National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) 2009

A film about how the changes in three young girls' families have influenced their personal lives.

Shelly the chicken wasn't looking for a fight, but he found one. Can he face his fears and stand up for himself?

Sean and Taylor have been living together. As of late they've been experiencing what he believes to be 'communication problems'. One evening after a silent dinner, he confronts her. The next morning he awakes to find her missing. Unsure what to do, he attempts to break into a lock box of Taylor's. Discovering a dark secret from her past, with Taylor still missing, Sean must unravel what it all means and decide what to do.

This film is a political satire about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. Conflict in the Middle Table is a short film about an Israeli and a Palestinian meeting at a dinner party in a restaurant and they begin to fight over a plate of hummus. The dialogue, characters, and actions mirror the history of the conflict between the two peoples over the land of Israel and/or Palestine. It starts with the Romans handing over the land to the Palestinians and includes the English involvement, American involvement, the 6 day war, the Gaza Strip and West Bank, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the current state of affairs, and even extends past that to predict what the future has in store for us if we continue down the same path. Without being strictly a comedy or a drama, the film makes you laugh and think at the same time.

The Bridge Program is a drug and substance abuse rehabilitation center that helps adolescents overcome their drug addictions and problems via intensive, residential treatment. The Big Picture Alliance served as one part of this process and allowed residents to create their own music video to express their feelings about the process and their lives. Every person involved in the production of the video (outside of the Big Picture Alliance teachers) is a young person in treatment at the Bridge. The MCs in this video express the collected sentiments of the whole crew. Their attitudes are complex, but driven. They all struggle with the idea of leaving lucrative and illegal lives of drug dealing and abuse behind for the challenge of living without narcotic use or involvement in criminal activities. Ultimately though, their resolve is clear. They intend fully to 'cross over the Bridge' to sobriety and legality. They know that though the draw of their old lifestyle is immediate it will ultimately lead them to incarceration or death. They see their time at the Bridge program as the key to a more fulfilling fundamentally changed life. This conflict of vantage points and their ultimate resolution are expressed in a single decision. A young man contemplates the opportunity to commit a violent act that he usually is comfortable with. He pauses this time for a moment, and his internal dialogue is expressed by the music video.

A look at how two very different food establishments made their homes on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and in the process defined the neighborhood.

Reporting live from the Mississippi River...K'Shon and Nadia tell you what you need to know about the growing Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Def Dance Jam Workshop is a nonprofit organization in Harlem, New York, that brings the differently-abled and conventionally-abled communities together through dance. This short documentary explores the nature of this unique program, highlighting the dynamic between its deaf and hearing dancers.

A film about the importance of expressing one's own personal style, rather than allowing it to be defined by what others think.