The community is invited to attend the California Listens 2019 — Lompoc, Youth Filmmaker Showcase and watch films created by local youth, 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21, in Lompoc Public Library’s Grossman Gallery, 501 E. North Ave.

The festival is free to attend, and Certain Sparks Music will be leading a free ukulele class before the films are presented. Attending the film festival and cheering on the young filmmakers is an excellent way to help support local youth and art in the Lompoc Valley.

Participating youth filmmakers created short films about Lompoc organizations that have impacted their lives, including Certain Sparks Music and the basketball program offered at the Boys & Girls Club of Lompoc. Other films feature personal stories about Lompoc families, fictional stories and film reviews.

California Listens 2019 — Lompoc was a digital storytelling workshop at the Lompoc Public Library in April. The workshop was part of a multi-year program held at select public libraries throughout the state, and sponsored by the California State Library in conjunction with Califa Group, StoryCenter, the Lompoc Public Library and the Charlotte’s Web Bookmobile.

Rachell Frazian, youth services librarian and bookmobile manager for the Lompoc Public Library, facilitated the program coming to Lompoc, and offered the Charlotte’s Web Bookmobile as a unique recording studio for the audio-recording portion of the workshop.

The bookmobile, together with the Lompoc Public Library, were chosen as one of six libraries in California for the 2019 program.

The staff of StoryCenter, a Berkeley-based nonprofit, led the two-day workshop for 10 children to make their own short films. Participants learned to create their own digital story by writing and recording a narration script, and then editing their short film.

In addition to being showcased at the Sept. 21 film festival, the videos are published and available to view on the Charlotte’s Web Bookmobile YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPGIv_vl_hVUb0vhy0aOtiQ.

— Samantha Scroggin for city of Lompoc.