UNTITLED, by Jocelyn R. and Destiny B.B.E., ages 15 & 13. Venice, CA & Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota

LEARN MORE ABOUT JOCELYN AND DESTINY:

Jocelyn, now 17, is a filmmaker, photographer, drawer, reader, writer, bookworm, listener, observer, reactor, and lucid dreamer, who, thanks to Venice Arts, where she has been taking classes since she was 13, now identifies as an artist. Jocelyn is enrolled in Advanced Studies, where students can work on self-directed projects, receive one-on-one mentoring, build their portfolios for college and professional opportunities, and work as paid Youth Art Interns at Venice Arts or with creative businesses in the Venice Media District. Jocelyn was a Youth Art Intern at Venice Arts in 2009–2010 and in 2010 completed an internship at NBC/Universal, where she was immersed in the editing department of Law & Order: SVU. Jocelyn is currently working as a paid intern with film director Donna Deitch for the Women’s Media Center. This year, along with several other students from Venice Arts, she also worked on a paid shooting and editing project for the Venice Family Clinic, who contracted Venice Arts to produce a series of kid-centered videos to promote nutrition and exercise in busy waiting rooms of local free clinics.

In 2009, Jocelyn received a full, four-year high school scholarship to the Le Lycée Français with the help of her Venice Arts mentor. Last year, Jocelyn served on the curatorial team for the Youth Arts & Media Festival (YAM), selecting photographs for the youth photography exhibition and films for the screening program. In the spring, she traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent Venice Arts at the Kennedy Center’s What’s Going On Now Youth Summit, and to San Diego to participate in a Media Arts Boot Camp drawing youth from around the state. Her own films have screened at numerous festivals including the Santa Monica Teen Film Festival, the YAM Festival, and the CineYouth Film Festival (part of the Chicago International Film Festival). She has also had the opportunity to further her studies at the California State Summer School for the Arts (CSSSA) and Idyllwild Arts Academy through scholarships facilitated by Venice Arts.

For this project, Jocelyn was paired with Destiny, a 13-year-old photographer in the My Viewpoint Youth Photography Initiative on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. To make this double-exposure photograph, Destiny shot places that are important to her and Jocelyn focused on people who are important to her.