Mission & History

MISSION

 

Brooklyn Young Filmmakers mission is to use low budget filmmaking as a vehicle to promote: literacy; social skills; research techniques; professional work ethics; intergenerational reciprocity; cultural exchange; multi-tiered mentoring; creative collaborations between community members and professional artists from all crafts; and an introduction to careers in film.

 

 

 

BYFC’s Community Filmmaking Project gives both adults and teens: an introduction to film studies; hands on contact with filmmaking’s many stages and careers; and an opportunity to network with both emerging independent filmmakers and industry professionals. Through our creative collaborations on film projects with emerging filmmakers, who head the camera and lighting departments, we are also helping them learn how to tell more compelling cinematic stories; creatively and cheaply raise production values; giving them an opportunity to add narrative film projects to their reels; and providing them with a new source of vetted production assistants for their own projects.

 

 

 

BYFC is a neighborhood project with a special focus on low-income residents from Fort Greene and the larger Brooklyn area. We are committed to low-no-budget filmmaking values: collaboration with local community groups to tap into their participants and locations; calling upon the kindness of strangers through outreach to local residents, artists, and businesses for non-cash needs; and generating income from individuals through educational forums and sells of educational materials.

 

HISTORY

 

In 1999, Trayce Gardner, a budding filmmaker whose first career had been in community work and counseling in California, was invited to speak to Brooklyn Tech High School media students. Trayce took on Tech interns for 2 years, exposing them to independent filmmaking. The concept for the Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Center (BYFC) was born. In 2000, under the non-profit fiscal sponsorship of Project Teen Aid, BYFC started offering programming, obtaining its own non-profit 501(c)(3) status in 2003.

 

 

In 2000 BYFC offered its 1st Scriptwriting Class and started an annual Spring Film Salon Series hosted by Long Island University’s Brooklyn campus. The Salon Series began as themed screenings with high school, college, and indie filmmakers. In 2006 the Salons turned into forums focused on film trades with union and indie presenters. In 2006 BYFC also created the GETTING STARTED IN FILM class and was invited to offer its classes through New York City College of Technology’s Continuing Education. In 2007 BYFC produced the INSIDE MAN Conference at LIU, which included a screening of the Spike Lee film followed by workshops on different film crafts (i.e. editing, wardrobe, sets, props, etc) and including some of the professionals who had worked on the film.

 

 

At the end of 2007 two former teen students asked Brooklyn Young Filmmakers to produce their undergrad senior thesis film, BACK STREETS. BYFC recruited students from its classes as production assistants, and secured numerous in-kind donations and professional consultants for the film. Successfully producing BACK STREETS led Brooklyn Young Filmmakers to begin producing its own films from BYFC student scripts. BYFC created a third class for actually producing a short film, and began offering the MAKE A FILM Class Series, which is offered twice a year, in the Spring/Summer and the Fall/Winter.

 

 

As of Spring 2011, Brooklyn Young Filmmakers has produced seven short narrative films, with small cash budgets and in-kinds totaling in the tens of thousands. BYFC films address: problems of aging; sibling rivalry; teen depression; artistic blocks; estranged fathers & sons; lying couples; and sexual abuse. In 2010 Brooklyn Young Filmmakers packaged POINTING FINGERS as its first Teaching Story DVD with a Discussion Guide. In 2011 BYFC replaced its old website with a new word press site in order to offer online teaching and discussions.