Proudly, we are a volunteer driven, community-based, non-profit organization that is working with its charity partner, the Media Arts Community Centre & Museum, on the creation of a much needed community-based media arts facility in downtown Windsor. Thanks to government grants and community support, the facility was opened in summer 2023. Programs for adults include ongoing seminars by more than 20 instructors, networking, Master Short Summit, private mentoring on career goals, paid and unpaid internships, and more – for all ages and in all stages of life. Our facility is regularly used by local filmmaking for shoots and screenings. Collections and displays for a film museum are underway, with hopes of opening a museum within this same facility that will host exhibitions. In 2022-2024 we helped to produce and fund numerous film projects directed by regional talent. Our mandate is to grow talent and jobs in film and digital media through education, hands-on training, and special filmmaking projects.
About Us
The Windsor Centre for Film, Digital Media & the Creative Arts is an emergent hub for media production serving greater Windsor, Detroit, and the Southwestern Ontario region. Building upon the foundational principles, theories, and cutting-edge trends of current media practices, the Centre collaborates with local practitioners, academic communities, downtown residents, businesses, non-profit organizations, high schools, community leaders, academia, senior groups, and global artists to develop and sustain a vibrant film and media arts community in the region.
We are also a major influencer on youth. Many teen participants later go on to post-secondary programs and return as staff. We began as a summer job training program and expanded into so much more! However, we have continued to hire young adults in full-time in summer, as well as part-time for freelance film camp teaching contracts throughout the year.
The ever-popular Film Camp for Kids & Youth is a year-round educational program that grows talent though education and experiential learning. The program teaches children and teens how to excel in a variety of creative fields, including filmmaking, animation, creative writing, photography, and visual arts. Skills are taught through week-long camps as well as one hour or three-hour tutorial classes – private and small groups. In the past we have had both English and French programs, as well las day and overnight camps. An an example, our week-long filmmaking camps place participants into mini production teams where they learn the fundamentals of screenwriting, storytelling, acting, cinematography, and editing in a span of five days while simultaneously creating a 5-minute short film. We also offers a variety of 1–3-hour classes that allow students to expand their skills in focus areas. Some of our most popular classes include Drawing for Animation, Introduction to Storyboarding, Photo retouching using Adobe Photoshop, Screenwriting for short films, and much more. These tutorials are offered year-round during evenings and on weekends. Along with live camps and classes, Film Camp for Kids & Youth has also created an on-demand video tutorial library, which contains over 30 2–5-minute videos on a variety of of different aspects of filmmaking and visual arts. This tutorial library is used to further expand learning outside of the classroom.