Film Courage: FYI (Films By Youth Inside) that is your nonprofit? Alex Munoz, Founder of FYI Films/Filmmaker: Yes. Film Courage: Do you remember the day
that you not just applied for the the nonprofit status but that you
actually came up with the idea to do it? Alex: Yes, I wish I could say I had this
great idea to teach filmmaking to incarcerated youth but it actually was a
result of as a consequence of my my encounter with a group of community
activists when I did my first movie about the LA riots [1992] for a short time
which investigated the civil unrest following the Rodney King verdict. We
screened the film at first AME Church and leaders from the Latino community,
Korean American community, African American community and also LAPD [Los Angeles Police Department] people
were there to have a panel discussion and the screening was shut down by a
group of about 20 to 22 young black activists who said "F' Hollywood! You guys
don't offer any jobs training or workforce development. We have all these
young brothers and sisters who want to get in. You just come in here and make
your films and don't talk to us. What needs to happen for our people from our
community to enter your industry?" And they set the screening down for two
hours and a lot of producers left. They said "You are discriminating against
people of color and people from disadvantaged communities this is nonsense. We
want answers now!" So it was good that the producers heard this it was important
and finally Reverend Cecil Mary said "Let's show the film and let's talk
more after." And I went up to these young activists and I said "Hey, I don't
think it's fair to depict all Hollywood filmmakers as uncaring. I'm interested in
doing what I can." They said "We'll prove it!" And I said "Well how do you want me to
prove it?" And they said "Go to Herman G. Stark [Youth Correction Facility in Chino, CA] where they consummate the most
violent youth offenders and tell them about your journey. Tell them about what
you do, that you went to USC [University Southern California], that you're a professional filmmaker. Be a role model
to them." So two weeks later I go Herman G. Stark and I'm given a uniseg
which is this round device it looks like a pager and they said if you feel in
danger pulled a pin and within 10 seconds the SWAT team will enter your
room and I'm thinking oh my god what did I get myself into so I'm in this room
full of 35 young men while see Latino and black males covered with tattoos, ankles
cuffed, a lot of sadness in their eyes, a lot of depression and dimness you
know? And I start talking to them and about an hour and a half into my
presentation I leave the room to use the restroom and I had sip my favorite pair
of Maui Jim sunglasses on the chalkboard and like $250 and my favorite pair of
sunglasses so I came back into the room and they were gone and so I just figured
I'll talk about this before I leave so at the end of the three hour
presentation I said hey guys I came in here with my favorite pair of sunglasses
and I drove all the way out here it took like an hour and 20 minutes like I like
them back but I won't tell anybody would happen no one's gonna get in trouble so
I'm gonna leave the room you guys talk amongst yourselves and I'll come back
two minutes and let's try to find the resolution so I left the room when it's
a hallway got a glass of water just had quiet time and then I came back and I
said okay so can someone tell me where my sunglasses are and a black and Latino
youth stood up and said mr. muñoz we know where your glasses are and you
could have them back under one condition and I said what's that they said if you
promise to come back it teaches more about filmmaking and I said well that's
not the way the real world works you don't hold things very ransom to get
what you want but I understand what you're saying you're basically saying
that you really really want to learn more about filmmaking that would have
worked with me if you just would have said money loss we really really want to
learn more about film we could please come back this wasn't necessary but I'm
not gonna hold it against you give me my glasses back so they gave him back and
on the way home I realized that this is a population that is very underserved
and demonized and criminalized and neglected and
understood and that's when I decided to continue my work because of the 20 to 25
young black activists who disrupted the screening at first AME Church and the
black and Latino youth who took my glasses and said you can have them back
if you promise to come back without toast those two events and we'd be
talking to you about my films so this was in 92 or this was in know this was
90 this is actually two thousand two thousand one two thousand one two
thousand one the riots were 1992 but the film came out years later oh okay and so
in 2001 then that's where it was showing at this church yes Oh interesting okay
but so you know when people that's why to me like community activists and
grassroots organizers the they're the ones that inspired me to do this they
led me to this place I wish I could say yeah I have this great idea but it just
happened I stumbled into it because of community activists and I feel like the
black and Latino Ward were also activists for their for their fellow
students saying we want more arts programming because there was none going
on in Hermann G stark at that time and so how are you able to get it approved
to be able to go in there like did you come up with do they say okay come up
with sort of a curriculum yes I had to I had to create a curriculum and you know
I obviously I based it off of my first semester of USC film school but these
youth are sub literate they write and read at about the fifth or sixth grade
level so I realized I had to take a different approach to how I taught
filmmaking they're all so bored with the stagnant grammar of mainstream cinema
they don't like the formality of it and they really resent how how people of
color are misrepresented they demand authenticity so I had to come up with
the curriculum that was commensurate with the academic capacities of this
population and then I had to do all these background checks and then I did
workshops for like another three years and then
decided to make it into a full-fledged nonprofit and so so many questions um
what were some of the first things you either wanted to discuss let's say the
first day of a program with new new youth these are all incarcerated youth
right this isn't okay so they're all incarcerated and how long are most of
their terms are they until they're adults were yeah well it depends so it
usually in LA County Probation it ranges from 6 to 11 months okay and we are
would we have to do when we pick the the staff at the correction facilities help
us identify and locate the right use because if we have a youth we have to
make sure that they're going to be there for the whole two weeks while we make
the film and then the other thing I always talk to the the leadership about
it at the correctional facilities is how we say don't send me all the good kids
the kids who are like straight-a students and are doing well send me the
back is because they're the ones that benefit the most in the first two days
it's it's usually rocky with the kids who are like you know have are more
reckless in you know the troubled kids but they end up being the best students
so we not only want to impact the students who are behaving well while
they're incarcerated but the kids who society gives up on because I don't
think we should ever give up on people that's interesting why do you think the
quote unquote worse kids are the best students in the end I think I think
children and youth even adults act out more and act more recklessly when they
don't feel loved I would say that most of the students I have who have really
had bad behavior problems don't have any sense of lover or sense of belonging why
don't you share this with you not to be a downer but I've been working with this
population for like 18 years and have had FYI for since for about 14 years and
in the last year and a half we lost three alumni we lost three students one
student pandered his life bio dean because he had no hope
another student ended his life on the day you turned 14 because yet no home
and another student was deported to Guadalajara Mexico and I I got really
down about it and I'm thinking why why is this happening like why why did we
lose to be students in a matter of a year and a half like what could we be
doing better I started blaming myself like I should
have done more shit anymore so I found out about to the students I'm using
fictionalized names because I can't use the real names Ricardo and Andrew I was
really upset about them and then the student who got deported I call him Jose
he called me he found me on Facebook and he called me on Facebook and he said
this is in a moment when I reached the nadir of my despair I was really upset
about losing alumni and he said hey Munoz I'm calling you from Guadalajara
Mexico my family got deported I said really sorry to hear that he said no but
there's a good part of the story I said what's that he said one of my best
memories of being incarcerated at camp Gonzalez was taking your film class I'm
teaching filmmaking to incarcerated youth and go out Mahara
oh wow I've turned everything around for me because see we learned that when we
touch people's lives that gives them the ability to touch other lives so that
lifted me so one of my alumni he lifted me out of my dark hole I fell into when
I found out about students so the last film we did I talked about these three
students to my last group of students and we decided to they decided to
dedicate this film to the three students we lost this in memory of them and guess
what the film is about it's about banishing
it's about people disappearing so it's deep you know but but sometimes there's
tragedy in life and sometimes there's pain and sometimes there's suffering and
you learn and you grow from those things and although I will miss you know we're
Carlin Andrew and my I still am greeting them I'm more inspired to work harder to
help these young people get on a better path and these people all had these
things happen that the two that ended their lives after they got out of the
camp yeah years after yeah and the
interesting story that the young man who was with this at after ball I was
showing his film to the last group of students I had a football less fall and
one of my students fell out of his chair and started screaming I'm like what's
wrong and he said that actor in the film that's my cousin I haven't seen him
since he died and I'm like what he said that's my cousin and I said okay do I
need to stop the film he said no I'm so happy to see my cousin
happy this means so much to me to see my cousin that he did something and he was
a really good actor in this film it was called regret it's about how we make
decisions that we regret but we learn from it and so I ended up talking to the
student's mother who was the aunt of the young man who killed himself and I'd let
her know that her son really shined in this film so the next week I went to the
family's home and screened this film for them they never knew that he was in the
film class they never knew he could act and the screening became this moment of
celebration because they were so proud of him for like learning all these lines
and carrying the film so this film ended up giving everyone in his circle of
friends and family closure and they loved the film they didn't know he was
in it that's what I'm saying all these moments
that they just kind of like they're like these magical like it's almost like a
higher hand is like orchestrating it yeah it is and I learned that hey from
now on when I screen films I have to say hate worse being felt from people who
were here two years ago if you know anyone let me know if it's because I
don't you know what traumatized individuals you can't one trigger will
get them back on the path of trauma or we cannot reach AMA ties people who are
traumatized and I didn't know what was going on when when this young man fell
out his chair and was screaming but he was screaming with joy because he saw
his cousin kicking ass as an actor and carrying this film and looking happy and
it the film ended up becoming a healing element for the family and they watched
the film four or five times and we ate we ate dinner and we held hands and we
prayed and I just realized these films are not just important in terms of
informing lawmakers when they come up with policy for use of digits vadas
communities they also affect the individual for maker and their families
you