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Eighth Annual Festival

America for Dummies

8:14 min
Documentary
Director: Niaz Mosharraf
Producer: Reel Works Teen Filmmaking

Winner of the Youth Voice Award
Acknowledged for effectively employing fair use by the Center for Social Media
Supported by Adobe Youth Voices

FILMMAKER BIOS

Niaz Mosharraf, Director

Niaz Mosharraf was born in Bangladesh and immigrated to the United States in 1997. He recently graduated from the elite Brooklyn Technical High School and is now attending both Baruch College and Brooklyn College studying film and business in order to pursue his ambitions as a filmmaker. Niaz has traveled to numerous countries around the world and wants to continue to do so in order to document and tell stories to amplify the voices of the people which often go unheard. Currently he is curating the 2008 Urban Visionaries Youth Film Festival and interning with Red Glass Films in association with Local Projects. In addition to the feature length film that Niaz is writing right now, he is also working on several films with his internship, including one for the Beijing Olympics and one for Arte.

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer

Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, supported by HBO, is a free after-school program that challenges high school students to create short documentary films about their lives. Working one-on-one with professional filmmaker-mentors, students write, shoot and edit personal narrative videos on subjects they choose. In the process, they gain self-esteem, develop media literacy and master state-of-the-art digital filmmaking technology. We say to teens: You have a voice! Use it!

And the world is listening! Since we began in 2001, our students’ films have been broadcast on HBO Family, PBS and LINK-TV and have been presented at film festivals nationwide from the American Film Institute in Hollywood to the Paley Center for Media in Manhattan. Our teen filmmaking program has been featured in the New York Times, The Daily News and on MSNBC, PBS and NY1 News. We have won numerous awards including four Honorable Mention National Student Emmys. Today, our films are being used in classrooms to teach powerful life lessons of diversity, tolerance and hope. Reel Works is a full-time nonprofit arts organization that serves over 150 teens each year through four core programs: The Lab, The Lab Master Class, Reel Impact and Teen Film Camp.