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Free Outdoor Screening at the Everson Museum on Sept. 16!
A Community Filmmaking Collaboration
ABOUT OUR WORK
ABOUT OUR WORK
Teens with a Movie Camera is a community filmmaking collaboration that brings teens from across the City of Syracuse together with local media artists, including film professors and Syracuse University students. In the process, a new web of connections is woven among neighbors, neighborhoods, and communities.
CREATING
CREATING
Using smartphones and other tools already within reach—such as old projectors, paper cutouts, and props found in attics or on the curb—we approach cinema as a personal, playful, and imaginative medium accessible to all.
Our workshops offer youth the freedom to experiment creatively and express themselves through moving images. We work together to create a safe space in which young participants move from passive media consumers to active media makers, via hands-on explorations of light, shadow, sound, and animation.
SHARING
TwMC's adult organizers & collaborators shape and edit the material from our workshops into group reels, often including glimpses of the cohort's process along the way. Through co-creation, small moments and individual perspectives weave into a collective way of seeing.
Films made through TwMC are projected, screened, and exhibited publicly, offering an empowering recognition of teen voices and visions within our own communities. Our work is rooted in Syracuse but resonates beyond where it was made.
TwMC in the PRESS
TwMC in the PRESS
University Program Receives National Endowment for the Arts Grant
SU Today // June 4, 2026
Syracuse teen film program showcases work at ArtRage Gallery
Syracuse.com // Feb. 19, 2026
Visions of Hope invites visitors to become artists
The Daily Orange // Feb. 17, 2026
Lights, Camera, Imagination! Faculty help turn teens' ideas into films
SU News // July 31, 2025
Teens with a Movie Camera puts "Community" on the big screen
SU Humanities Center // Feb. 3, 2025
For many grad students, community-engaged scholarship gives extra meaning to educational experience
SU News // April 15, 2024
SCREENINGS + RECOGNITIONS
SCREENINGS + RECOGNITIONS
Community Screenings & Events
Community Screenings & Events
2026
May 1: Engaged Humanities Community Showcase, Salt City Market
April 17: Reel Stories: A CFAC Film Festival at Community Folk Art Center
Feb. 7- March 21: VISIONS OF HOPE: Moving Images by Teens with a Movie Camera
Video Exhibition at ArtRage GalleryFeb. 15: Stories from Stories: Object-Based Storytelling with the Narratio Fellowship
Workshop at ArtRage GalleryFeb. 8: Storytelling for Change: Meet the Data Warriors
Workshop at ArtRage GalleryFeb. 7: "Our Place in Space: A Creative Voyage."
Premiere screening with the Syracuse Symposium at ArtRage Gallery
2025
Aug. 7: SOURCE Summer Showcase Presentation, Syracuse University
July 30: Our Place in Space: Interactive Video Installation, Shaffer Art Building
May 2: Engaged Humanities Community Showcase, Community Folk Art Center
April 29: Write Out in Chorus, Central New York Philanthropy Center
Feb. 2: Syracuse Symposium: Visions of Community, Watson Auditorium, Light Work
Jan. 9 - March 2: Humans & Nature: A Changing Relationship.
Group Exhibition at Museum of Contemporary Art in Connecticut.
2024
Dec. 6: SOURCE Fall Showcase Presentation, Syracuse University
Dec. 5: Gordon Parks Community Showcase at SU Art Museum
Oct. 5: TeenReel 2.0: Visions of Community at the Everson Museum
Oct. 4: Engaged Communities Cohort Presentation, Syracuse University
March 22: SOURCE Spring Showcase Presentation, Syracuse University
March 8: TeenReel 1.0: Everson Museum Outdoor Screening
March 3: TeenReel 1.0: Watson Auditorium Screening, Light Work
Film Festival Selections & Awards
Film Festival Selections & Awards
The Film-Makers' Cooperative: New Year, New Work 2026 (New York City)
Official Selection for Chickadee Overcomes GravityThomas Edison Film Festival (New Jersey)
Official Selection for Chickadee Overcomes Gravity
WINNER of an "Honorable Mention Award"BAMKIDS Children's Film Festival (Brooklyn, NY)
Official Selection for Chickadee Overcomes GravityProvidence Children's Festival (Providence, Rhode Island)
Official Selection for Chickadee Overcomes GravityExperiments in Cinema v21.5 (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Official Selection for Chickadee Overcomes GravityReel Stories: Community Folk Art Film Festival (New York)
Official Selections: Chickadee Overcomes Gravity + Our Place in SpaceSyraQs Micro Film Festival (New York)
Official Selection for Emerging Artists
WINNER of "Critic's Choice Award"Group Exhibition: Museum of Contemporary Art (Connecticut)
"Humans and Nature: A Changing Relationship"
Official Selection: Three Projector Performances
Work with what you have,
where you are.
Be smart, make art!
Teens with a Movie Camera:
Teens with a Movie Camera:
A Community Exhibition and
Interactive Gallery Experience
"Visions of Hope" invites gallery visitors to explore, discover, and play with moving images,
while celebrating short works of "Community Cinema" made by & with local youth.
MISSION / PURPOSE
MISSION / PURPOSE
As organizers of the program, part of our artistic practice & creative research lies in how to share the joy of experimental film / media art with younger generations, invite their participation, and engage with emerging frameworks of a collaborative, community-based mode of filmmaking.
We approach cinema as a personal, imaginative medium that should be accessible to all, rather than an industrial or commercial product. Media production tools are within our reach (i.e., the smartphones in our pockets). With genuine curiosity, an open mind, and a passion for exploration, anyone can go from being passive media consumers to active media creators!
Our goal for the project is for participants to see themselves as visual storytellers with their own agency, instilling a sense of confidence in their own voices and visions. We would like to celebrate and highlight the diverse perspectives and creative ideas of youth in our community.
“The most important part of your equipment is yourself: your mobile body, your imaginative mind, and your freedom to use both. Make sure you do use them.”
-Maya Deren, groundbreaking filmmaker and Ukranian refugee who lived as a teen in the city of Syracuse
If you're interested in learning more about TwMC events and opportunities,
please fill out the general interest form linked below:
For more info, please contact teenswithamoviecamera@gmail.com
Follow Us on Social Media:
Follow Us on Social Media:
VISIONS TOGETHER: Community Patchwork (Silent Loop)
Images by the TwMC Collective / Collage by Evan Bode
VISIONS TOGETHER: Community Patchwork (Silent Loop)
Images by the TwMC Collective / Collage by Evan Bode
What we realized, while working on this community-based project, is that a new web of connections between neighbors and neighborhoods in the City of Syracuse is being woven...
THANK YOU to our network of supporters:
THANK YOU to our network of supporters:
EHN: Engaged Humanities Network at Syracuse University
Nottingham High School
Bird Library Digital Scholarship Space
CNYCF: Central New York Community Foundation
Syracuse University Humanities Center's
2024-25 Symposium on "Community" + 2025-26 Symposium on "Creativity"
This project is made possible through the CNY Arts Grants for Regional Arts and Cultural Engagement regrant program thanks to a New York State Senate Initiative supported by the NYS Legislature, the Office of the Governor and administered by the New York State Council on the Arts.
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