Press & Events
YDA Founder/Director, Tom Shepard, Talks Film Arts and Theatre in the Time of Covid
Watch YDA Founder/Director, Tom Shepard, represent the Youth Documentary Academy in this conversation with local filmmakers and theater artists to discuss film arts and theatre in the time of Covid.
YDA Sets New Record at the All American High School Film Festival
The Youth Documentary Academy has always fared well at the annual All American High School Film Festival. But this news is unprecedented. From our 2019 class of graduates, we submitted ten films to the festival. ALL TEN FILMS were officially selected and we’ve been given a heads up that at … Read more »
The Arc Pikes Peak Region Recognizes YDA Student, Samuel!
It’s #WeAchieveWednesday once again! We want to share that at the start of 2020, The Arc Pikes Peak Region’s theme for the year was “Achieve Your Vision.” It was an invitation to those of various abilities in our community to take steps toward achieving their dreams and goals. To believe … Read more »
YDA Film Accepted Into Mill Valley Film Festival
2019 Alumni Filmmaker Kallista Palapas has just had her film, I’LL BE THERE, accepted to screen at the 2020 Mill Valley Film Festival! I’LL BE THERE is an unvarnished account of Kallista’s experience of when a close friend and classmate took his life, creating a ripple of grief and confusion. … Read more »
YDA Looking To Hire Development/Marketing Associate
The Youth Documentary Academy is seeking a part-time marketing/development specialist for our public television series OUR TIME (www.youthdocumentary.org/ourtime). This position would involve soliciting corporate, foundation, and individual sponsorships for the series totaling at 50k. Contributing sponsors will receive underwriting credits on the broadcast version of Season 2 of OUR TIME … Read more »
Summer Session: Students share what YDA has been like in a pandemic
Thanks to COVID-19, this summer’s YDA program has a different look: eight students and three instructors, with most interaction taking place virtually. One day a week, though, they meet at the Rampart Range campus of Pikes Peak Community College. The small group sits in a large room 12-15 feet apart … Read more »
YDA Films Selected for DocuWest 2020 Film Festival
YDA films RIGHT OF MIND by Maddison Goddard, I’LL BE THERE by Kallista Palapas, and WOLF by Koya Lockwood Flescher have just been selected for screening at Denver’s DocuWest Film Festival! The event will be taking place at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Sept 20-22, 2020. The film, RIGHT OF … Read more »
Widefield HS Student Filmmaker Faces Pain, Wins Acclaim
Originally created by G. Connor Salter, June 3rd, 2020 When Tom Shepard started Youth Documentary Academy in 2013, he was hoping to get young people making documentaries showing their views on difficult issues. To his surprise, something else happened along the way. “One thing that is quite common is that … Read more »
YDA Film Selected For Ireland Film Festival
A graduating senior at Widefield High School, Corynn used her YDA fellowship to investigate the shortcomings of her biological father and the ways it impacted her upbringing. In MY DAD, she makes discoveries that lead her to redefine the meaning of fatherhood and reshape her own family’s future. In an … Read more »
Documentary Film Production Boot Camp
ENROLL NOW Interested in directing your own short documentary film? Enroll for this Summer’s Documentary Boot Camp today! 7-week session begins 6/1, Registration ends 5/20 With the advent of digital cameras and editing software, independent filmmakers are able to create work that once would have required larger production teams and hundreds … Read more »
While walking around Boulder, so many people came up to me and my dad to thank me for making AFTER WAR.
Bailey Francisco, 17
