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This Summer, July 2025, TwMC will explore
on a cinematic voyage to the moon and beyond:
APPLY HERE: I'm Interested!
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Teens with a Movie Camera is an artist collective and hands-on filmmaking collaboration between local media artists and teens in the city of Syracuse. Founded in 2024, the workshop focuses on community-building through personal visual storytelling, creating a supportive environment for self-expression through the arts, which culminates in the creation of original short films and their public presentation.
Participants explore the foundations of cinematic storytelling, animation, working with light and shadow, film editing, and creative sound design. We work with tools readily available, such as our smartphones.
Our ethos comes from the tradition of independent cinema and low-budget filmmaking, which requires creative problem-solving and an embrace of limitations.
Work with what you have,
where you are.
Be smart, make art!
MISSION / PURPOSE
MISSION / PURPOSE
As artists and filmmakers, we approach cinema and filmmaking as a personal, imaginative, and collaborative medium rather than an industrial or commercial product. Part of our practice as teaching artists is to pass along our passion for creative and experimental film and media art to younger generations.
Media production tools are within our reach (i.e., the smartphones in our pockets). With genuine curiosity, an open mind, and a passion for exploration, anyone can go from being passive media consumers to active media creators!
Our goal for the workshop is for participants to see themselves as visual storytellers with their own agency, sharing their own distinctive stories. We would like to celebrate and highlight the diverse visions and voices of youth in our community.
“The most important part of your equipment is yourself: your mobile body, your imaginative mind, and your freedom to use both. Make sure you do use them.”
-Maya Deren, an influential filmmaker who once lived as a refugee in the city of Syracuse
PAST EVENTS + RECOGNITIONS
PAST EVENTS + RECOGNITIONS
Community Screening Events
TeenReel 1.0: Watson Auditorium Screening (March 3, 2024)
TeenReel 1.0: Everson Museum Outdoor Screening (March 8, 2024)
SOURCE Spring Showcase Presentation (March 22, 2024)
Engaged Humanities Community Showcase Event (May 3, 2024)
Engaged Communities Cohort Presentation (Oct. 4, 2024)
TeenReel 2.0: Visions of Community at the Everson Museum (Oct. 5, 2024)
Gordon Parks Community Showcase at SU Art Museum (Dec. 5, 2024)
SOURCE Fall Showcase Presentation (Dec. 6, 2024)
Syracuse Symposium: Visions of Community, Watson Auditorium (Feb. 2, 2025)
Community Celebration at Northside Learning Center (April 4, 2025)
Engaged Humanities Community Showcase, Community Folk Art Center (May 2, 2025)
Film Festivals & Gallery Exhibitions
WINNER of "Critic's Choice Award" at SyraQs Micro Film Festival for "Teens Emerge in Downtown Syracuse" (Festival Screening on Everson Facade, Oct. 19, 2025)
"Humans & Nature: A Changing Relationship" Group Exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art Connecticut. Video works by TwMC participants Linnea Warren, Charles DeShields, and Selaci Butoto (January 9 - March 2, 2025)
Upcoming: "VISIONS OF HOPE: Moving Images by Teens with a Movie Camera" at ArtRage, the Norton Putter Gallery, Syracuse, NY (Feb. 7-March 21, 2026)
🚀 Stay Tuned for What's Next! 🪐
If you are interested in learning more about TwMC events and opportunities,
please fill out the general interest form linked below:
For more info, please contact Lida via [email protected] or (315) 420-7698.
Follow Us on Social Media:
What we realized, while working on this creative, community-based project, is that a new web of connections between “neighbors” and neighborhoods in the City of Syracuse is being created.
THANK YOU to our network of supporters:
Nottingham High School
Engaged Humanities Network
Bird Library Digital Scholarship Space
Syracuse Symposium 2024-2025
This project is made possible through the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the NYS Legislature, the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
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