“Youth On The Edge”
Chronicles: High Risk Youth (Prevention – Intervention – Outreach)
Film Series Produced By David Gilbert
Distributed Nationally
This series was shot entirely by high-risk youth.
These films are insightful windows into their worlds, life struggles, and the hardships they face. The programs capture their courage to overcome the challenges and difficulties they face living on the edge of todays society.
This ongoing series is the compilation of 12 years of work. Over this period of time I worked intimately with a small groups of high-risk youth ages 13 to 18 at a community day high school for high-risk youth.
The creation of these programs offered them a way to create stories that not only documented what they were living through, but also provide a creative process in which they could rewrite the narrative of their live path – in hopes of creating a better future for themselves.
To date many of the young people involved the school went on to lead productive lives. Some of the young people in these programs lost their lives to gang violence or drug addiction. This series is dedicated to the youth involved in this program that are no longer alive, are now serving prison terms for their actions, or were unable to turn around the cycle of drug abuse and addiction.
“The U.S. still has the highest rate of youth incarceration in the industrialized world, and the vast majority (3 in 4) of the country’s incarcerated youth are held for non-violent offenses. The juvenile corrections facilities are enormously costly to operate, they often put youth at risk for injury and abuse, and are largely ineffective in reducing recidivism. California has more incarcerated youth (11,532 total or 271 per 100,000 youth) than any other state in the nation.”
Children Now 2/2013 A National, state, and local research, policy and advocacy to improve the lives of kids
My Crazy Life – Youth on the Edge
Four Part Series:
What Youth Face Today
“My Crazy Life Drugs and Alcohol”
“My Crazy Life Crystal Meth”
“My Crazy Life Gangs and Violence”
“A Message to our parents”
What Youth Face Today
This production consists of a series of interviews with, drug prevention professionals, counselors, community organizers and the director of California’s Drug and Alcohol Program. These individuals explore the issues that today’s youth face such as: the presence of drugs in their community, patterns of addiction for youth, denial by parents that their kids have drug issues, strategies for parents, and how to intervene and help today’s youth.
Straight Talk
“Kids to Police – Police to Kids
Straight Talk is an honest and poignant dialogue between Police officers and high-risk Latino youth (young men & women). The youth were able to ask the police candid and poignant questions about the law in regards to: gangs, drugs, youth incarceration, youth violence, sex, date rape … The police also asked the youth candid questions about their lives and the choices they were making. All chapters include an interactive dialogue that captures the youth perspective and the police perspective. The faces of the youth are blurred to protect their identity. This film offers a rare interface between “street” values and life style of these youth, and the implications of this with the law enforcement officers in their community.
