activism

Louis Massiah is the founder and executive director of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, a media arts organization that provides low-cost workshops and equipment access to emerging video and filmmakers and community organizations. He is an independent filmmaker who has produced and directed a variety of award-winning documentary films for public television.

Known for his explorations of civil rights themes and crises in the African-American community, his credits include two films in the Eyes on the Prize II series and The Bombing of Osage Avenue, about the burning of a black section of Philadephia as a result of the police bombing of the headquarters of the group MOVE. He is also the director of W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices. Massiah has received awards from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the the National Black Programming Consortium, the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters, the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame and several Emmy award nominations. In 1996, he was a recipient of a five year John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship. His current project, Haytian Stories, examines the complex relationship between the United States and Haiti over the last 200 years.

Hébert Peck Jr. is an independent television producer. He has created television series, short form documentaries and web based projects for Rutgers University Television Network, a statewide closed circuit cable television and broadband Internet system. These programs air internationally through the ReseachChannel. Peck is the producer of Philadelphia Stories, a 13-hour series of documentaries and short films exploring the people, the places and things that make up the rich fabric of Philadelphia. Peck’s personal work, including the award winning video essay Little Hébert, has been broadcast on PBS and screened at festivals nationally. For eight years Peck managed the operation of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia. He completed one term as the co-president on the Board of Directors of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) and has served on an advisory capacity in such areas as film, video and multimedia production funding for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Independent Television Services (ITVS), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).

Miyoshi Smith is a media artist whose credits include two major radio series for national and international distribution: First and Last Words, a poetry series hosted by writer Sonia Sanchez, featuring Essex Hemphill, Larry Duckette and Linh Dinh; and Even the Sounds Are Blue, a musical series hosted by vocalist/composer Cassandra Wilson and featuring Michel Rosewoman, Craigh Harris and David Murray.

Centro Nueva Creation's mission is to transform their neighborhood by working with youth and families to create a better community. They believe that the assets of West Kensington outweigh the problems and that the area's youth and families have incredible resources for change. Although our community is often called "The Badlands" by the media, they like to promote it as "The Goodlands," a name more reflective of its current reality as a place where dramatic change is possible.

Dolores Luis Gmitter, Tondra L. Loder, Amy Roy, Pauline Stakelon all participated in the fall 2002 Documentary Production Workshop at Scribe Video Center. They were inspired by Toni Morrison's poem, The Big Box, a lyrical allegory of what happens when Patty, a good, but rambunctious student's freedoms are slowly taken away from her for "the greater good."

Nadine Patterson runs the awarding-winning film company, Harmony Image Productions. Her productions focus on African-American culture and the city of Philadelphia. Patterson is an award-winning independent producer of works such as I Used to Teach English, Anna Russell Jones: Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit; Moving with the Dreaming; Todo El Mundo Dance!; Shizue; and LoqueeshaAshleyFranklinJosieBrown, which was part of the second season of WYBE TV35's Philadelphia Stories. She has received funding for her projects from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, WYBE, the National Black Programming Consortium, the Philadelphia Foundation and the Leeway Foundation. She has taught courses in video production at educational institutions including Scribe Video Center, Arcadia University, Temple University and Drexel University. Her latest work is Cosmic Trane, an experimental video in three parts that uses music, movement, visual art, and documentary footage to convey some of the issues explored in John Coltrane's music.