Check Out the American Graduate Shorts!

The Graduates/Los Graduados explores the national high school dropout crisis through the eyes of six Latino students. While the two-part special airs Monday, October 28^th and November 4^th, audiences can also watch five additional short films online, each showcasing additional challenges faced by today’s Latino youth.

The five short films are part of the American Graduate public media initiative, supported by Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to help local communities across America find solutions to address the dropout crisis. These shorts (which include Can’t Hold Me Back, I Really Want to Make It, Immigrant High, and Skipping Up) collectively showcase a diverse array of determined Latino adolescents, from Oakland to Detroit, New York to San Antonio, who have all struggled to overcome challenges — gang violence, drugs, poverty, young motherhood, and language barriers — as they keep their eyes on the prize: a high school diploma. Watch all five shorts after the jump!

Baby Mama High Directed by Heather Ross It’s the last few weeks of high school for Yessenia, a soft-spoken senior with two small daughters and a boyfriend who’d rather she stay at home than go to school. Yessenia’s forced to choose: stand up for herself and her daughters, or give in to expectation.

Can’t Hold Me Back Directed by Betty Bastidas and Madeleine Bair As Detroit teen Fernando Parraz, an accomplished rapper and budding filmmaker, aims to become the first in his family to earn a high school diploma — his ticket out of the struggles of inner-city poverty and violence — he finds support from an unlikely figure: his father, a former gangster who has suffered the costs of his own mistakes

Immigrant High Directed by Xochitl Dorsey Immigrant teens find face discrimination, language barriers, unfamiliar cultural traditions — while dealing with the changes all teens struggle with. Many give up on school. Immigrant High takes us into the halls of Pan American International High School in Queens, New York, a school that aims to give its Latino students a place to belong and excel.

I Really Want to Make It Directed by Ray Telles and Angela Reginato Sharon Montano of Oakland decides to go back to school at age 20 after several years of substance abuse and other struggles. When she discovers Civicorps Academy, where she meets other young people who have gone through similar rough situations, she finally gets another shot at a high school diploma — and a future.

Skipping Up Directed by Jim Mendiola and Faith Radle Follow a group of Texas eighth graders in the Middle School Partners Program, a successful dropout-prevention project that helps students who were previously behind catch up quickly. Participants have seen their chances of dropping out fall from 90% to 10% and it’s generated national interest as a model for schools with significant Latino populations.

Click here to learn more about the American Graduate public media initiative and be sure to tune in for The Graduates/Los Graduados this upcoming Monday, only on Independent Lens (check local listings here).