YOUNG CITY - Wednesday February 3rd @ 6pm

Lesedi is a Zulu name meaning The Light of the Community.
We aim to live up to our name.



Art show fundraiser event to support filmmaking workshops for teens at Lesedi Film Center.

Featuring original paintings from artists Alicia Piller and Marisha Scott; and photography by Laylah Barrayn and Valerie Caviness - YOUNG CITY promises to be an event that fully celebrates the spirit of youth. We commend the belief that we, at any age can create change in the world, and that what we perceive as children has profound effects.

Think back to your youth. Was there an after-school or weekend program you were involved with that changed the direction of your life for the better? And as a child, or as a teen, was there a story you had inside you that you were eager to share?

Lesedi's goal is to empower our students with the skills and creative confidence to competently share their stories using film. The work so far has been astounding - and we're looking forward to what's to come in the future...

Let your inner child out to play a game of hopscotch and support the continuation of our filmmaking workshop series. Twenty-five dollars. That's about as much as you'd spend taking someone out ot the movies. Take Lesedi "out to the movies" by contributing $25 at the door and maybe one day you will see one of our student's film debut at a theatre near you...

It's time to celebrate!

Lesedi Students Are Producing PSAs

Lesedi students up at the Kips Bay Clubhouse of the Boys and Girls Club of America were asked one very big question: If there were anything you could change about the world, what would it be?

The answers will be made into short PSAs (Public Service Announcements). A PSA is a video, similar in format to a commercial, that promotes an important cause. At Lesedi, we're doing our part to make change in this world, one video at a time...

For now, there's lots of behind-the-scenes work being done...

Successful First Run of Lesedi's Video Art

Video Art at Lesedi was a hit! Much love to Dixon Place Theatre, Tompkins Square Middle School and the Artists Collective for Social Change for making this all happen :)


Mix video, sound, dance, cameras, computers and smart boards - add super talented tweens and that special Lesedi sauce, and you've got a winner!

From this experience, Lesedi has learned to think of video in more than the traditional ways. As the face of visual storytelling advances, so too does the curriculum at Lesedi.

Video Art @ Lesedi

Entering it's fifth week, Lesedi's Video Art workshop @ Tompkins Square Middle School is growing into an interactive and very fun experience! Students are learning sophisticated techniques using video, video editing software, still photos and smart boards to express their artistry.

Here are some photos from our latest still photo/live art exercise:





Helen's sneaker piece.



Jorge and the eye.



A Katya/Karissa collaboration.

In development: Lesedi's Video Art collabo with Dance/Choreography...

This Holiday Season, Give the Gift of Filmmaking to NYC's Youth

Make an online tax-deductible donation to Lesedi Film Center to help support the expansion of filmmaking workshops available to NYC youth. You can make a one-time donation or, help sustain us throughout 2009 by pledging a monthly donation. Think about how much you spend a month on movies...netflix, cable, on demand, theatres...we ask you to pledge that same amount every month, knowing that your donation is helping a young teen articulate her/his own stories on screen.

Thank you for your support!

Creative Synergy

Lesedi Film Center is joining forces with The Artists Collective for Social Change and Dixon Place Theatre to create an afterschool Video Art/Dance Choreography exchange workshop at Tompkins Square Middle School on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The emphasis of the Video Art component of the collaboration is on non-traditional visual and audio storytelling. Students of both the dance and video concentrations will create stories based on shared themes. Isolated exercises will train students to express stories using just visual imagery, and just elements of sound respectively. Projects created in this workshop will demonstrate strong intention behind story and feeling and key elements of video post-production. Student participants will leave this program with a skill set including still photography, videography, elements of story structure, video editing, uploading and DVD authoring.
Students in the dance concentration will use improvisation, salsa rhythms, and energetic exercises to develop a dance with a personal storyline. Exploration of musicality through sound, rhythm, and beat will be emphasized. The Dance Choreography class will also collaborate with the Video Art class to produce a performance piece of dance, sound, and video, which will be performed at TSMS and also at the Dixon Place Theater.

Lesedi Visits The N

In June of 2008, students from Lesedi's Spring '08 documentary filmmaking workshop took a field trip to Nickelodeon Digital's "The N", a cable network specifically for teens.
Our students toured the offices and facilities located within the MTV Networks flagship location at 1515 Broadway in NYC. The students met in a conference room with senior developers, producers and managers at The N to share their work and experiences and ask questions.
The pros at The N explained the details of their jobs - everything from reading, selecting and developing submitted story ideas to shooting, to editing, to watching hours and hours of TV! They described the step-by-step process it took to get them where they are today.
Lesedi students left with an inside look at how a future in the TV profession would be possible and bags of some cool swag!