In 2008, the Chain of Change project organized over 25 groups of youth activists across the state of Illinois to individually and collectively strategize how to end violence against women and girls. Giving these groups access to flip video cameras, Beyondmedia challenged the groups to think about their own roles in this struggle and to create short video segments to be uploaded to this website.
The website subsequently serves as a platform to facilitate discussion around the topics and issues the videos address and serves to strengthen the bonds between the participants and to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, in all its complexity.
Now in its third year, the Chain of Change project is being led by a youth leadership committee which will determine the next step and direction of the project in 2010.
Visit Website
Beyondmedia is introducing a powerful collaboration with the Dreamcatcher Foundation, an organization founded by two formerly incarcerated women who have spent much of their lives involved in the sex trade, Stephanie Daniels-Wilson and Brenda Myers-Powell. Dreamcatcher works with girls, aged 12-18, who live in Chicago's Englewood community who are at high risk for incarceration and sexual exploitation.
Using the creative process to generate a safe space for reflection, participants are creating a video in their own voices and of their own determination. The girls will take on the impressive task of using this video to organize other girls and young women to generate community dialogue and actively engage others around issues that young women in this neighborhood face every day.
The Empowered Fe Fes, a peer group of young women aged 16 to 24 with different disabilities, strike again with their second video production, an insightful investigation into the truths about sex and disability. In the video, the Fe Fes educate themselves about sex from many angles by talking with activists and scholars. The viewer tags along on a date between a woman with a disability and her able-bodied boyfriend, exploring relationship issues of dating with a disability over a candle-lit dinner.
AWARDS
Best Documentary, Central Illinois Feminist Film Festival
Best Documentary (Short), San Francisco Women's Film Festival
Purchase Now
“Why They Gotta Do Me Like That? The Empowered Fe Fes Take On Bullying” was produced in a workshop with the junior group of the Empowered Fe Fes. In this film, 13 young women with disabilities explore school-based bullying by interviewing people on why bullying happens and how they respond, then acting out common experiences with new solutions. The Empowered Fe Fes demand viewers to consider bullying as a serious issue of discrimination, letting us know that we can work together to both understand the stop the problem.
Purchase Now
The Empowered Fe Fes (slang for female), a group of young women with disabilities, hit the streets of Chicago on a quest to discover the difference between how they see themselves and how others see them. Their revelations are humorous, thought provoking and surprising. As the young women grapple with issues as diverse as access, education, employment, sexuality and growing up with disabilities, they address their audience with a sense of urgency, as if to say, "I need to tell you so you'll see me differently."
Purchase Now
Beyondmedia's Girl World Media Workshop was a year-long after-school program with Alternatives that began in 2001. Alternatives provides innovative leadership and advocacy opportunities to lower-income girls and young women on the north side of Chicago. Beyondmedia collaborated with 19 girls, aged 14-17, in the Girl World Teen Group to produce a video, “Girls’ Theory, Me-search Research”.
In their own voices, the girls cover topics such as violence, stereotypes of women, sex, relationships, reputation, and the future. The young women critically examined representations of teenagers and women of color in mainstream media and took to the streets to interview the public about the subject. As a result, their smart, hip video merges personal discussions about the daily struggle to be a righteous sister with the mixed blessings of the world at large.
Purchase Now
Beyondmedia partnered with the Young Women's Action Team to produce “Real Talk," a film that features the voices of men in their community. In the film, the girls ask young and adult men what a male ally looks like and how they can build the movement to stop violence against women and girls. Using poetry, dance and interviews, this video speaks to youth who want to confront violence in their community.
Purchase Now
“Respect Me, Don’t Media Me” was produced in a workshop with Sisters Empowering Sisters, a program of the Girls Best Friend Foundation. The film examines the portrayal of young women in music videos and other media. It also asks the questions: “What do these kinds of portrayals mean for young women?”, “How do they affect our lives, our decisions and our relationships?” and “What can we do to change them?”
Purchase Now
This multi-media oral history project was produced with the high school-aged, low-income, African American and Caribbean members of Family Matters' Sisters of Struggle, using video, audio, and digital still photography to document the disappearing voices of their community in the rapidly gentrifying Rogers Park. Workshop members have since facilitated screenings for the community at Gale Elementary Community Academy and the Rogers Park Windows Alive public art exhibition.
This 8-session weekly workshop began in August 2007, teaching media skills and literacy in a group of 20 young women incarcerated at Chicago's Juvenile Detention Center. These 16 and 17 year-old youth "act out" for a variety of reasons, including familial neglect, physical or sexual abuse, and lack of other opportunities. The workshop series helped young women in detention to "speak out" about these same issues as they explored new ways to respond to their environment and take action in their lives. The project included critical discussions of media, including television and print news reports of young women in juvenile detention, "reality" television, and popular radio.
Between March and August of 2007, Beyondmedia facilitated a six-month video workshop for young women between the ages of 16 and 18 at the Muslim Women Resource Center, designed to train them in video production to produce a short video on Muslim immigrant youth identity. This video project titled “The Faces of Islam," explores societal attitudes towards young Muslim women and how these attitudes compare and contrast to these young women's perceptions of themselves.
Beyondmedia Education collaborated with Horizons Community Services' Youth Program on a year-long media workshop, beginning in April 2001. Horizons is the midwest's largest social service and advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and HIV/AIDS affected communities. Horizons aimed to expand their limited programming for girls and young women by offering a young women's after-school media workshop, facilitated in partnership with Beyondmedia Education. A goal of the workshop was to create a safe and affirming space in which young LBTQ women who are demographically diverse can come together, build a community and work on a common project. The workshop also trained peer educators to maintain the project after the workshop was completed. After analyzing the role of alternative media and discussing what challenges and resources are relevant for young lbt women, the workshop members produced a zine titled Broad and a video, Not For Girls Only: The young women's drop in program. The video addressed the harassment of queer youth in high schools and featured interviews and solo poetry performances by the participants while the zine had health information, art, and essays.
Beyondmedia's second collaboration with Brown Eyed Girl, a new Chicago agency serving girls in foster care which features a facilitated five-month-long video workshop from September 2007 to March 2008. Girls will explore autobiography, identity, and their experiences in foster care, resulting in the creation of a short documentary video. This project builds on a former facilitated workshop in the Spring of 2006, in which girls created an exhibit of documentary photography with an audio installation.