YRM Photo
Youth Rights Media participants view film footage
As New Haven residents and public officials grapple with a rash of gun violence that saw seven shootings take place in a 48-hour period, several of the city’s youth are set to premiere a documentary film on the subject.
Youth Rights Media, a New Haven-based nonprofit organization that, according to language on its website, “builds youth power and leadership by engaging young people in video media production and community organizing,” will premiere its most recent film, Locked ‘N Loaded, at the Yale University Art Gallery this Sunday at 1 p.m.
“The youth-produced film,” according to a press release issued last month by Youth Rights Media, “explores the root causes of gun violence and its devastating effects upon individuals and communities, questioning whether such governmental policies as the War on Drugs help resolve or escalate the problem.”
Youth Rights Media Executive Director Janis Astor del Valle said Locked ‘N Loaded grew out of a public-service announcement that youth in her program wrote and directed over the winter — a project that ended up being more short, narrative film than public-service announcement. No sooner had those youth found a springboard for their documentary than one of the young women in the program lost her boyfriend to gun violence.
“Unfortunately,” Astor del Valle said, “many of our youth, if not all of them, have known someone who’s been shot … many of them have known someone who’s died from those injuries.”
Talking about recent news reports about gun violence in New Haven and throughout the state, Astor del Valle said, “It’s just horrific. … This is a problem that we’ve got to pay attention to.”
In an e‑mail, Astor del Valle said that the youth in her program “have been attending many community meetings and events hosted by such leaders as Barbara Fair, Frontline [Souljaz], and the [New Haven] People’s Center — this has increased their knowledge of the underlying issues … [the] sociopolitical factors contributing to gun violence, and inspired their work on the film. They also had an intense interview with Cliff Thornton.”
Sunday’s screening of Locked ‘N Loaded in the Yale University Art Gallery’s Lecture Hall is free and open to the public.