Nationally-acclaimed filmmaker pete nicks visits Youth beat!

On Tuesday, June 26, Youth Beat’s summer students got a big treat -- a visit and presentation from filmmaker Pete Nicks.

Nicks is well-known for his two award-winning, Oakland-based documentaries, The Waiting Room and The Force. These are cinema-vérité documentaries that transport viewers right into real-life, inner-city drama as it unfolds in a hospital emergency room and police situations.

Nicks talked with our students about both his method and his career. Hearing about his early days of interning to his present work, including a Hollywood screenplay based off his life, gave the youth a new perspective on their own personal and professional journeys as filmmakers.

“I was really honored to meet someone who works professionally and is well-known within the documentary scene,” says Youth Beat advanced student and summer Teaching Assistant Ari Arroyo. “I’m really interested in telling people’s individual stories with film, and seeing his movie and learning about his method really inspired me.”

This is just one example of the many exciting opportunities for students this summer at Youth Beat. Students enrolled in our Future Filmmakers Program (new this summer!) are out in the field interviewing local community youth organizations and artists for short documentary projects. And student interns are getting real world job experience working on professional video projects for clients within Oakland’s public and private sectors.

When you support Youth Beat you make it possible for Oakland youth to dream big and reach their goals.