To create a just and connected Border Region, where media arts and creative spaces are accessible to all and utilized for learning, advancement, and collective liberation.

Changing lives, expanding perspectives, and strengthening our community through media arts education, exhibition, and production.

Media Arts Center San Diego (MACSD) evolved out of the San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF), which originated in 1993. Incorporated in 1999, MACSD has grown from a festival to a mid-size organization with diverse statewide programs and services for residents, visitors, and independent and amateur filmmakers. In 2012, MACSD moved into a new space in North Park. Renovating a derelict building, now known as the Digital Gym, has brought vitality and inspired new businesses to open in this once-blighted area. The Digital Gym allowed MACSD to expand core programming to better serve the community.

MACSD features a movie theater, a storefront community technology center, and the presenter of the globally-acclaimed annual San Diego Latino Film Festival (now in its 34th year). MACSD serves all ages through instructional programs and services, with a focus on underrepresented voices and communities. MACSD programs, events, and film festivals are diverse and inclusionary.

MACSD has been teaching media arts classes and workshops to youth for 20+ years–both in and outside the classroom—and has been serving the people of marginalized communities by using media as a tool for social change and artistic expression. Our decades of experience conducting youth media classes and workshops allow us to continue to refine our delivery to meet the needs of the populations we serve and provides the context for the development of the Youth Media Workshops.

A summary of MACSD’s major services, programs, and accomplishments can be broken down into three categories:

WATCH— We produce the SDLFF, including the iVIE Awards and Student Film Festival, as well as screen films at our independent cinema the Digital Gym CINEMA (DGC). We also exhibit the artworks produced through our educational programming during family screenings. The DGC screened over 310 independent and foreign movies this past year and was attended by 16,000+ movie goers, and the SDLFF was attended by 10,000+ film enthusiasts and filmmakers.

LEARN—Media education programs for youth fall under the umbrella of Young Producers Project (YPP) and include Young Creators Media Camps, Teen Producers Project, and the Workforce Development Initiative. This innovative YPP initiative sets precedence with a 25-year history of collaborative projects that continues to evolve with changes in technology, curriculum, and student needs. Annually, we serve over 2600+ youth throughout the City. The program emphasizes creative skill-building, media literacy, and career pathway development for underserved communities.

CREATE—Tools for community-based media production and collaboration include: production training courses for independent filmmakers in San Diego; and Community Production Services, helping community groups make digital media presence available and affordable. Last year, our Community Production team produced 59 community videos for 15 community partners such as El Cajon Valley School District, The Prebys Foundation, The Old Globe, and more. We are proud to have helped these partners tell their stories and promote their missions.

Together, these programs create a continuum from learning to production to exhibition, ensuring that emerging and underrepresented storytellers not only develop skills, but also have platforms to share their work. Our media education programs play a central role in this ecosystem by preparing the next generation of filmmakers and media professionals, directly advancing MACSD’s commitment to equity, representation, and workforce development in the media arts field.

Media Arts Center San Diego is ADA compliant. If you have questions about accessibility or require accommodations, please call 619.230.1938 or email info@mediaartscenter.org