In these divided times, what is the value of storytelling and conversation? Since 2014, the Youth Documentary Academy (YDA) has trained a new generation of underrepresented storytellers to locate and amplify their voices through the art of documentary film. Tuition free fellowships allow youth from diverse backgrounds to acquire skills that encourage courageous conversations, increase resilience, and amplify youth voices locally and nationally on public television.
Former Surgeons General have named teen mental health a public health crisis. Destigmatizing conversations around mental health, while humanizing the stories of marginalized youth, increases empathy and the likelihood young people will seek out resources. YDA films also create inter-generational conversations, allowing youth and the adults in their lives to talk openly about what matters to them, even when it’s hard.
We seek support to underwrite scholarships for youth to participate in our production program tuition-free. We also need your help to meet the demand of our outreach program – “Youth Media Matters” – to bring YDA films into area high schools and engage meaningful peer-to-peer conversations.
Graduates and current students of YDA will be attending the Sundance Film Festival in January 2027 in our new program, IMMERSIVE: a Youth Delegation to the Sundance Film Festival. Our team will be engaging with Sundance films and filmmakers as well as showing our own work in area high schools.
“YDA films explore key public policy issues that are in our national conversation. I applaud these young filmmakers for so courageously and intimately tackling social issues that matter to them and sharing with such a broad audience.” — Congresswoman Diana DeGette
Phone: (415) 786-1011