The East LA Society of Film and Arts

Mission

The Mission:

To heal children and their families through art and film.

About

The East LA Society of Film and Arts (TELASOFA) was started as an initiative to introduce youth in East LA to filmmaking, photography and Theater in 2005 as a program of Bienvenidos Children's Services.

At TELASOFA we believe in the relationship between creative arts and health outcomes. We use the visual arts as a medium for educating children and families on public health issues. Engaging or initiating arts it can enhance families mood, emotions and have other noticeable psychological effects.

Our youth programs are data driven and use evidence based curriculums. For the past ten years we've focused on HIV/STDs and substance abuse prevention using evidenced based curriculums approved by NREPP. Our cohorts are six sessions with an additional two months of engagement through using visual arts.

Through our unique connection to Hollywood once the youth go through the 6 sessions we are able to provide additional education in the field of digital media arts by teaching photography and filmmaking.

TELASOFA is located and operates in East Los Angeles and continues to serve a need for the creative film industry on the East Side of Los Angeles, where there are no major film industry centers or film programs in the area. External data shows that East Los Angeles has the largest concentration of Latinos in the U.S. Unfortunately, 29% of families are living below poverty level. At the same time, it is a young community, with now over 50% of the population under the age of 23. TELASOFA’s participants are 90% Latino, 5% Asian American and 5% African American. This area has shown 51.8% substance abuse, 53.3% family conflict, 61% exposure to gang violence, sibling who is a teen parent 25% and 73% with no health insurance. TELASOFA believes that community change occurs when the community itself is actively involved, educated, and working toward shared goals. TELASOFA empowers local youth and young adults to address the challenges that they and their peers face through creative video, filmmaking and animation. In this time of little to no economic growth for young adults, additional skills such as the arts can give job seekers an advantage over their counterparts.

Our East LA Film Festival is on it’s 16th anniversary. Please stay tune for dates and locations.

Los Chicanit@s film was founded in 2024, the film program is for all and intially funded by the Eastside Arts Initiative. The program will travel to various locations throughout Los Angeles County.