Pan Left Productions: Home Page

New member orientation begins at 6:30 pm, just before our meeting.

If you have any questions regarding membership, please contact Heather Lares at hlares77@yahoo.com

What's Happening at Pan Left

Make Your Movie! Participants to Screen Shorts
When: Thursday, August 12
Where: The Screening Room, 127 East Congress
Time: 6:30 to 8:30 pm

Tucson youth have a lot to say about what is happening in their communities. From topics as diverse as SB1070 to skateboarding and drug abuse, 10 Tucson youth will screen their video shorts and participate in a discussion on local issues and filmmaking.

Levi is one of the filmmakers. He is also the son of one of the police officers suing the State of Arizona over SB1070. In his timely documentary, Levi explores how the passage of the law has affected his family and his neighborhood. On the day the law is scheduled to take affect, Levi is there with the camera to personally document the response from a personal and intimate point of view—spending the day with his dad.

Another filmmaker is also exploring issues through family ties. Kareem’s grandfather is Pinki Vargs, a baseball legend in Barrio Viejo. Using old photographs and interviews, Kareem documents his grandfather’s achievements and the discrimination he faced as one of the first Latino baseball players trying to make it into the major leagues in the United States.

Other shorts to be screened include:
• Gone is a music video about feeling lonely, caged and stuck.
• Obama, Lenin and Hitler seeks to dispel myths about the similarities between the three leaders put forth by the extreme right wing.
• Trick Tips in an action-packed, informative and music-filled skateboarding video.
• An exploration of how the practice of Jui Jtsu Alma has spent most of her life living in Mexico, with Tucson as a second home. As she prepares to enter high school in the United States, her documentary compares both culturally and economically her life in Mexico to that in Tucson.
• A documentary that explores the hard music and sober lifestyle that is part of the Straight Edge movement.

Free Summer Camp for Youth
Youth are often the target of media messages, yet few know how to create effective media to tell their own story in their own words. Pan Left will be hosting a FREE summer youth camp, Make Your Movie!, this summer. Starting July 19 and running for three weeks, youth ages 11-20 can learn how to use professional equipment to make their own short video. From shot lists to editing and DVD production youth will use new tools to make their stories heard in our community. For more information and registration contact marycharlotte@panleft.org or call us at 520.792.9171. This program was made possible by a grant from Kresge Tucson Initiative and Tucson Pima Arts Council.

Pan Left is Movin' on Up!
The time has come for us to move on out and get a new studio for Tucson's favorite media collective. It's been a fun ride living in shared homes and a tiny guest house, but we've gotten bigger and stronger since then and the lion wants out of the cage. We're going to get a new habitat with enough space for screenings, production, performances, art, and anything else that helps wake the masses. We need to raise $10,000 to meet our goal of moving.

The timing couldn't be better. Right now in Tucson the arts are under attack. The budget crisis has hit our community hard, but we're not taking it lying down. We're ready to make our mark in a new space that shows this town that grassroots art is alive and not going anywhere. But we need your help. You know we make sure media is in the hands of the people that need it and not the people that buy it. Please donate today towards our move.

Special THANKS To Our Funders
Our work to date has been made possible by the invaluable support of:

And generous contributions from individual donors.

Media Cafe/ From the Pan Left Blog

Youth Videos from the Summer Program

Here they are!