MediaRights, an OSI Youth Media Program grantee, launches its fifth-annual Media That Matters Film Festival May 26 in New York City. Sixteen provocative, short, social-issue films make up this year’s festival and range from fast-paced musical animations to insightful personal documentaries that offer new perspectives on the war in Iraq, racial identity, global warming, gay rights, civil liberties, sustainable agriculture/development, drug addiction, and more.

The festival includes a year-long program of web streaming, DVD distribution, and screenings around the country intended to connect audiences to inspiring, independent, and youth-produced short films that spark debate and action.

A jury of media professionals, activists, and filmmakers met in February to choose the sixteen official selections out of a pool of over 450 submissions from around the country.

Six of the this year's selections were made by young people, including All That I Can Be, produced by OSI-grantee Educational Video Center. The film features William, a young man who feels that joining the military is his only way out of a dead-end job and a rough life. All That I Can Be was the winner of the Economic Justice Award.