The Sacramento Film & Music Festival will be hosting the premiere of Jennifer Lystrup’s film “Beautiful Youth,” a documentary that highlights the issue of youth homelessness in Sacramento, to the public. The documentary sheds light on 10 homeless youths and tells their stories in their own voices. The 47-minute film will be shown at the Crest Theatre at 6 p.m. on Thursday. “I’m so happy to even have this opportunity,” Lystrup said, “It’d be really nice if people from the local city government show up because this is an issue that needs to be addressed.” In a previous Sacramento Press article on the documentary, Lystrup said she had hoped to get a public screening for the film in the f

Jennifer Lystrup, a teacher of social justice at Christian Brothers High School, tackled the ongoing issue of homelessness among youths in her first documentary, “Beautiful Youth.” “Beautiful Youth” chronicles the individual stories of several homeless transition-age youths – youths between the ages of 18 and 24 – in Sacramento told in their own words. “A lot of them were optimistic or at least willing to try to talk about what’s going on. They want to be heard as much as anyone else,” said Sonny Iverson, lead outreach worker for Wind Youth Services. Wind is one of the few programs in Sacramento that deals with ties between homelessness in youths and sexual trafficking of minors. The 47

Equality Action NOW, Sacramento’s leading grassroots civil rights organization is hosting the 2nd Annual Harvey Milk Day event at the beautiful Crocker Art Museum (216 O Street, Sacramento, CA), Sunday, May 22, 2011. A special VIP reception will be held from 5 -6:30pm. VIP Tickets are $50 per person. Beginning at 6:30pm there will be a short presentation in the auditorium, a performance by Spoken Word Artist Jovi Radtke, then the award-winning documentary; The Times of Harvey Milk will be shown. The film is educational and is appropriate for all ages. Tickets for the film-only will be $15. Reserve your tickets online at www.EqualityActionNOW.org. Funds raised at this event will be used

On Tuesday, the Sacramento Area Peace Action showed the PBS documentary “Paperback Dreams” for its fourth Tuesday film this month. Only seven people showed up to this month’s showing, which is abnormal, according to David Kimble, who regularly attends. (good info) SAPA’s fourth Tuesday films are at 909 12th St. in the first-floor conference room. The showings are free and open to the public. SAPA has been showing films on the fourth Tuesday of the month for free the past seven years. The next film will be “Not Just a Game: Power, Politics & American Sports” on Jan. 25. “Paperback Dreams” tells the story of two Bay Area independent bookstores, Cody’s Books and Kepler’s Books. The film doc

With family and friends in attendance, 40 aspiring high school filmmakers debuted their documentary shorts at the second annual Documentary Foundation Film Festival Sunday. The Sacramento student filmmakers covered a multitude of issues including racism in high school, legalization of marijuana, pink-slipped teachers and prisoner work programs in Folsom Prison. The program is taught by Sacramento native documentary filmmakers Keith Ochwat and Christopher Rufo and sponsored by KVIE. The duo created the Documentary Foundation student program as a means to inspire future generations of documentary filmmakers. "There are so many issues that affect peoples' lives," Ochwat said. He spoke of th