Telling Our Stories

Two short films, one narrative and one documentary explore how youth approach LGBT history and politics. In Don't Erase My History, a group of Bay Area youth takes us on a quest for the very history that has "no name" in their schools. Together they open archival closets and talk with LGBTQ artists, activists, and pioneers. In a world where their queer history is still regularly erased, what will they discover? In CHANGE, Jamie is an African-American teenager grappling with his sexual identity on the night Barack Obama is elected president and Proposition 8 - the voter initiative to eliminate same-sex marriage - is passed. When one of his gang initiates the bullying of an openly gay classmate, Jamie uses his wits to try and prevent it, but when things don't go the way he predicted, he is forced to face his fears head-on.

Don't Erase My History Ally Action Youth Film Producers 2008 30 minutes USA
A group of Bay Area youth takes us on a quest for the very history that has no name in their schools. Together they open archival closets and talk with LGBTQ artists, activists, and pioneers. In a world where their queer history is still regularly erased, what will they discover?

CHANGE Melissa Osborne & Jeff McCutcheon 2010 23 minutes USA
An African-American teenager grapples with his sexual identity on the night Barack Obama is elected President and Proposition 8the California voter initiative to eliminate same-sex marriage is passed. When one of Jamie's friend group initiates the bullying of an openly gay classmate, Jamie uses his wits to try and prevent it, but when things don't go the way he predicted, he is forced to face his fears head on.

Winner of the Audience Award for Best Short Film at Frameline35: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, CHANGE is a poetic and moving film which deftly examines one young mans internal identity struggles within the context of the modern movement for LGBT rights, and a high school experience fraught with peer pressure.