PRESS RELEASE

Contact:
Debra Koffler, Executive Director, CYMC
phone: 415.250.5552 | email: cymc2000@yahoo.com
web: www.consciousyouthmediacrew.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Conscious Youth Media Crew in association with Mission Archives and Burning Wagon Productions with ColoredInk’s 
2 Generation, 1 Heartbeat Project presents:

A Brava Theater Film Premiere
Why I Ride: From Low to Show
April 19, 2007

Brava Theater
2781 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Parking at 23rd and San Bruno (SF General Hospital)
$5-15 sliding scale
For more information call 415-621.5353
www.cymc415.org


San Francisco, CA –On April 19, 2007, The Brava Theater will premiere an entirely youth-produced documentary, “Why I Ride: from Low to Show” comparing the history, activism and policing of lowriding in the Mission District with the emerging scraper car culture in East Oakland. The community will come together with an artist’s exhibit, performances by Colored Ink, a panel discussion featuring local Chicano activists and youth scrapers and a very special DJ set by Sandy Cuadra of Frisco’s Finest.

From lowriders to scrapers, Northern California’s car culture embodies independent artistic expression and grassroots community empowerment. “Why I Ride: From Low to Show” is a youth-driven documentary that juxtaposes the history of the Chicano lowrider movement in San Francisco’s Mission District with the emerging ‘side show’ scraper culture of black youth in Oakland. This fascinating film explores how heavily policed subcultures can be starting points for community activism and challenges present day subcultures to find ways to emerge as organizers.

In the summer of 2006, young producers from Conscious Youth Media Crew went into the neighborhood to speak with some of the folks from the lowrider scene in the early eighties. Their interviews soon revealed the similarities between lowriders and today’s youngsters partaking in Bay Area sideshows. In the days of “low and slow,” the youth got together to dance to oldies and cruise down Mission street. After anti-lowrider traffic laws, police aggression, and stereotypes changed the dynamics of the community, lawsuits were filed and the lowrider hangout spot known as “the lot” was turned into Raza Park, more bureaucratically known as “Potrero Del Sol.” Though local government saw it as a fair replacement for freedom in the streets, it was a more concentrated end to public cruising in the mission.

Oakland’s scrapers come together in a Sideshow, where young people enjoy their community through cars, music, dance and organizing. These events have heavily influenced youth culture in the Bay Area, though they face the same kind of attacks on their street culture as the lowriders. The resulting film “Why I Ride: from Low to Show” compares the struggle of young people of color to claim public space as their own, while promoting cultural pride and tradition.

With CYMC, Raymond Balberan, a long-time community media activist, established the Mission Archives to revive old film reels he shot with Mission MediArts back in the seventies and eighties. Mission archivists and local filmmakers, Veronica Majano and Ginger Godines miraculously came upon a collection of reels featuring the streets and people of the lowrider era whose very lives the youth were documenting. This original 16mm footage gave a valuable community perspective of the essence of the time period, the energy of the youth and families that cruised the Mission and their community struggle against racism to save their culture from being shut down by the police.

The screening will open with an exhibit featuring the local artists involved with the project and include performances by Colored Ink’s CI’s 2 Generation 1 Heartbeat Project and will be followed by a Panel Discussion, Why I Ride: From Lowriders to Scrapers, including speakers Ray Balberan, Valerie Tulier, Robert Hernandez, Elliott McGregor, moderated by Debra Koffler.

Schedule:
Opening: 6:30 – 7:30 PM
(Photo and Art Exhibit in Lobby , Frisco’s Finest Lowrider Display)
Program Begins: 7:30
Welcome and Introductions: 5 Mins 7:30 – 7:35
Colored Ink: 10 Minute Performance 7:35 – 7:45
Film Screenings: 7:45 – 8:40
Panel Discussion: 8:45 – 9:15
Why I Ride, From Lowriders to Scrapers
Closing Performance: 9:15 – 9:30

Calendar Editors:

Please list under Event/Film/Panel Discussion

Title: Why I Ride: From Low to Show

What: The premiere of an entirely youth-produced documentary film, “Why I Ride: from Low to Show” comparing the history, activism and policing of lowriding in the Mission District with the emerging scraper car culture in East Oakland.

When: April 19, 2007
Where: Brava Theatre
2781 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
Tickets:$5-15 Sliding Scale
Info/Res: 415-621-5353 or cymc2000@yahoo.com
Web: www.cymc415.org

Panelists:

Ray Balberan is the founder of the Mission Archives, a MissionMediArts documentarian, formerly on the board of directors of Real Alternative Program (RAP) and Board President of Conscious Youth Media Crew.

Valerie Tulier was a member of the Frisco Queens car club and is now working as a community representative in the senator’s office.

Roberto Hernandez is the founder of the San Francisco Lowrider’s association.

Elliot McGregor is a Conscious Youth Media Crew documentarian who assisted in the direction and editing of “Why I Ride: From Low to Show.” He is also featured as a scraper enthusiast in the film.

Debra Koffler is the founder and Executive Director of Conscious Youth Media Crew. She is the Executive Producer of “Why I Ride: From Low to Show” and will be the moderator of the evening’s discussion.

About:

Conscious Youth Media Crew
Conscious Youth Media Crew is a San Francisco-based youth-driven, digital media production studio. We provide the technology and training necessary for inner city youth to create quality media that represents their experiences, stimulates meaningful dialogue, and promotes social change. Conscious Youth Media Crew participants become life long learners who gain workforce skills to help shape a successful future for themselves and their communities.

Youth practice positive self-expression, leadership, informed decision-making, advocacy, and community involvement while using the latest digital video production technologies. CYMC supports youth in developing their voices and sharing their diverse perspectives and rarely heard stories with a wider audience of peers and community members.

Each year, we produce, screen and broadcast over 25 short films written, directed and edited entirely by youth. All CYMC produced media is shared on the web, radio, television, and at film festivals, schools and community events.

Mission Archives
Mission Archives are a group of local San Francisco filmmakers and community activists dedicated to preserving and sharing the original 16mm film archive library produced by Mission Media Arts. To date, Ma have created an inventory and catalogue for all films included in the archive by producer, year, and subject. MissionMediArts was a diverse group of young filmmakers during the seventies and early eighties who documented community history of San Francisco‘s Mission District during a period of cultural re-discovery and expression, political formation, and self-determination.

Colored Ink
Colored Ink (CI) is a SF Bay Area based theatre company that explores contempirary issues through Hip-hop, theatre, and spoken word. CI’s mission is to inspire urban communities for social change.

CI’s 2 Generation 1 Heartbeat Project is a multi-generational collaboration bringing together members of the Colored Ink with our elders in the Bay Area’s progressive and highly diverse arts scene, including SF’s legendary beat generation.

Burning Wagon Productions
Burning Wagon Productions is a film and media production company comprised of professional animators, artists, composers and university professors. As a media arts services group, Burning Wagon Productions creates animation, Internet art, scripts for feature length as well as short films, radio and television programming, musical scores, and fine art installation. Founded 2005 by John Jota Leaños, Assistant Professor of Art and Chicana/o at Arizona State University, and Sean Levon Nash, San Francisco-based interdisciplinary indigenous artist, Burning Wagon Productions is dedicated to the creation of alternative and independent artwork for historical, entertainment and educational purposes.

For a PDF version of this press release, please go to www.consciousyouthmediacrew.org/file_download/12

DOWNLOAD THE PDF VERSION OF THIS PRESS RELEASE HERE

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