"By Wednesday, they started believing they could do this," Alex Muñoz says. He himself never had doubts, though the daunting task for this USC film school grad was to teach 12 teens in the Hawai'i Youth Correctional Facility to make a movie.

On this day, a sunny alcove in the building that used to be the corrections administrator's house has been turned into a movie set. In the scene the kids are shooting, a boy tells his mother he's leaving home to pursue the dream of being a rap star.

The story lines are surprisingly tender for all their teenage bluster. The aspiring rapper wants to buy a nice house for his mother. A young football star risks everything to take care of his grandmother. Both protagonists — a word the kids learn from Muñoz — see their talent as a way to take care of their family. Both stories have happy endings.

In the scene, the mother character, played by powerful Hawai'i actress Mane, holds her son in her arms and tells him, "I believe you. I believe you ... you can do it."

It is an unguarded wish for a loving, supportive parent, and watching the boy act out the scene brings tears to one of the security staff's eyes.

Muñoz brought his program, Films by Youth Inside or FYI, to Hawai'i after conducting similar film workshops to incarcerated youth in Los Angeles and on Guam. He's done this enough to where he's completely comfortable having kids in prison garb handling expensive camera equipment. He builds trust. Muñoz is a foot shorter than many of his students, but he looks them clear in the eye and talks to them like they're grown, using technical industry terms and fully expecting them to catch on quickly to the subtleties of filmmaking. The effect on the kids is almost magical. They become a busy, focused, productive film crew.

"There's a transformative aspect of film," Muñoz says. The kids write scripts inspired by their experiences, but then fictionalize the story. "It allows them to deconstruct their choices and to think about it critically. It gives them perspective on their lives."

Al Carpenter became administrator at the facility in March after serving as a federal monitor evaluating the troubled lockup. He checked up on Muñoz's work in California before giving permission for the privately funded FYI to come to Hawai'i.

"They lit these kids up like I thought they would," Carpenter said.

Early next year, the edited films will be screened for the participants. The early reviews are already enthusiastic. After a particularly emotional take, one boy pronounced, "Ho, that was the Kodak moment right there."

For more, go to www.fyifilms.org.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.