunteer Terrace's new Restorative Justice Program a Youth and Elders film program!

In this program, youth participants fostered their creativity, self-expression, and leadership skills by learning filmmaking skills and forming intergenerational relationships to make short documentaries about the lives and experiences of local elders.

FORT LIARD NT ELDERS & SCARY MOVIE PROGRAM

Over the course of two weeks, local youth immersed themselves in the art of horror filmmaking, crafting spine-tingling stories that are sure to captivate audiences. Participants collaborated closely, honing their skills in writing, directing, and editing to bring their frightening visions to life.

Focused TV

These music videos were created in Focused TV, a brand new Reel Youth program. In this program, youth participants fostered their creativity, self-expression, and leadership skills by learning filmmaking skills -- planning, shooting, and editing meaningful music videos.

The FocusedTV music video program, was made in partnership with Telus STORYHIVE.

Dunster School House

In the summer of 2024, Reel Youth travelled to the Dunster School House in the Robson Valley of BC to teach the art of making shorts at filmmaking summer camp. The results were this nostalgic retrospective, a dark comedy, and a film about mountain biking in the valley. 

AKLAVIK, NT

YOUTH & MENTOR FILM PROGRAM

In spring 2024, Reel Youth and Western Arctic Youth Collective helped Aklavik students at Moose Kerr School create documentaries honoring local Elders, capturing stories of land, family, residential schools, and visions for community strength, resilience, and positive change.