Programs like Cambridge Community Television’s (CCTV) Summer Media Institute are few and far between in an increasingly challenging job market for young people. The paid summer art program for teenagers is now in its 36th year, and will graduate 27 middle and high schoolers at the end of this summer with proficiencies in professional media equipment and technique.
The students’ work over the past six weeks culminates into a screening of their final projects, short films on topics of their choosing, which will be hosted at MIT’s Welcome Center on Thursday August 13 from 6 to 8 p.m.
The short films are the final task of what was a packed summer for these students, where they learned skills across the realm of media and filmmaking, from storyboarding to cinematography to video editing on Adobe Premiere Pro, a professional editing software.
Lulu Tian, youth media advocate at the Summer Media Institute, said students, who are mostly low-income or come from disadvantaged backgrounds, receive professional-level instruction, then get to apply their lessons directly.
Change comes when “you put skills and knowledge in the hands of students who are ready to receive them and might not have had them otherwise,” Tian said.
Shelley Wolfe, CCTV’s Executive Director, said while the kids receive “digital and media literacy skill sets” necessary in a changing economy, the program goes beyond media instruction. “It’s not just about coming and learning media. It’s about helping youth find their voices and really allowing them the skill sets to tell stories that really matter to them,” Wolfe said.
Students also get to learn soft skills, like recording hours in a time sheet and staying accountable for their professional responsibilities. This may help them in a changing job market that has younger people feeling pessimistic about job prospects.
At the Summer Media Institute, students sit at the center of the programming at CCTV and are given real responsibilities.
Even planning for the screening event was guided by the students, Tian said. In addition to screenings of final projects, the night will feature other films from the summer, a red carpet walk, and a question-and-answer session with the students.
“It amazes me that this program exists,” said Skye Jones Bergerson, one of several teaching artists who instruct and guide students on media topics. He said most students took inspiration for their final projects from real-world films. He said he showed students the original “Backrooms” film, a surreal thriller, “and now almost all their ideas are horror films.”
One student who seemed to take inspiration from Bergerson’s lecture is Sarai Bruton, a rising sophomore transferring from Prospect Hill Academy to Cambridge Rindge and Latin School next year. Bruton is collaborating with three other students on her final project.
“I connected with some other CCTV members, and we put all of our ideas together, and we created this surreal, uncanny liminal space” film, Bruton said.
Bruton said one of the most important lessons of the summer was learning how to use a high-tech camera, something she didn’t have the opportunity to do at her old school. (CCTV provides cameras, laptops, and other media equipment for students.)
Girum Gebresilassie, a rising freshman at Prospect Hill Academy, is working on a murder mystery story with four other students for his final project, and said his favorite part has been learning to collaborate. “We’re actually learning about people’s different personalities, how they are, what role they’re good at,” Gebresilassie said.
The collaborative projects give students the opportunity to work in different media roles, like acting, directing, and cinematography. “I feel really happy actually seeing all types of personalities get the chance to experience leadership,” Tian said.
Odessa Wacherski, who chose to go solo for her final project, is another student inspired by the horror genre. She’s making a short comedy-horror film starring her younger brother.
Wacherski said the summer has allowed her to prioritize her artwork.
“In school, it’s always, ‘I’ve got to do this photography thing after I finish my geometry homework,’” Wacherski said, while the Summer Media Institute is about “learning through fun experiences and with all these amazing people.”
Another student working solo on his final film is Adrian Miller, who is inspired by YouTube video essays that do deep dives into topics. His project explores “incomprehensible ideas,” like missing spots in memory and colors that only certain animals can perceive.
Miller, a rising junior at the Cambridge School of Weston, said he’s considering studying media in the future, and Wacherski said filmmaking is something she wants to continue doing. Bruton said that although she has loved the summer program, she thinks she’ll stick with her goal of becoming an emergency room doctor.
Regardless of whether the students pursue media in their future, most agreed that the program has given them the opportunity to learn new things and meet new people.
“I’m getting more and more connected to the people around me in my group. Just combining all of our creativity and ideas together, it’s like we’re sharing a bond,” Bruton said.
In addition to Thursday’s screening, CCTV will host a youth art show, curated and planned by a youth council, on August 17 from 5 to 7 p.m. at its studio at 438 Massachusetts Ave in Cambridge.
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