Screening We’re Not Bad Kids!
Friday, July 7, 2023, 7pm
Concept / Videography by Franklin Arburtha
Runtime: 26 min.
Q&A with Charles Porter and the original NOT BAD kids: Franklin, Maribel, Roshawn, DC and Adelene
We’re Not Bad Kids is a 2004 documentary showing the lives of young people living in the area of Downtown Los Angeles known as Skid Row. The 26-minute film spotlights the social conditions they endured as well as their engagement with United Coalition East Prevention Project (UCEPP), a program of Social Model Recovery Systems. The documentary incorporates footage shot by Franklin Arburtha and his peers living in the Ford Hotel. UCEPP staff alongside Franklin worked with Paul Sabu Rogers to edit, record, and incorporate additional interviews and perspectives challenging the narrative that unhoused Black and Brown youth in Skid Row were a source of trouble.
UCEPP’s relationship with the youth began in 2003 and connections have been maintained with the vast majority of the individuals depicted in the film, who are now adults. Findings from an oral history project exploring this long-term relationship as well as spotlighting resilience and the impact of prevention will be shared later this year.

We’re Not Bad Kids, 2004
A Social Model Recovery Systems Production
Concept/Videography- Franklin Arburtha
Additional Videography -Paul S. Rogers, Charles Porter, Line Productions, Michael Mabry, Johnathan Lomax, Zelenne Cardenas, Miguel Amezquita
Photography-Richard Smith
Original Music-Bittah Munk
Editor- Paul S. Rogers
Post-Production services- BMV Productions