The Global Action Project (G.A.P.) has a rich history of pursuing and advocating for effective social change through innovative uses of media. In preparing for Year 2 of our YMEJ Seminar, we found a collection of videos that G.A.P. has listed under the category of Educational Justice. Perfect, right? The videos (short flims, PSAs) address educational issues related to:

• undocumented students
• youths’ legal rights
• homophobia and violence
• the school to prison pipeline

This one in particular caught our eye:

This video questions why people leave school or fail to graduate. Rather than focusing on the more commonly held idea of “drop outs,” the video examines the trends of push-outs, and the many ways that young people feel discouraged by the educational system. Interviewing educational researchers, students, and each other, we try to present the stories behind the statistics. – See more at: http://global-action.org/video/set#sthash.9eM2qbfj.dpuf

Here are a couple of other online video repositories that include short films in a variety of formats that take up issues of social change and education in a wide embrace:

• The Media that Matters Film Festival — click here for the collection related to youth; explore the rest of the site for films on other topics including economic justice, gender, politics, and more.
• 3MinuteMedia – click for 3 years’ worth of short films under 3 minutes in length on topics such as the women’s revolution in Egypt, recycling, the arts in schools, and marriage equality. (There’s a call for entries out now for submissions for the 2013 festival.)

Follow GAP on twitter: @gapyouthmedia
Follow 3minutemedia on facebook and twitter