FREE FILM : NYC - LES

March 10 - April 9, 2023 Neighborhood: Lower East Side, Manhattan Partners: Lower East Side Girls Club Prompt: One Square Mile Artist: Destiny Mata

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FREE FILM : NYC follows the footsteps of the previous iterations as a meditation on community and local culture. The Airstream-darkroom will take up residency in a given neighborhood and distribute free rolls of film to the general public, and WORTHLESSSTUDIOS will partner with local community organizations and hold youth workshops where students will learn how to use a film camera, focus a lens and process and print film using professional equipment provided by FREE FILM. Over the course of the next year and a half, the project will make its way around New York to document each borough, neighborhood by neighborhood.

FREE FILM : NYC will kick off 2023 during Women’s History Month on the Lower East Side with the LES Girls Club. The Airstream-darkroom will live outside the LES Girls Club on 8th street for the month as WORTHLESSSTUDIOS distributes film and facilitates photography classes to youth.

Participating photographers of all ages will shoot within the boundaries of one neighborhood at a time, responding to the prompt “ONE SQUARE MILE.” Destiny Mata, The Lower East Side Girls Club’s Artist-in-Residence will teach a series of 6 workshops for Middle and High School girls as part of their Spring 2023 After School programs. Upon completion of the project across NYC neighborhoods, WORTHLESSSTUDIOS will produce a FREE FILM : NYC book.

Whether you’re an experienced photographer or simply interested in learning how to shoot with 35mm film, come pick up a roll and celebrate the kick off of WORTHLESSSTUDIOS’ FREE FILM : NYC on the LES at 402 E 8th St, New York, NY 10009 on Friday March 10th 3:30pm–6pm. RSVP here.

As part of the WORTHLESSSSTUDIOS collaboration with the Lower East Side Girls Club, we will also host photowalks with local photographers throughout the month of March and early April. Find out more about FREE FILM public events and workshops by subscribing to the WORTHLESSSTUDIOS newsletter below.

Programming Schedule:

Friday, March 10th, 3pm-6pm Launch Party and Distribution Day at LES Girls Club RSVP here.

Saturday, March 18th, 2pm-4pm LES Girls Club and mentors photowalk with Destiny Mata RSVP here.

HOW IT WORKS

Step 1: When a new neighborhood is launched, photographers come pick up a roll and celebrate the kick off with WORTHLESSSTUDIOS wherever the Airstream darkroom is parked. Photographers fill out a sign-up form to join and film is given out on a first come, first served basis.

Step 2: Participating photographers have a month to shoot their roll of film on the prompt of “ONE SQUARE MILE” within the boundaries of the current neighborhood. Participants are asked to interpret the theme however they see fit.

Step 3: Once they have shot their film, participants return their roll of film (with their name written on it) by the deadline and fill out the return form to ensure their film is processed. There will be a drop location that can receive film at all times.

Step 4: WORTHLESSSTUDIOS will process all film and scans will be emailed FOR FREE to photographers, whether or not they choose to have their negatives returned. WORTHLESSSTUDIOS develops film and sends scans on a rolling basis so the sooner you return the sooner you get your scans.

Step 5: The images could be published into a hardcover book! FREE FILM : NYC will travel to multiple neighborhoods over the next 18 months distributing film on the same prompt phrase. Once all the neighborhoods are complete a selection of images from each neighborhood will be put together and published as a book like we’ve done for the last three iterations of the project.

Find out more about FREE FILM public events, workshops, and upcoming iterations by subscribing to the WORTHLESSSTUDIOS newsletter below.

ABOUT DESTINY MATA

Destiny Mata is a Mexican American photographer and filmmaker based in her native New York City as she focuses on issues of subculture and community. After studying photojournalism at LaGuardia Community College and San Antonio College, she spent 2 years as Director of Photography Programs at the Lower East Side Girls Club Mata and has had work published and featured in Teen Vogue, Vice’s Noisey, Vibe, The Source, and Mass Appeal. Mata has recently exhibited La Vida En Loisaida: Life on the Lower East Side at Photoville Festival 2020. She has taken part in a group exhibition at ICP Concerned Global Images for Global Crisis at the International Center of Photography 2020, Mexic-Arte Museum, Young Latino Artists 21: Amexican@ 2016 and in 2014 she exhibited photographs of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy at the Museum of New York City’s, Rising Waters: Photographs of Sandy exhibition.