Support San Diego Students' Tribeca Dream

Help San Diego Middle Schoolers Attend The Screening of Their Film at the Tribeca Film Festival!

I am a video production teacher at Challenger Middle School, a Title I public school in San Diego Unified, and I just found out that my broadcast students' short documentary is a national finalist in the RFK Speak Truth to Power Video Contest —and it’s being screened at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City on June 7th!

Their short film tackles homelessness in San Diego, the city’s most pressing issue. They interviewed Lisa Halverstadt, an investigative reporter covering homelessness for the Voice of San Diego, which is the preeminent source for local independent investigative journalism in the area.

Their film was selected as one of five nationwide finalists, and they’ve been invited to attend a special screening of their project and a celebration in NYC as part of the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival.

But... we only got a few weeks’ notice.

Use of Funds

I am hoping to help them raise the funds primarily to cover the airfare, hotel rooms for themselves and family and a little extra money so they can attend some festival screenings and maybe even meet Scorsese . This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I am personally jealous of, but I don’t want it to be a financial burden for their families, who already go above and beyond just to support their kids’ education.

About Quynh & Emily

I’ve known about the Speak Truth to Power contest for years, but I never brought it to my classroom until I met Quynh and Emily.

It takes more than talent for middle schoolers to take on a project with real weight. It takes grit, maturity, and the ability to care deeply about the stories of others. Quynh and Emily had all of that.

They chose to focus on homelessness in San Diego, not because it was easy, but because it mattered. They researched tirelessly, tracked down sources, discovered and cited archival footage, and reached out to a real journalist for a professional interview. They did all of this while continuing to produce our school’s weekly video broadcast, giving up lunch periods and weekends to create an honest and impactful story.

I may have planted the idea that their work could take them to New York, but they were the ones who brought it to life. Even when they thought their project was falling apart in the edit, they stuck with it: problem-solving, reworking, refining until the story was finally clear.

Through this experience, they didn’t just make a documentary—they became storytellers.

Check Out Their Nominated Short Film: