become a filmmaker
Youth Filmmaking Program
Elevated Films Chicago adds filmmaker mentorship and financial support to underserved Chicago youth through filmmaking program, providing opportunities to students in public housing with tools to share their stories through film.
Continuing our mission to raise awareness for independent film and create opportunities for the next generation of filmmakers, partnering with the Become a Filmmaker program. The program, in its seventh year and run by Program Director Liliane Calfee with the support of Chicago Housing Authority and DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts, currently runs as an intensive six-week summer documentary filmmaking course and year-round outreach.
Elevated will contribute ongoing support for the program with the following:
Filmmaker mentorship: providing access to professional filmmakers who will consult on all aspects of the filmmaking process.
Screening opportunities: giving young filmmakers opportunities to show their films and represent their work in person.
Ongoing outreach: adding resources to ensure youth have continuous access and financial support to stay active in the film industry, facilitating access to guest speaker events, workshops, film festivals, networking gatherings, and other industry events.
Plans for growing the program include expanding the summer youth filmmaking intensive to include narrative film projects, increasing the scope of ongoing outreach programming, and creating more hands-on opportunities for youth and program alumni in pre-production, production, and post-production positions within professional productions.
“This really is a dream scenario for our program. We’ve been looking for a long-term partner for years to help us expand film opportunities to CHA youth. As we all know, access is key,” says Calfee. Elevated Films Chicago co-founders Susie and Eddie Linker call the collaboration “the perfect match-up. This is truly exactly what we set out to do from the start. We’re so thrilled to have joined forces with Liliane and this program, and we can’t wait for what’s to come as we grow together.”
As you can see, we have big plans to expand this program with Elevated Films Chicago. But, we need your support! Please consider a tax-deductible donation to help grow this program!
Program History
Since 2016, the Become a Filmmaker youth program, an intensive six-week summer documentary filmmaking course, has provided underserved youth with new economic pathways and the tools to share their voices with the world. The program, a partnership made possible by the Chicago Housing Authority’s nonprofit partner Springboard to Success and DePaul University’s School of Cinematic Arts, part of the College of Computing and Digital Media, has helped participants gain technical filmmaking skills and learn the power of their personal narratives. In the past six years since the program’s inception, the short documentaries have screened and won awards at film festivals across the globe.