Students in the Advanced Film Production Class at Desert Mirage High School are participating in UCR ARTS’ award-winning documentary film and media literacy workshop this spring. Off the Block has been offered as an annual workshop for teens hosted at UCR ARTS each summer and started as a direct response to the profound need for youth arts programming in the Riverside area. The summer workshop is now offered as a virtual after-school or weekend workshop over 6 weeks for high school students. Desert Mirage High School is the first school to take part and students at Palm Springs Unified School District will participate later this spring.

UCR ARTS Curator of Films, Nikolay Maslov, leads the workshop along with four professional mentors working in the film production field. They teach students multiple aspects of filmmaking such as narrative structure, interviewing, B roll, editing, and more. Beyond learning practical filmmaking skills, students also develop critical thinking around media consumption and creation. They create their own documentary films around subjects they are interested in which promotes positive self-expression through the arts. By presenting their work to peers and mentors periodically throughout the filmmaking process, students learn to strengthen their visual storytelling, provide constructive criticism, and problem solve as a team.  

Off the Block student filmmakers have won awards and received recognition from several film festivals and media organizations such as the Sundance Film Festival, PBS SoCal, Big Bear Film Festival, Riverside International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival and Adobe Youth Voices. Off the Block alumni now attend, or have attended colleges and universities such as MIT, UCLA, USC, Chapman, Art Center College of Design, Cal Arts, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside, just to name a few.

Examples of past student work can be found at the Off the Block Vimeo channel.

Interested in scheduling Off the Block for your school in the 2021-2022 year? Contact Lindsey Hammel, Manager of School Programs, at lindsey.hammel@ucr.edu.

Registration for Off the Block summer workshop is open to students throughout Riverside County. Although the summer workshop is typically in person, it will be held virtually for the Summer 2021. Spaces are limited. Registration will open soon on the UCR Arts website.