The Vietnamese Youth Development Center’s (VYDC) exemplary media program has distinguished it from traditional social service agencies. The programs in video, public art, theater, and dance are designed to encourage youth to share their experiences and perspectives with peers and family through public events with Southeast Asian and general audiences. Hands-on collaborations with artist mentors have helped youth explore their skills and share cross-cultural experiences. VYDC developed a digital media lab as a strategy to help Tenderloin youth think in new ways, to open their minds and to interact with a larger world that reaches beyond the six square blocks of their neighborhood.

The Media Lab has produced youth shorts (conceived, shot, narrated, and edited by and for youth) and feature-length documentaries (directed by Spencer Nakasako, shot and edited by Lab graduates and staff). However, the vision behind both is the same: youth development, professional development, and representing stories from Asian America. All of the features (a.k.a. Don Bonus, Kelly Loves Tony, and Refugee) have aired on PBS and screened at film festivals worldwide. The documentaries are also frequently integrated into Asian American studies and sociology curricula. Several of the shorts have screened on PBS and/or HBO.