BAVC Factory Youth Lead the Conversation

What a year it's been for BAVC Factory youth Lauren Lindberg and Zoe Salnave!  This Monday, July 11th, the two young women will be participants in the ITVS live-chat event LEADING THE CONVERSATION: Young Women's Voices in the MediaThe event, moderated by BAVC's Jen Gilomen (Director of Public Media Strategies), is the latest honor in what has been an incredibly accomplished and transformative year for Lauren and Zoe.

Both Zoe and Lauren are now veterans of The Factory, an advanced video production collective for motivated teenagers in the Oakland Bay Area.  The program has afforded them the opportunity to create and screen a number of short films.  The films they directed as part of last summer's Community Filmmaking Partnerships, Independence in Sight (Lauren Lindberg) and Come to the Table (Zoe Salnave) have been particularly successful.  The films have screened at dozens of national festivals and have collected more than 10 major festival awards so far this year.

Come to the Table also screened privately for White House chef Sam Kass and most recently was invited to screen at the Oakland Museum of California as part of an exhibit on the history of California.

In May, Lauren was selected as one of five teens, out of 35,000 from across the country, as a Seventeen Magazine “Pretty Amazing” Teen.  Just this month she was awarded a Jefferson Award from CBS San Francisco for her outstanding public service work.

If that doesn't sound like quite enough, bear in mind that both girls were finishing their senior year of high school in the midst of all of this.  We're happy to report that Lauren will be headed to Chapman University, and Zoe will be starting at Mills College this fall.  Both plan to continue their work with social justice causes and documentary filmmaking.

Be sure to catch their voices on Monday for ITVS's LEADING THE CONVERSATION: Young Women's Voices in the Media. 

Check out the event info here and hop in on the live chat Monday at 3 PM PDT/6 PM ET  right here:

You can also watch Independence in Sight here.

and Come to the Table here.