YouthLAB members, Marisol Becerra and Zane Scheuerlein were recently chosen to receive a $10,000 award for their Open Youth Networks project, “The Cloud Factory,” a video about the youth of Little Village and their fight for environmental justice. The video is part of an international series of youth-produced documentaries being produced by Listen Up in NYC for broadcast television. Beyond Green is funded by Adobe Youth Voices

Their video was one of 15 chosen from several hundred entries. Here is the complete list:

1. Bronx River Art Center – Bronx, NYC, USA
2. Fah Diow Foundation – Thailand
3. Light House – Charlottesville, VA, USA
4. Media Education Centre - Belgrade, Serbia
5. Perpich Center for Art Education – Golden Valley, MN
6. Polimorfo – Bogota, Colombia
7. Profile Productions – Israel
8. Say Sí - San Antonio, TX, USA
9. Voiceless Children – Nairobi, Kenya
10. Worcester Roots – Worcester, MA, USA
11. Video Volunteers/YUVA – Mumbai, India
12. Manana Youth Center – Yerevan, Armenia
13. 5ta Ave. Producciones – La Habana, Cuba
14. Instituto Criar – São Paulo, Brazil
15. Open Youth Networks – Chicago, IL, USA

The series of short documentaries about how youth experience their environment will eventually be packaged for television broadcast. Open Youth Networks Director, Mindy Faber and a group of her students from the ETHS club, Youth for Social Action were awarded a similar grant from Listen Up in 2004. Their video, History Lessons, aired in the series Beyond Borders on the Independent Film Channel and won a 2007 George W. Foster Peabody Prize, broadcast television’s highest honor.

Congratulations Marisol and Zane. Check back to this site for updates soon.