We’re Changing the Scene
Combating gun violence in the USVI through the art of film.
Year Two!
Films Premiering December 19th 2025
First year!
We included 17 Virgin Islands youth ages 15-25 in the making of two short films - “Fall” & “Bulletproof Dreams”.
Both films premiered at a sold out red carpet event at Caribbean Cinema’s movie theatre.
Films have been acclaimed throughout the the community and are now playing in local schools inspiring more youth to join in film making.
2024 Our first year was a major success!
The Center for Educational Growth "CFEG" school and young adult Film Over Gun Violence Program "FOGV" is an annual, nonprofit summer film program for teens and young adults (ages 13–28). Piloted in 2024 with student-made films premiering across the Virgin Islands, FOGV uses storytelling and humanities-based learning to combat gun violence while building the local film economy. In small, hands-on cohorts, participants take a story from research to script to set—learning directing, cinematography, lighting, sound, editing, and on-camera performance. Each team creates an original short film and debuts it in the cinema where we celebrate the star power of our young people at a public community red-carpet showcase.
CFEG, Blue Tarp Productions, KFaktornize, CMCArts, and Caribbean Cinemas partnered to - "redirect youth and communities away from gun violence to the art of filmmaking".
We are changing the scene, and using film to address the gun homicide rate in the USVI, with film training and education humanities focused campaigns to combat gun violence. CFEG utilized literature, research, stats, understanding of Virgin Islands culture, community, social system, and governance, and taught students to turn these subject matters into a short film. Blue Tarp Productions and Team Faktornize are the organizing local indie film team that instructed the students on the technical details of shooting a film; from camera use, to sound, lighting and engineering, and CMCArts provided the location, and the script writing workshops facilitated by the CMCArts Artist-in-Residence program’s exuberant theatre professional, Stephanie Rolland.
Here is where to (1) find out more about our productions, (2) watch our films, (3) sign up for our CFEG school programs, or (4) partner with us on the making and distribution of films under FOGV:
(1) https://btpusvi.com/film-over-gun-violence-1
(3) https://usvicfeg.com/our-courses/
(4) https://www.rise2roots.com/distribution
