Life Camera Action! (LCA)
ENJOY THE STUDENT DOCUMENTARY FROM OUR SUMMER 2023 FILM FESTIVAL BELOW
Life-Skills & Leadership Development
Life. Camera. Action! (LCA) is a leadership and life-skills development program that uses digital video and the art of storytelling to teach LA youth (ages 12 to 17) to become successful productive citizens. Established in 2011, Life-Camera-Action operates in the Boyle Heights community of East Los Angles. Partnering with local middle and high schools, LCA is an innovative program that provides students, ages 12-17, opportunities to use technology and digital media to explore issues relative to them and their community. As they create media projects, students learn and enhance their life skills through critical-thinking and literacy skills; experience new methods of learning and doing research; improve their competence in a wide range of academic subjects; develop leadership skills; and improve their personal development and scholastic achievement.
Watch this video to learn more about Life Camera Action!
The Art of Storytelling
Docs for Change
“Have you ever been affected by the death of someone you didn’t know?” That was the powerful opening line to a pitch that led to the 2022 Fall LCA cohort’s Documentary project. Life Camera Action! is Hollenbeck PAL’s 12-week Leadership and Media Skills program that consists of two projects: the documentary, where students work together to highlight stories in our community, and the individual film that teaches students to tell their own stories creatively. For the documentary, our students from ages 12 to 17 were taught about elevator pitches and then asked to come up with their pitch for a documentary topic and voted as a class. In the fall of 2022, the story chosen was the real-life experience of 12-year-old student Carmen Nunez, who was mere feet away from the scene of a tragedy that rocked the community.
Partnerships
Life Camera Action! (LCA) cultivated deep and impactful partnerships with two local High Schools in 2022: Felicitas & Gonzalo Mendez High School & Oscar de la Hoya Animo Charter High School. In response to changes seen in the community following the COVID-19 Stay Home Order, LCA adapted its afterschool program in order to be able to reach more students in their own classrooms.
In collaboration with Film Appreciation classes at both schools, LCA reached over 120 students providing them with lessons on leadership, camera, and editing skills. The partnership has been so successful that it has extended into 2023 with LCA providing the full 12-week curriculum at both schools to double our attendance in the new year.
New Mac Computers Increase Leadership Enrollment by 60%
What a big impact a few dollars can make! Because of the great outpouring of support that HPAL received on its #GivingTuesday fundraising campaign, we were able to purchase 6 brand new Mac computers for our Life Camera Action (LCA) media lab. LCA Media Director Ignacio Oliveros reported that the new computers helped enrollment, this last semester, increase by 60%, or from 20 students per semester to 32 students per semester!
Every student enrolled in the LCA is assigned a Mac computer, as well as a small video camcorder, as tools to complete their personal video project. Additionally, every computer is equipped with Final Cut Pro X, an industry-grade editing software that opens the door to students’ entry into the career of video editing.
In LCA, students are encouraged to create a video story that encapsulates a passion or a concern that they have in their life. Class instructors challenge the youth to identify what their dreams and fears are, and by doing that, according to LCA Program Co-Director and Police Officer Donald Levier, “Students learn a lot about themselves.”
More Info
To sign up or to get more information please contact our Media Instructor, Julissa Romero at:
(323) 526-9323
julissa@lapdpal.org
To sign up or to get more information please contact our Media Instructor, Julissa Romero at:
(323) 526-9323
julissa@lapdpal.org