WORTHLESSSTUDIOS Launches Next Neighborhood of FREE FILM : NYC in Partnership with the Lower Eastside Girls Club
Film Distribution Party March 10, 2023 | 3-6PMFREE FILM : NYC is an initiative that seeks to catalog our communities, our boroughs, and our city over the coming years. Traveling to different locations throughout New York, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS’ Airstream-darkroom will take up residency in a given neighborhood for a month at a time, distributing free rolls of 35mm film to the general public. The team will also partner with local community organizations and facilitate workshops where students will learn how to use a film camera, focus a lens and process and print film using professional equipment provided by WORTHLESSSTUDIOS. Over the course of the next year and a half, the project will make its way around New York City documenting each borough.The Lower East Side neighborhood project will kick off on March 10, 2023 during Women’s History Month at the Lower Eastside Girls Club at 402 E 8th Street. The Airstream-darkroom will live outside the Lower Eastside Girls Club for one month (from March 10-April 9), as WORTHLESSSTUDIOS distributes film and facilitates photography classes with local youth. Over the course of the month, participating photographers of all ages will shoot within the boundaries of the neighborhood, responding to the prompt “ONE SQUARE MILE.” Destiny Mata, photography instructor with Lower Eastside Girls Club and FREE FILM : NYC artist-in-residence, will teach a series of six workshops for Middle and High School youth.At the launch, photographers of all levels can fill out a sign-up form to join; film is given out on a first come, first served basis. Once they have shot their film, participants can return their roll of film (with their name written on it) by April 9 and fill out the return form to ensure their film is processed. Film can be dropped off at the Lower Eastside Girls Club during open hours or at the mailbox on the Airstream darkroom 24/7. The team will develop the film and send scans to participants on a rolling basis; the sooner rolls are returned, the sooner rolls can be scanned. After the Lower East Side, FREE FILM : NYC will travel to more sites over the coming 18 months, distributing film with the same prompt phrase. Once all the neighborhoods are covered, a selection of images from each residency will be put together and published as a book.Whether you are an experienced photographer or simply interested in learning how to shoot with 35mm film, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS invites all members of the public to pick up a roll (while film supplies last) and celebrate the kick off of FREE FILM : NYC at the Lower Eastside Girls Club at 402 E 8th St, New York, NY, 10009, on Friday, March 10, from 3–6PM.
About the Lower Eastside Girls Club
The Lower Eastside Girls Club (LESGC) supports young women and gender-expansive youth of color throughout New York City in leveraging their inner power to shape a better future for themselves, their community, and the world. Through free, year-round, innovative programming LESGC connects young people with their passions, celebrates their curiosity, and channels their creative energy. Together, we are building a just and equitable future filled with “Joy. Power. Possibility.”
Every year, hundreds of youth ages 10–23 visit our Center for Community facility where we offer after-school, weekend and summer programming in STEM, Arts, Digital Media, Sound, Wellness, Civic Engagement and Leadership. With the launch of the Center for Wellbeing & Happiness, Girls Club is expanding its mission and service population with a core belief that the wellbeing of our members is intimately connected to the wellbeing of her family, her community, and her world. CWBH will include Happiness Hall for movement classes, art exhibits and community gatherings; a Food Farmacy for nutritional education; WCRL: Where Community Radio Lives; the Wellbeing Lounge for support groups and workshops; Mind & Body Studio, an immersive space for movement and meditation; and Soul Space, for counseling and educational programming.
Programming
In collaboration with their partnering organization, Lower Eastside Girls Club, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS will host photo walks with local photographers in March and April. Learn more about FREE FILM public events and workshops at www.worthlessstudios.org/free-film-nyc/.
Friday, March 10, 2023 | 3-6PM
Film Distribution Party at Lower Eastside Girls Club 402 E 8th St. NY, NY 10009 RSVP here
Sunday, April 9, 2024 | 8PM
Final day for FREE FILM roll drop-off at Lower Eastside Girls Club
About Destiny Mata
Destiny Mata is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker. Based in her native New York City, she focuses on issues of subculture and community. After studying photojournalism at LaGuardia Community College and San Antonio College, she spent two years as the
Director of Photography Programs at the Lower Eastside Girls Club. Mata’s work has been featured in New York Times, The Nation, VICE, and The Culture Crush. Mata has recently exhibited her work in La Vida En Loisaida: Life on the Lower East Side at Photoville Festival in 2020. She took part in the group exhibition Concerned Global Images for Global Crisis at the International Center of Photography in 2020. Her work was included in Young Latino Artists 21: Amexican at the Mexic-Arte Museum in 2016, and in Rising Waters: Photographs of Sandy at The Museum of The City of New York in 2014.
About FREE FILM : NYC
FREE FILM : NYC follows the footsteps of the previous iterations of the FREE FILM project (FREE FILM : USA and FREE FILM : 2020) as a meditation on community and local culture. The Airstream-darkroom will take up residency in a given neighborhood and distribute free rolls of film to the general public, and WORTHLESSSTUDIOS will partner with local community organizations and hold youth workshops where students will learn how to use a film camera, focus a lens and process and print film using professional equipment provided by FREE FILM. Over the course of the next year and a half, the project will make its way around New York to document each borough, neighborhood by neighborhood.
About The Lower Eastside Girls Club
The Lower Eastside Girls Club (LESGC) supports young women and gender-expansive youth of color throughout New York City in leveraging their inner power to shape a better future for themselves, their community, and the world. Through free, year-round, innovative programming we connect young people with their passions, celebrate their curiosity, and channel their creative energy. Together, we are building a just and equitable future filled with “Joy. Power. Possibility.” www.girlsclub.org @girlsclubny
About WORTHLESSSTUDIOS
WORTHLESSSTUDIOS provides space, materials, technical assistance, and resources for artists of all backgrounds to realize their creative visions. We are committed to supporting artists’ fabrication needs in NYC and producing engaging public art and exhibitions.
We dream up and execute art projects in collaboration with our community partners and resident artists. In producing art rooted in artistic activation, community engagement and education, we believe that we must go beyond simply installing artwork in public spaces. Two ongoing programs, the FREE FILM Project and the Plywood Protection Project, represent the core of our programming. 1-800 Happy Birthday is our first major exhibition in our new home at 7 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn.
WORTHLESSSTUDIOS is a New York not-for-profit 501(c)3.
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