Meet the Mentors & Mentees - Fall 2009

Forever Young

Character & Identity

Remember those childhood days when life was care-free? Yanil Santana writes a letter to childhood, telling it not to leave her because she is not ready for adulthood. 

TRT: 5:01

Mentor: Nicole Opper

 

1 2 3…10

Learn more about filmmaker Yanil Santana

On the Terrace of a Thousand Suns

Character & Identity

A visual poem that illuminates a young girl's fragile inner life through a repeated, metamorphic action.

TRT: 9:28

Mentor: Tony Gerber

 

1 2 3 4…10

Learn more about filmmaker Luca Balser

A Euphoric Relationship

Sex, Relationships & Self Image

Filmmaker Ileen Gutgarts revisits her first love to ask the ultimate question. She discovers that love is not black and white and that sometimes the answers don't stop the hurt.

TRT: 8:04

Mentor: Marlo Poras

 

1 2 3 4 5…10

Learn more about filmmaker Ileen Gutgarts

New Youth

Drugs

A filmmaker documents a culture of partying and excess among privileged NYC teens - where easy access to drugs and alcohol can be a trap from which not everyone escapes.

TRT: 9:01

Mentor: Kristen Johnson

 

1…3 4 5 6…10

Learn more about filmmaker Yasha Gruben

A Look Through My Eyes

Family, Divorce & Loss

Shalaun and her siblings have been in foster care for most of their lives. Now 16, she tries to make sense of the events that tore her family apart and faces the difficult question of whether to let her father back into her life.

TRT: 9:08

Mentor: Jennifer Dworkin

 

1…4 5 6 7…10

Learn more about filmmaker Shalaun D. Nelson

Survivor of Twins

Character & Identity

Cassandra's elementary school was in the shadow of the twin towers on 9-11. She and her family recount the horror of that day and their desperate search for each other - a trauma that has never quite left them.

TRT: 8:04

Mentor: Tia Lessin 

 

1…5 6 7 8…10

Learn more about filmmaker Cassandra Lu

Schmeducation

Character & Identity

A student skeptical of the education he has undertaken, filmmaker Max Bayarsky interviews subjects that may be able to enlighten him with reasons as to why school is important. 

TRT: 9:28

Mentor: Carl Deal

 

1…6 7 8 9 10

Learn more about filmmaker Max Bayarsky

The True Story of the Birds and the Bees

Sex, Relationships & Self Image

Boys are clueless, and most girls still don't get it. But do not fear! For this films can save your depressing relationship. Watch and discover where the most sickening of opposite-sex misunderstandings are spawned, in the Teenage Mind.

TRT: 7:09

Mentor: Louis Alvarez

 

1…7 8 9 10

Learn more about filmmaker Asfa Caleb

The Color of Love

Race

Do we still see race before anything else? A young woman explores the concept of miscegenation and if people still consider it a crime in this modern time.

TRT: 8:12

Mentor: Yoruba Richen 

 

1…8 9 10

Learn more about filmmaker Zakiyyah Bowles

Bed-Stuy: Do or Buy?

Character & Identity

An exploration of gentrification in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and what this future holds for this vibrant African-American community.

TRT: 9:22

Mentor: Laura Poitras 

 

1…9 10

Learn more about filmmaker Negesti Cantave