Their ‘O.C.’ Is About Striving, Not Glitz

When a group of Santa Ana students made a film about Orange County, they didn’t turn their cameras on the multimillion-dollar houses, Botox parties or rich high school students featured on TV shows such as “The OC,” “Laguna Beach” or “Real Housewives of Orange County.”

Instead, the students, most of them Latinos from immigrant families, focused on poetry, their recent school walkouts in support of immigrants, and their hardscrabble neighborhoods.

They hope “I Am Orange County,” their 30-minute documentary, provides a real-life contrast to the golden ocean views and indulgent lifestyles on the shows that carry the county’s name.

“I am Orange County,” declares 12-year-old Gabriela Garcia of Carr Intermediate School, reciting a poem in the film. “I am the ceramic tile filled with first steps, the grill loaded with carne asada, noisy neighbors, the smell of bread.”

Students are shown in downtown Santa Ana, outside their apartments and at the recent immigration marches

In one scene, a teen is asked what he wants to do in the future. His answer: just survive.

Sandra Sarmiento, the film’s producer, said the documentary’s message to minority students was that they, too, were part of the county’s image.

“In every single representation of Orange County, these kids are not part of it,” said Sarmiento, who heads the Orange County Children’s Therapeutic Arts Center. “What we wanted to show is that they have a place here.”

The film was the result of a $50,000 grant from the Community Technology Foundation of California to the arts center, a nonprofit organization that promotes the arts to at-risk, troubled and mentally disabled children and youths

Jocelyn Yin, who reviewed the project grant application, said her foundation backed the film because it featured “youth you don’t hear about.”

“You don’t hear about their stories in mainstream media,” Yin said. “Their stories are lost in the shuffle. This was a way to reach those youth who might otherwise fall through the cracks.”

The arts center will screen the film at 5 p.m. June 3 at its new location, 2215 N. Broadway, Santa Ana.

For the students from four Santa Ana schools, the movie’s premiere caps a year of voluntary after-school classes in which they focused on social justice and the use of technology as part of the “I Am Orange County” project.

As the class finished up, most of the students felt inspired to participate in marches opposing federal legislation to crack down on illegal immigrants.

“I know that if it weren’t for this class, I wouldn’t have been in the marches,” said Yessenia Gomez, 16, a Target cashier who told her boss she was taking a day off to march May 1. “I got encouraged when I saw footage [another student took] from the Los Angeles rally. This class made me feel we can make a difference.”

Sarmiento and instructor Victor Payan gave students disposable still cameras, one of which was used to shoot the spontaneous student walkouts.

When students left classes on several days in mid-April, Israel Ochoa, 16, of Santa Ana High School took photos that were incorporated in the film.

“I feel good because I know we are showing what Orange County is really about,” Ochoa said. “I think what I’ve learned is that even though we are poor, we do have power. When something happens, we can stand up.”