MY PLACE | MY STORY – CAFILM Education

NOW AVAILABLE AS AN ONLINE SELF-GUIDED COURSE!

MY PLACE | MY STORY (MPMS) was designed as a five-day intensive workshop where students ages 14–18 create personal short films while learning digital storytelling and basic filmmaking skills. Supervised and supported by professional media makers, students write and record personal video narratives about their own lives and experiences and the things they are most inspired by or care about. The finished films are presented in a premiere screening one month after the workshop for an audience of family, friends and supporters, along with a Q&A with the student filmmakers. The program is FREE and includes all the necessary media tools and training. All workshops are offered during school breaks to allow for full student participation.

The in-person My Place | My Story program is designed to serve students who lack easy access to filmmaking instruction and/or resources and who are rarely given opportunities for their voices to be heard or their stories to be told. Students of color and LGBTA+ or gender non-conforming youth are strongly encouraged to apply.

Our in-person MPMS programs for 2024 are currently on hiatus, but we are excited to offer a new self-paced course that any student can take individually, or educators can utilize as a guided curriculum to teach the foundations of filmmaking and the process of creating a personal essay film. This FREE open-source program is available now on our CAFILM Education Online platform.

Enroll in the online MPMS course

FREE COMMUNITY SCREENING

SCREENING + CONVERSATION | PRESENTED BY YOUTH IN ARTS + CAFILM EDUCATION

Join us for an evening of community, creativity and youth empowerment…

CAFILM Education and Youth in Arts partnered for the second time to support youth filmmakers in producing, filming and editing a short documentary film about the creation of community murals in San Rafael. Completed within a year, youth filmmaker and director, Mia Huang captured the community and youth-led project of a mural at Laurel Dell Elementary School and created a beautiful document of what it means to belong within your community.

WALL OF VOICES is a documentary film about creativity and youth empowerment in Laurel Dell Elementary’s new community mural.
WATCH TRAILER

JOINING US IN PERSON is director Mia Huang for a post-screening Q&A

This film was produced by Youth in Arts / California Film Institute April 2025
Critical Production Support from Community Media Center of Marin

THURSDAY, MAY 29 • 7:00 – 8:00
Smith Rafael Film Center
1118 4th Street • San Rafael

This program is free, but tickets are required.

GET TICKETS

Youth in Arts builds visual and performing arts skills through innovative and in-depth programs that foster confidence, compassion and resilience in students of all abilities. We develop capacity among educators and teaching artists, advocate for equitable access to arts education and offer opportunities for youth to share their creative voices.

For questions, email education@cafilm.org