Press Release - Poetry Projection Project

For Immediate Release
March 18, 2011
Contact: Melissa Hung, 415.252.4655, melissa.hung@sfgov.org

POETRY PROJECTION PROJECT

New Film Festival from WritersCorps
Features Short Films Based on Youth Poems

SAN FRANCISCO, March 18, 2011 ― WritersCorps, the award-winning youth writing program, announces a new film event, the Poetry Projection Project. The festival will include three free screenings: a world premiere on April 16 with a post-show reception at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA), and two screenings for schools at the San Francisco Public Library’s Koret Auditorium on April 19.

In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, WritersCorps called on professional and emerging filmmakers and video artists from the Bay Area and beyond to create short films based on poems by WritersCorps youth. The screenings will include a variety of genres — ranging from man-on-the-street documentaries to animated shorts — that cover a range of WritersCorps students’ thoughts and experiences.

Entries in the festival, which each run five minutes or under, are competing for two $150 cash prizes, which will be announced at the April 16 screening. San Francisco-based filmmaker Peter Bratt, the director of La Mission, is serving as the guest juror and will be in attendance on April 16 to present the prizes.

“As both a writer and filmmaker who grew up in San Francisco, I’m glad to support WritersCorps in putting on the Poetry Projection Project,” says Peter Bratt. “I think viewers will appreciate how images and writing come together in these films to reflect the experiences of San Francisco youth.”

San Francisco’s Director of Cultural Affairs, Luis R. Cancel, says, “The Poetry Projection Project is a powerful example of how WritersCorps makes creative connections with different kinds of artists to share the voices of our young people and bring people in our community together.”

The festival takes place during National Poetry Month, which was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996 and is now held every April. WritersCorps is partnering with a variety of arts and film organizations in the Bay Area to produce the Poetry Projection Project. Partners include BayKids, Center for Asian American Media, Contemporary Jewish Museum, East Bay Asian Youth Center, San Francisco Film Society, San Francisco Public Library, and TILT (Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools).

Calendar Listing
Poetry Projection Project: A WritersCorps Film Event
Lights, camera, poetry! In celebration of National Poetry Month, WritersCorps presents the Poetry Projection Project, a festival of short films based on youth writing. Entries were juried by filmmaker Peter Bratt, who will be in attendance.

April 16, 2 p.m.
Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA)
2868 Mission Street (between 24th and 25th streets)
Free
Reception featuring food from Mission Pie to follow.

April 19, 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin Street (at Grove Street)
Free
This screening is open to school field trips and the public.

About WritersCorps
WritersCorps, a joint project of the San Francisco Arts Commission and San Francisco Public Library, places professional writers in community settings to teach creative writing to youth. Since its inception in 1994, the program has helped more than 16,000 youth improve their literacy and increase their desire to learn. WritersCorps publishes award-winning publications and produces local and national events featuring young people.

WritersCorps is a recipient of a 2010 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award from First Lady Michelle Obama and the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

About the San Francisco Arts Commission
The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is the City agency that champions the arts in San Francisco. We believe that a creative cultural environment is essential to the City’s well-being. Established by charter in 1932, SFAC programs integrate the arts into all aspects of City life. Programs include: Civic Art Collection, Civic Design Review, Community Arts & Education, Cultural Equity Grants, Public Art, SFAC Gallery, Street Artists Licensing, and the San Francisco Symphony Youth and Family Concert Series. The agency’s core values are committed to the principle that all residents have equal access to arts experiences in all disciplines, that programs are provided comprehensively and evenly throughout the City, and that they are innovative and of the highest quality.

About Peter Bratt
Peter Bratt’s first film, Follow Me Home, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in official competition in 1996. His 2009 film, La Mission, was filmed in San Francisco and is the first film from 5 Stick Films Inc., a company that Bratt created with his brother, actor Benjamin Bratt. La Mission is now one of the Top 25 Indie Films of 2010 and was recently released on DVD by Screen Media Ventures. La Mission premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and most recently earned Bratt two prestigious awards: 2010 Estela Award/National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP); 2010 Norman Lear Writers Award/2010 IMAGEN Awards. Bratt currently resides in San Francisco, the city in which he was born and raised, along with his wife and two children.