The PSAs are the result of a six-week-long seminar designed by TBWA/Chiat/Day, Playa del Rey, creative director Tony Stern to demonstrate the creative process from concept through post-production. Volunteers from Chiat's creative department and producers from OneSuch and Celsius Films collaborated with ICF students to execute the spots.

Editor Fred Heinrich and producer Stephania Lipner founded Inner-City Filmmakers in response to the LA Riots.

"The city was burning from end to end," recalls Lipner. "Because they had curfews every night, we would sit around and talk. We wanted to heal the situation some way.

"When we thought about it, nobody of color had ever passed through our office. The only thing we knew how to do was edit and produce. So that's what we felt we could give back."

Established in 1993, the non-profit organization offers a select group of high school graduates from low-income families hands-on filmmaking experience and assistance with entry-level job placement in the entertainment industry. Heinrich believes that the same skills used for filmmaking serve as a good foundation for life. "No matter what you do in life you're going to have to conceive it, plan it and execute it," he reasons, "and that's exactly what you do in a film."

IFC takes promising students nominated by their teachers, provides them with practical training and then helps them to find jobs.

Stern, who met Lipner several years ago while working at McCann-Erickson, suggested ICF expand its film workshop to include advertising. He argued that a course in creative would further acquaint students with the production process, increase access to job opportunities and facilitate the building of their reels.

"We gave them three weeks to concept," says Stern, also an ADL board member. "Every week we went through the concepts and knocked out the ones we didn't think were any good." Stern encouraged the students to draw upon their own experiences, instructing them, "Use what you see, hear and feel. There is no wrong."

Julio Lagos directed "Rap." It opens with a camera pan across the crowd at a rap concert. As the MC spouts words of hatred, he is slowly stripped of his glamour.

"You have a secret hate that comes in all forms," comments Lagos. "There is a lot of derogatory stuff being said in hip-hop and rap. Our concept was to take away all the things that make it hip, like music and lights, and just leave the lyrics. It's about listening to the words."

"Break the Chains" shows two children of different ethnicity running in a playground. As they share an ice cream, one child's mother pulls her son away from his friend and says, "I do not want you playing with his kind."

Director David Nguyen says he wanted to create a memorable image similar to the Anti-Smoking PSA he had seen with the cancer patient smoking a cigarette through the hole in her neck.

"White Knights," was co-directed by Juancarlos Morales and Jonathan Chavez. In it, a young girl drawing a picture narrates the story of a princess saved by knights. In the reveal, we see that her knights are those of the Ku Klux Klan.

Eastman Kodak supplied film for all three commercials, which are in the process of being finished with the help of Company 3, Elias & Associates, Margarita Mix, HUM Music & Sound Design, The Finish Line and others.

In the wake of the terrorist attacks, Stern maintains that the PSAs are more poignant than ever. "I don't think there's anything more important than promoting diversity. We need to get to the root of hate and stop it here and now."

For the creative, watching the diverse group of students produce the PSAs served as an example of how America works. Summing up his experience, he notes, "You're not just making a commercial, you're making a life."

ICF> http://www.innercityfilmmakers.com