The Official Screening (S. D. Media Arts Center) May 6,2011 6pm

7th Annual USC School of Social Work Film Festival

USC School of Social Work

Friday, May 6, 2011 : 2:00pm to 5:00pm; Saturday, May 7, 2011 : 2:00pm to 5:00pm

Multiple Locations
Media Arts Center San Diego and SGM 123

Free

The USC School of Social Work Film Festival showcases short documentary films created by social work students.

Attempting to engage the humanistic and prophetic imagination, the SOWK 687
elective class, Media in Social Work, empowers students to make a difference in their communities through the use of the short documentary, ultimately be shared with larger audiences for behavior and attitude modification regarding marginalized groups. Believing that the best films and videos are made in close collaboration with other creative members, students work in small groups to produce, direct and edit a short documentary on a wide variety of issues.

This year's festival will showcase films from the San Diego and Orange County academic centers (May 6, 6 pm to 9 pm, at Media Arts Center San Diego, 2921 El Cajon Blvd., San Diego, CA 92104) and University Park Campus students (May 7, 2 pm to 5 pm, at Sealy G. Mudd Room 123).
This year's documentary subjects include:

SDAC/OCC students:

1. The Long Goodbye - Alzheimer's Disease
    Blog: http://thelonggood-bye.blogspot.com
    Ashley Reitzin
    Theresa Meza

2. Healing the Healers - Secondary Trauma of Clinical Social Workers
    Blog: http://www.healing4healer.blogspot.com
    Kendrick Dial
    Natasha Schwarz

3. SocialWorks - Social Work Heroes Amongst Us
    Blog: http://socialworksdocumentary.wordpress.com
    Angela Benveniste
    Paolo Schenkelberg
    Suzanne Classen

4. A Mother's Grief - Returning Warriors with PTSD and related issues
    Blog: http://ptsdwarriors.blogspot.com
    Grace Womack
    Charlene Marquez
UPC students:

1. Latina Sheroes: Resiliency and Empowerment of Young Latina Women and the
Stories they Share Supporting Each Other to Thrive
    Blog:http://empoweredbutterfly.blogspot.com 
    Paola Beas
    Jennifer Cordero
    Cristina Sandoval

2. Wrongful Convictions of the Innocent - It's Prevalence and Reality in Our
U.S. Court System
    Blog:
    Elizabeth Currie
    Marcy Venegas
    Erin Fairchild

3. Waiting Forever: Emergency Room Overcrowding
    Blog: http://altruisticpics.blogspot.com
    Meggan Thompson
    Dorothy Lee
    Vanessa Aristo

4. Korean-American "Superkids" and the Parental Pressure of Educational
Success and the Struggle to Achieve
    Blog: http://koreanamericansuperkids.blogspot.com
    Cloe Kim
    Christian Francisco
    Saray Navarro

5. Water for Life: Clean Water as a Human Rights Issue
    Blog: http://Troubledwateruscdocumentary.blogspot.com
    Suzanne Cheatham
    Nikki Rowe
    Elizabeth Sarinana

6. Drink Water! The Pernicious Stigmatization of Mental Illness in the Armed
Services
    Blog: http://Drinkwaterthedocumentary.blogspot.com
    Cassandra Rush
    Maxine Pulliam
    Fermin Servin

7. Not All Spouses Are Created Equal - Male Spouses of Female Soldiers and
Their Lack of Appropriate Resources in the U.S. Military
    Blog: http://theothersidedoc.blogspot.com
    Jason Imhoof
    Ashley Hunt
    Megan Pitsios

8. The Link Between Youth Sports and Juvenile Delinquency? - Explorations
Into the Correlation
    Blog: http://www.powerhousego.blogspot.com
    Enrique Sandoval
    Christie Reppart
    Aldo Benalcazar

Rafael Angulo

angulo@usc.edu

(213) 821-1397

The Preview (Work In Progress)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu-UVEqxDr8

THE FUNDRAISER/ the Healing Continues

Ok, Good people so now it's getting down to crunch time. We have officially set the stage and solidified our Preview/Fundraiser event. I was able to connect with the good folks, who put on the Neo Soul Tuesday’s down at the Onyx Room, and so we will do it their, kinda in conjunction with Neo Soul Tuesdays. We are really looking forward to it, kinda nervous about what the preview is actually going to be, but we’re hopeful. We ended up getting a lot of good footage, but we are still brainstorming on what the story is going to look like. I call Natasha yesterday morning, and talked about an idea for adding some “interviewed narration” to the film, and she was very quiet, probably thinking, “what the hell, is he trying to do.” Because my idea would require some filming and we are already under the gun time wise, but I believe it will definite make the film come together. What is that going to be, let’s just wait and see for now.

On another note, I’m feeling good, this brother been working out consistently with a trainer for the past 4 weeks. Last week I got an injury or what felt like an injury during my Tuesday workout, but thanks for the trainer, he able to show me some stretches and some things to do so I wouldn’t have to quit. Typically I would have spent a couple days or a week trying to stay off the injury so it could heal. Unfortunately that would have truly hindered my productivity. But since I was able to work through it, I was able to do today’s work out and I can see that my endurance has grown. YEAH!!!! It felt good.  It has really become a way of life. Plus getting use to drinking a gallon of water a day, it’s crazy I told, one the trainers, Anthony that it feels like I’m walking and drowning at the same time, with all that water, but I can definitely tell more now than before when I’m dehydrated. And that has been one of my biggest lessons, since I’ve been working out, and that is learning to listen to my body. When I told the trainer, Calvin, about the injury last week on Thursday we did mostly stretching, and rolling out my sides. I was kinda happy to know that I could still work through and it wasn’t seen as a weakness but more about the process, so when I went in today and low-key beasted the workout… It  felt reeeeaaaaallll ggoooooooooooood!!!!

THE Healing continues…

Healing...The Calling

Healing is not a job it's a calling ... I think I saw that on a bumper sticker somewhere, but it is true. Those of us in the mental health profession have the gift to promote growth and healing in those who have been unable to find solace. And because we spend our days opening our hearts and minds to those in greater need, we must remember to take time to heal ourselves from the weight we carry of a thousand stories of trauma, abuse, damage and sadness.

As Kendrick & I ventured into the filming phase and realized our focus had shifted to the importance of self-care among us clinicians, I felt overcome by guilt as I realized…. I don’t really engage in my own self care. I was forced to take action and began attending cardio dance classes, I began leaving my phone unattended for a couple hours each evening, and spending more dinners focusing on what my husband had to say rather than caught up in my own stress of work and school. I must say though, this documentary project has also been a form of self care by encouraging me to tap into my creative side... Thanks Kendrick!

I have learned that while healing and people skills may be strengths of mine, using a video camera is not. In attempting to film my interview with Tara Bogs, a START director who is also writing her dissertation on burn-out among mental health clinicians, I managed to completely make a mess of the sound during the interview. At points it was too loud, at other points there was no sound, oh and to add insult to injury the lighting was a little off as well. Lessons learned, but now we must do the interview over! Despite the sound snafu, I would not change the process for anything…

-- 
N. Schwarz

Switching the Focus???

          Ok, so we are truly in the mist of the journey right about now. The parallel process is uncanny. I probably should have just documented myself if I wanted a story full of excitement and twist and turns. My wife and I, are truly entertainment at times, but I didn’t do that, I tried to do alil something different. The only issue is that,  out of all the footage that I’m getting, it has yet to really get exciting. So far everybody wants to be real supportive and doesn’t want to challenge any ideology of the agency, until now. I’ve interviewed our treatment teams, staff meetings and even had a couple interviews, and though I have some good info, I’m not really seeing anything that would provide compelling footage.  Until today, we interviewed my co-worker/ friend “B”. She is who she is, which is what I love about her. The others are to, but they haven’t been around as long as B to witness the changes, sadly to say, all the positivity doesn’t really make for a compelling story. Reviewing the footage, I felt like we were looking at an infomercial or something. “B” gave us an unscripted view because she has so much history and because of her being a woman, and a Latina she was able to provide insight on multiple fronts. Plus she is an amazing artist, so the visual sights she has to offer, make for compelling footage.

        On another note, I was watching “Social Network” and I noticed that the style was of this Oscar nominated movie was kinda like another Oscar nominated movie a couple years ago, called “Slumdog Millionaire”. So I figured, what if we could change the format of the documentary to be somewhat like that interview or two people talking and then it flashes to different footage about some of the things we’re talking about. My docu-partner appreciated that as well, but that would jus mean we needed to script some things and get a place to shoot that portion. I think the creative license aspect of this project will provide for the needed tool to bring a impactful dynamic out.

          On another note, I worked with another group at the school to put together a video about internet safety. It was cool, I realized another way in which I love working with people and when people see you as the expert they look for you to lead and are really open to that. They were a wonderful group to work with and though we did have some lighting issues, I believe the way we did it allowed for some flexibility so hopefully in the editing process it will all come together. They were real thankful, which made doing it so easy to do as well.

So what’s next, we’ll go through the footage with B and then put on the creative hats to see how do we tell this compelling story. Oh yeah, we did hear from Dr. Heidi Kraft, so we go see if we can get that interview and what will that be.

Awakening the Journey

   So here I am, hitting the pre-wee hours of the night. Outside my window, is the chaos of the Mardi Gras partygoers of San Diego, high heels, short skirts, beads, and drunken nature accompanied by the sirens, catcalls and belligerent screaming for no apparent reason. Don't believe me, huh, I'll post pictures. I've just gotten home from a performance at UCSD, (I do spoken word poetry on the side) washed up the little one, red the bedtime story, cleaned the kitchen and now I'm ready to work.

      I'm listening to some of the footage from today's interviews, making sure the sound is on point. This film project for my class has now expanded its horizons, to possibly doing an outreach video for my program at work as well, which means there are two ideas to focus on. How does the agency keep its people healthy? What do the people do to stay healthy and what does the agency do. I'm thinking all those years of looking at TV and movies are finally going to work to my benefit. I've been doing a lot of practicing, with videotaping my performances and just playing with the camera so I’m pretty confident in what the end result will be. I'm still kinda nervous because this is a totally new venture, so who knows if I'm missing some real integral details, but based on my homework, "I'm good". The sound is very important, lighting can be an issue, but I’ve been very diligent. I'm nervous about getting too much footage, but too much is better than not enough, right.

       More than before I'm realizing that this film will truly be a parallel process. I will be examining my mental health through out this process. I have a lot going on. I'm a husband, father, work fulltime, grad student 3/4 time, artist (spoken word) and somewhere in the mix, I need to figure out how to have some time to relax and work out. One thing I have recognized is that I am truly an artist. I'm really passionate when it comes to my band/music and even doing this film. I could work on ends with no sleep, if I could but that's not an option right now. I still have obligations a family man, and a student, so I really need to do some things different.

Let the Story Begin

      So today begins the journey of two social work students embarking on a journey in to the unknown, simple because we don't know what the hell we doing, well kinda. Myself and my partner Natasha are doing a documentary called, (get this) "Healing for the Healer". Kinda catchy, I thought you'd dig it.

Well the concept is to document the health of some mental health works. We are going to take a look at an outpatient program that provides therapy and other services for the homeless and runaway youth population of San Diego. I have worked in this program for about 2.5 years. We do amazing work if I do say so myself, but what intrigued me about this subject matter was recognizing that I have some pretty cool co-workers. I can honestly say we come from many different walks of life, but it works to the benefit of the youth we serve. We have had different leadership which has enabled me to see the difference in how effective leadership can change for whole atmosphere of a work environment. I have established some very meaningful relationships with some of my co-workers that truly influence who I am as a person. We learn and grow through each other. At times it really feels like we're a family.

But beyond all that, I wanted to take a look at how theses mental health workers are able to stay healthy. Dealing with such things as burn out and vicarious traumatization, along with many of our own personal issues. I spend 4 years in the field of alcohol and substance abuse. For many years, it was field where many of the counselors were also previous addicts. And although the overall mental health field is not exactly the same, we still have daily issues of family, relationships, health, work demands and personal ambitions that we deal with on a daily basis, that the people we service never know about. We have all find ways to cope. We have challenges on our jobs because policies that are made that impact us, as well as our clients, some for the better, though it feels that most are for the worse.

So we are looking to tell this story to anyone who will listen. I would like us to take an artistic approach to this venture, maybe add some spoken word, or get creative with some of the cinematography. But the first challenge will be finding what footage to bring down to this 15mins of film that we will need share. So we will see.

Let the story begin..