Press & Events
Tom Shepard Talks YDA on KRDO
YDA was featured prominently on KRDO’s Morning Show as part of Indy Give’s coverage. You can listen to YDA Director Tom Shepard talk about the program by going 19 minute-mark in this recording.
New Beginnings — Youth Documentary Academy
Dear Friends, We can’t thank you enough for your support this season in the Indy Give Campaign. We know there are many needs in the community, especially this year, and we really appreciate you stepping forward to keep our program alive and well in Southern Colorado. Our goal this year was … Read more »
Youth Documentary Academy student films accepted to festivals
Check out this write-up from the Colorado Springs Independent by Alissa Smith! “Student films from the Colorado Springs-based Youth Documentary Academy’s summer youth film training academy have been selected for two noted film festivals. “Students are recruited from a wide variety of schools and communities and are selected through a competitive … Read more »
YDA Alumni Share Films at the Scout Film Festival
So proud of our three YDA graduates whose films are screening at the Scout Film Festival this month. Congratulations Bat De La Cruz, Madison Goddard and Kallista Palapas. The festival programming is quite selective. Tomorrow, they are interviewing Casey Affleck, among others as part of their winter fest. … Read more »
Applications Now Open for 2021!
Students, teachers, parents, counselors in Colorado Springs: Admissions for the Youth Documentary Academy Class of 2021 are now open. Do you know a young person who has a story to tell? To learn more please visit: www.youthdocumentary.org/apply
Meet YDA Student Filmmaker Taylor Saulsbury
By the time summer rolled around and Taylor Saulsbury was ready to participate in YDA’s 2020 summer program, the COVID-19 restrictions on social gatherings didn’t faze her much. “It was disappointing,” the 16-year-old Palmer High School student said, “but because of school being online I was already impacted, so it was … Read more »
Meet YDA Student Filmmaker Ethan Frederick
It makes sense that YDA student Ethan Frederick wanted to make a personal film about COVID-19. After all, his mother’s a nurse, his father is a teacher and his older brother had to return home from college. “There were interesting perspectives I wanted to highlight. Those were candid conversations that taught me a lot,” he said. … Read more »
Alumnae Share Their Experiences of YDA in New Interviews!
Some of our YDA alums got together to interview each other about their experiences in YDA. Check out the first two below with Rebecca St. John, Class of 2015 interviewing Dee Contreras and Amethyst Reynolds. Dee One Minute with music from Youth Documentary Academy on Vimeo. Amethyst One … Read more »
Meet Some of Our Increadible YDA Student Filmmakers!
The Alexander Valley Film Society caught up with Tom Shepard, the director of UNSETTLED earlier this year. Tom’s passion project has been the creation of the Youth Documentary Academy (YDA), an organization founded in 2013, that trains young people how to direct and produce their own documentary films. Today, we … Read more »
Sneak Peak at OUR TIME, Season 2
See what YDA has been up to, with a sneak preview of OUR TIME, Season 2. Coming to Rocky Mt. PBS in 2021. OUR TIME Season 2 Sneak Peek – Trailer from Youth Documentary Academy on Vimeo.
While walking around Boulder, so many people came up to me and my dad to thank me for making AFTER WAR.
Bailey Francisco, 17
