The Summer Documentary Institute
“The AMI experience is truly something that I’ll never forget. Being a part of AMI shaped me in ways that I didn’t know was possible. The friendly and welcoming atmosphere allowed me to grow outside of my shell and go beyond my comfort zone.”
2011 Summer Documentary Institute Interns editing
2021 Summer Documentary Institute Intern Mia Lazar speaking at the 2022 CineYouth Film Festival
AMI’s Summer Documentary Institute is our annual summer programming for Appalachian youths ages 14 to 22. The program is an eight week internship that utilizes documentary storytelling as a means to explore, produce and share youth-led visions for central Appalachia’s future. During the first four weeks of the program, youth interns partake in a broad range of workshops on media production, including digital filmmaking, photography, audio production, storytelling, and film festival preparation taught by AMI staff and regional artists. Youth explore the basics of video and audio production, view and discuss documentary media, and ultimately learn how to produce and distribute meaningful media about community issues and traditions of the Appalachian region. Not only are they trained in media production skills, but also engage in in-depth discussions of challenging topics, such as environmental issues of the region and Appalachian stereotypes and representation. These discussions, though difficult to have, are vital in creating a well-rounded understanding of the complex region that is central Appalachia. After four weeks of educational and hands-on training in the first half of the program, interns are tasked with producing a short documentary film about the Appalachian region in the remaining four weeks. The Summer Documentary Institute is both an intensive and rewarding experience for promising young filmmakers; one that will help prepare them to seek higher education and enter the workforce, particularly in the field of media production.
While teaching filmmaking skills to local youth is the main goal of the Summer Documentary Institute, we also pride ourselves in being a safe and open environment for young people to explore their own identity. AMI does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender identity, sexual preference, or disability. It is our highest goal to ensure our programming is successful in terms of both educational value and being a welcoming space for Appalachian youth.
“AMI helped me to imagine a world where it is possible to pursue a more nontraditional career path. Growing up, I always wanted to work on movies but somewhere along the way it began to seem impossible; AMI and Appalshop proved that wrong. AMI is a life changing experience and a necessary stop for any hopeful Appalachian filmmaker!”
Check out our most recent SDI productions!
“No Such Right” is a snapshot of a region in crisis. In the aftermath of the stunning Dobbs v Jackson decision, doctors, lawyers, activists, and young people across Appalachia had to come to terms with what the future of their region and their rights would be. ‘No Such Right’ is our search for answers, highlighting the voices of those impacted by Dobbs and their efforts to reckon with and remedy these issues. This story is a single piece of a much larger national narrative, but it is a story that few others are in a place to tell.
Produced by Tate Greene, Deladis Haywood, Rebekah McAuley, and Sarah Sexton 2022
The experience of artmaking in Appalachia is a complex one. An Appalachian identity often creates a distinctive and strong relationship between person and homeplace, but artists are told they need to leave the region in order to learn and innovate. Being told to leave home and to escape tradition is a hard thing to reckon with, both as a person and an artist. When the artists we interviewed left home, their connection with a homeplace was what inspired them creatively much more than the urban, non-Appalachian communities they joined. As young artists in Appalachia, we wanted to learn from their innovations and their experiences of coming home in “The Art of Finding Home.”
Produced by Justin Bryant, Julian Holt, Patrick Stewart, Phoebe Wagoner 2022
This film follows the experience of four gamers: Eric VanHoose, Tommy Anderson, Nik Lee, and Nathan Varney, who highlight both the positive sides and negative sides of tabletop gaming and video gaming culture. They call attention to the issues present in gaming culture and how overcoming those issues can bring everyone together as a community.
Produced by Kaleigh Adams, Tyler Crabtree, Jason Young and the AMI Convergent Media Fellows Sean Hall and Madison Buchanan, SDI 2022