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On the sunny afternoon of Saturday, April 27th, the Set It Up crew descended upon the Canvas Teen Arts Center to participate in the Teen Art Showcase, which took place as a part of the St. Paul Art Crawl. Set It Up kicked off the program by screening their second episode of the season - a series of videos on Relationships. This was followed by some excellent live music performances and an Open Mic. On top of that, there was tons of visual art on display, and creativity everywhere you turned. 

Theresa Crushshon, a participant in SPNN’s Doc U program, has won the award for Documentary Biography from the Alliance for Community Media’s Hometown Media Awards. Her film about Jazz legend Irv Williams was created in Doc U, a program funded in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board. The program gives low-income adults hands-on skills in all aspects of documentary production. In the first year of Doc U, seven participants, including Theresa, created short films on a diversity of subjects. The upcoming class of Doc U is recruiting now and will train a dozen new documentarians.

The power of the documentary film is its ability to shine a spotlight on issues, stories, and perspectives that would otherwise go unheard and thus unnoticed. Because of our belief in this power, SPNN created Doc U, a mentorship in digital documentary filmmaking for low income adults. Now entering it’s second year, this intensive mentorship program guides participants through the process of creating a 10-minute documentary on the topic of their choosing.

A diverse collection of youth produced media from 12 different TCYMN partners was screened in Intermedia’s theater space. The reel was entirely curated by youth participants at member organizations. SPNN Youth Set It Up alum Damian Jones took home this year’s audience choice award for his documentary short, ‘Fong Lee: The Story of Tragedy and Injustice.’ Damian’s piece examines a wrongful death suit against the Minneapolis Police Department over the death of teenager Fong Lee, who was shot down by Police Officer Jason Anderson, who claimed self-defense in the case. The audience choice award for best radio piece went to Cynthia Ramsey from KFAI Fresh Air Radio for her piece, ‘My Experience in the Foster Care System.”