Two student-produced documentary shorts about stereotyping and racism in Salt Lake City schools and the challenges children of undocumented immigrants face in going to college will be premiered Monday, March 3, at 7 p.m. in a free, public forum at the City Library main auditorium.

Both films, which run 20 minutes each, are part of The Growing Up in Salt Lake City project, being coordinated by Caitlin Cahill and Matt Bradley, University of Utah faculty members, and Angela Romero of the Youth/City Government program in Mayor Ralph Becker’s office. The documentaries also will be screened later this month in New York City at the American Educational Research Association conference.

Los Vulnerables (Easy Targets) focuses on the challenges undocumented students face in trying to go to college. In 2007, a team of Westside Salt Lake City high school students conducted research with students, parents, community members, and legislators in order to shed light on the barriers to higher education, while highlighting the significance of legislation which made it possible for those students to maintain their right to in-state tuition. The documentary was filmed in Spanish with English subtitles.

Stereotyping and Racism in Schools also was a result of extensive research conducted by a team of high school students who administered focus groups, attended legislative hearings, and interviewed key community group representatives.

Both projects “used a community-based research approach in which young people are re-positioned as co-researchers as they frame the questions to be investigated, as they document and analyze conditions in their local areas, identify priority issues affecting young people, and develop and implement action plans,” Cahill says, adding that students were responsible for developing their ideas and themes prior to production.

The project is supported by a grant from the Bennion Center and University Neighborhood Partners. Growing up in Salt Lake City is part of an international collaboration with UNESCO’s Growing Up In Cities project. The project has actively engaged young people in community evaluation, action and change in low income communities in more than fifty sites around the world.

Monday’s screening also is sponsored by the Salt Lake City Film Center’s Spanish Language Film Series. Following the films, a panel of the student filmmakers will take questions with Dr. David Quijada serving as moderator.