27th Annual Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Film Festival

Join Harvard Art Museums for the premiere screening of Community Art Center’s 27th Annual Do It Your Damn Self!! National Youth Film Festival, the longest-running youth film festival in the country, Friday, June 7. A panel discussion with the teen filmmakers and a short reception in the Calderwood Courtyard will follow the screening. Community Art Center has served residents of the Port neighborhood in Cambridge, Massachusetts, since 1937. The organization ensures that youth in the neighborhood have the same access to arts experiences as the youth of other communities in Cambridge. The center became known as a space for young people to explore creative expression and build their narrative storytelling abilities. In 1996, six teen girls at the center decided they’d had enough of the lack of representation and the misrepresentation they were seeing in the media. They picked up cameras and began to tell their own stories, creating a film festival that is hyperlocal but has a national reach.

The film screening will begin at 6pm in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Doors will open for seating at 5:30pm at the Broadway entrance. Admission is free, but seating is limited. Registration is encouraged. Walk-in visitors are always welcome, if space allows.