A New Year of Programming!

The 2014-15 school year is here and Animate A Way is ready to create a new team of filmmaking and animating advocates.

This year, we will be leading 3 classrooms in the Linda Vista area of San Diego. We are returning to our founding school, Montgomery Middle and expanding to hold classes at Kearny High School. We are excited to roll out a new community program through a partnership with the Bayside Community Center in Linda Vista. At Bayside, we will be holding weekly open classes that anyone from grades 4 all the way through college can attend. Karla Duarte and Steven Topham from Animate A Way will guide students who attend these classes through making their own films and animations from conception to completion. With our partner, Pagasa Pasta, we will be helming an animation competition and inviting everyone interested in competing to join us at Bayside! Students will be able to use our professional and technical resources to see their ideas become life.

We believe in serving the underprivileged and creating leaders and will not turn away anyone who wants to further themselves.
We look forward to meeting our new students in all of our locations and sharing in their talents and leadership with the entire San Diego community throughout the year.

Just a Few Weeks Away

We can hardly contain our excitement and we can’t wait to share this moment with all of you!
All year long, our students have been working at putting together their message, finding their voice and composing shorts, films, animations and public service announcements that raise awareness of dating and domestic violence in our communities. We have 4 short films to show this year and will be presenting them on June 4 from 6 – 10 pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. The screening begins at 7, so don’t be late.

The first film we will show is from our continuing education students, who took on the difficult task of creating a short survivor story documentary is association with the San Diego Family Justice Center. Those same girls will also have a short testimonial piece about the importance of raising domestic violence awareness amongst teens. We will also have a vignette of really impressive segments made my elementary school students who take part in our Summer camps. To top off the evening, the fantastic stop-motion PSA made by the girls at Montgomery Middle School will play. Our films will be complimented by a fantastic selection of some of the best youth made films and animations from around the world through our partnership with the Reel Youth Film Festival.

To get tickets, simply head here and purchase them. You can also buy tickets for $25 at the door.
We will be holding a silent auction that will go a long way towards meeting our fundraising goals for the coming year and will have a great selection of gourmet coffee, snacks and desserts from our sponsors and supporters.
All of us at Animate A Way and all of the student filmmakers can’t wait to meet you there!

June 4

There is so much that goes on with Animate A Way, but the thing we really look forward to is the moment in the sun at the end of the year for all of our participants. We have a fantastic partnership with the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in Balboa Park, who helps us put on the gala exhibition of all of the great work that our youths have made throughout the year.

June 4th will be the date. It all begins at 6pm with a mixer and gathering. Our fantastic sponsors will provide refreshments and snacks while guests will have the opportunity to browse an incredible craft fair. But the good part starts at 7 pm. MOPA’s 250 seat theater is incredible. Inset within the high roof are hundreds of twinkling lights. The gradual slope of the seating area leads to a raised stage where all of our youth will stand, beaming with pride, smiles and more than a little nervousness as a full crowd stands and applauds their courage. They have spent the better part of the year learning about domestic violence and how their voice can make in impact against it. Their hands have been busy and diligent creating a public service announcement to lend even more distance to their voice. And their creativities have been in overdrive as they constructed every word of the script and every image in the final product. It is their work and it is their cause. We can’t wait for June 4!

Animate A Way has been very busy in the last two months with a fantastic new partnership with Pappalecco Italian-American Cafes who helped us host two different fundraising opportunities. If you are in San Diego and like incredible coffee and gelato, be sure and seek them out. There is a lot more that has happened and will happen. We’ll keep you in the loop with more regular updates throughout the coming days and weeks.

Great food and wine to pair with a great cause

We are getting ready to start the year with our first fundraising event on Sunday, January 12, 2014 at the Italian Cafe Shop Pappalecco in Hillcrest. Francesco Bucci, CEO of Pappalecco and winemaker Piergiorgio Castellani have partnered up to host an event for Animate A Way so that we can continue creating awareness in the community about Teen Dating Violence and furthering our education program in the community.

Join us for an evening that will let you travel to one of the best Italian Wineries in the world. Meet Piergiorgio Castellani, Marketing and Development Manager of the winery.  To RSVP you can get your tickets at Eventbrite.

I Believe…

Fall is here in San Diego and our idyllic temperatures have given way to chilly evenings. As the climate changes, our sunsets seem to be soaking up all the perfection that our days use to hold. That is fortunate for our Summer continuing education documentary crew as they held their final shoot at Sunset Cliffs with one of the greatest sunsets any of us had ever seen. They are making a survivor story documentary. While there, their subject confided in them, that until she began being abused, she used to watch the sunset every night. This was the first sunset she had seen since her abuse began. It was a powerful moment for all of us.

As the year flies by, our program grows stronger. Our first classroom at Montgomery Middle School in Linda Vista has put together an incredible script and are now constructing the visuals. The girls in the program are growing in confidence and comradery with each other. While set backs with the school district and the board of education continue to plague us, we see the end in sight to begin two more classes in January. We believe that our perseverance through these road blocks have made us stronger and better prepared as an organization.

We believe… in the power of our students, in the hope inherent in our communities, in the end of violence in relationships and a future where our youth can love with respect. This holiday season, we are beginning the ‘I believe’ campaign. With our sponsors and partners we are expanding our presence in the community and officially unveiling our organization as Animate A Way, after working as Girls! Camera! Action! Our social media presence and new website are in place and we are excited.

December 3rd is our official launch, with a great community event organized at the Bayside Community Center in Linda Vista from 5:30 – 7:30 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend this mixer, to hear from local politicians working towards an end to violence, to hear from us and our students and to enjoy some snacks and refreshments provided by our wonderful sponsors Nothing Bundt Cakes and Pappalecco’s.
Join us in creating change. There is always a way.

New Name / New Website!

Thanks for dropping by!
Animate A Way and Girls! Camera! Action! (which was formerly just Girls! Camera! Action!) is happy to be here on the web. We look forward to keeping you up to date with everything we are doing in all of our programs. Be sure and check often for the latest videos as well as info and dates for our awesome exhibitions.