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iMichigan Productions
Our mission is to create digital content for television and online media platforms while educating youths aged 13-25 in the skills needed to succeed in the filmmaking industry. iMichigan Productions (iMP) focuses on educating and training underrepresented youths in Flint & Genesee County so that they can express their creativity while gaining insight into the various employment opportunities in the entertainment field.
iMP produces content for all platforms that is entertaining, educational, and community building. We concentrate on stories that highlight Michigan's contemporary and historical contributions. In addition to producing award-winning documentaries and short films, our programs include:
• The Flint Youth Film Festival
• Flint Youth Media Project
• Film Appreciation Academy
• Veteran Narratives
Ayden Williams joined the Film Appreciation Academy in high school, became an intern for iMichigan Productions, and has now graduated and will be attending film school in New York City.
Ayden has this to say about iMP's Film Appreciation Academy:
"The class discussion is so much fun and I really just...I appreciate that class so much. It's helped me to further my career and my portfolio and, as a film student, it was a class where, one, I got to watch movies that I hadn't heard of before or hadn't seen and, two, got to discuss those movies with other people that were like-minded..."
Financials
Programs
Flint's Got Talent
In 2022, partner WOW Outreach (Flint violence reduction non-profit) and support from Flint ReCast and the C.S. Mott Foundation, iMP launched Flint's Got Talent to reach youth whose mental health depends on feeling their voices are heard. Arts are recognized forms of healthy healing. Partners sought to send the message: "You Can Get There from Here!" Electronic auditions run from August to October. A full-blown professional Capitol Theater experience is enjoyed by the top 10 performers. Performers get a full rehearsal day, and professional/tech coachin. The audience decides the winners. All 10 walked away with cash prizes and WNEM guest appearances on Collette Boyd's morning show.
Flint Youth Film Festival
The Flint Youth Film Festival introduces the art of filmmaking to young filmmakers between the ages of 13 and 25. It provides these young filmmakers with venues for developing their storytelling talents. The program provides opportunities to share creative work with peers, the public, and professional filmmakers and screenwriters. By introducing you to the film industry, the program provides you with new media to express your creativity, improve your communication skills, and benefit the arts community and your community as a whole.
Flint Youth Media Project
The Flint Youth Media Project was founded in 2010 to give youth the media tools to voice their artistic expressions. The purpose of Flint Youth Media Project is to provide experiential learning opportunities for future filmmakers, to continue preserving the many stories of America's Veterans with the help of these students, and offering student workshops at community hubs throughout the city with opportunities to work with professional mentors from iMichigan Productions
Film Appreciation Academy
At the FYFF Film Appreciation Academy, young people will engage with a range of thoughts and ideas about the challenges, responsibilities and meaning of life, as well as learn about different film genres and techniques and how they help tell the story. Students will learn to break films down into their component parts like writing, directing, acting, editing, lighting, sound, cinematography, music, and location, and assess how they create emotional impact.
In three 8-week workshops, the Film Appreciation Academy gives young film lovers an excellent opportunity to sharpen their critical eye and to highlight issues that are important to them. They will probe and discuss each film's impact personally, learning techniques for understanding and dissecting films and how to use them as lessons for life in a supportive and inspiring setting that cultivates their critical thinking, writing and communication skills.