Change in 60 sec.

When 19-year-old Brian Gonzalez, a film student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, saw a homeless man in a subway station talking about AIDS, the moment changed his life. "I felt it was my duty as an artist who cares about this country to do something," he says.

So Gonzalez made a 60-second film about safe sex called It's the Buzz and entered it in a new film competition called Film Your Issue. Founded by freelance journalist HeathCliff Rothman, the contest was created to encourage young people to speak their minds by making films about important social issues. "Originally, the idea was to make public service announcements geared toward youth. But I thought, Why don't we have kids make their own films that will resonate for them more directly?" says Rothman.

"My relationship with my boyfriend was my inspiration," says Emre Ozpirincci, who, like Gonzalez, was one of three LGBT youth filmmakers among the 35 semifinalists. The 27-year-old Ozpirincci made a minute-long spot about same-sex marriage titled Close-up of a Human. "Through FYI we got to demand our rights and be heard," he says.

The films attracted a vast viewership on MSNBC.com, and more than 88,000 people voted on them. Aubrey Ellen Shomo, a 22-year-old transgender woman, made The Hippocratic Oath, a film about abuse in psychiatric wards. "Realizing we can change the world is the first step in actually doing it," she says.

Gonzalez was selected as one of five winners. His film can be viewed on MTV's college Web site at www.mtvu.com/on_mtvu/ activism/film_your_issue/.