black
Rubin Edwards on Bass
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenTodd Lear
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
Rubin Edwards, an accomplished bass player, is also a skilled barber. In this idiosyncratic portrait of the talented hyphenate, Edwards muses about his two lives and the choices he's made in a lyrical conversation with videomaker Todd Lear while getting a hair cut.
Todd Lear is a video artist who works and lives in the Philadelphia area.
Rubin Edwards is a Philadelphia producer, songwrite, musician and charter bassist with a jazz-fusion band called Catch 22. He continues to cut hair in Philadelphia and play bass guitar at music events throughout the region, including popular recent stints at the annual Cape May Jazz Festival. He produced contemporary jazz artist Lynn Riley's self-titled album in 2006.
August 15, 1999 - Street Movies screening at Malcolm X Park (Philadelphia, PA)
Soks "Save Our Kids"
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Princeton Atelier and Scribe Video Center
Louis Massiah, Charlene Gilbert and Carlton Jones
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
"When I was a child, Princeton was a real small community — everybody knew everybody," says SOKS founder Hank Pannell, whose goal was to recreate the small community of his childhood. "Princeton has the same needs as any inner city," observes SOKS member Tom Parker, "but the problems are being overlooked because it is Princeton." The men involved with SOKS all have the same mission — to make a difference in the lives of young African-American boys, ages 10 through 16, growing up in the Princeton community.

The idea for Princeton University's Princeton Atelier was sparked by novelist and Professor Toni Morrison's experiences collaborating on a song cycle, Honey and Rue, commissioned by Carnegie Hall for opera star Kathleen Battle. That project brought her together with André Previn who scored the music for the piece. In the Atelier program, Professor Morrison tries to capture the same excitement this collaborative experience offered her. The Atelier brings together on campus guest artists from different media for an intensive, in-residence collaborative effort with each other and Princeton's faculty and students. The focus of the Atelier is on the process of creating a work of art rather than on the finished product, and guest artists bring to campus an idea they want to create, explore, and develop. The "SOKS - Save Our Kids " videotape was produced in an Atelier directed by Louis Massiah and facilitated by Princeton students.
The "SOKS" program works to further community identification and provide high quality mentoring, recreation, and learning opportunities for young males in the Witherspoon area of Princeton, New Jersey.
September 10, 1997 - "Toni Morrison's Atelier: Students and professionals join forces to create art from the heart," by Deborah A. Kaple, Princeton Alumni Weekly
Silence... Broken
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenWritten, directed and produced by Aishah Shahidah Simmons, Poetry by Jourdan Imani Keith, Editor: Nadine Stanley
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
Silence...Broken is an experimental narrative short about an African American lesbian's refusal to be silent about racism, sexism and homophobia. Featuring the poetry of acclaimed poet Jourdan Keith, this video is dedicated to the memory of self-defined Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Mother Poet Audre Lorde who died in 1992 after a fourteen-year battle with breast cancer.
Aishah Shahidah Simmons is the founder and president of AfroLez® Productions. She is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian independent filmmaker, international lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia, PA. Her internationally acclaimed shorts Silence...Broken, In My Father’s House, and NO!, explore the issues of race, gender, homophobia, rape and misogyny. For three years Ms. Simmons was a co-producer of two television programs for WYBE-TV35 in Philadelphia, PA. She has screened her work and lectured on the impact of the intersections of oppressions, on African-American women’s lives, in Spain, Mexico, South Africa, England, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Hungary, and at numerous colleges/universities and conferences across the United States. Her awards include the 1994 Philadelphia Gay Pride Award; the 1995 Atlantic City Black Film Festival Filmmaker Award; the 1998 Audre Lorde Legacy Award of the Union Institute Center for Women, the 1998 NAACP Exemplary Citizen Award, finalist for the 1998 Roy W. Dean Grant, and the 2000 Bread and Roses Community Fund’s Waters Award for Intergenerational Activism.
October 1, 1998 - "A Shaky Market," by Neil Gladstone, Philadelphia City Paper
December 5, 2000 - "Afrolesfemcentric," by An Ngo, Bi-College News
July 2005 - Rome, Italy
April 2005 - Vanderbilt University
March 2005 - University of Massachusetts
November 2002 - Oberlin College
September 2001 - Duke University
October 2000 - Yale University
April 2000 - University of Texas (El Paso, TX)
April 2000 - Earlham College
April 2000 - Yale University
March 2000 - Bowdoin College
March 2000 - Williams College
February 2000 - National Student Assembly of the YWCA
January 1999 - The Westtown School
November 1999 - State University of New York at Oneonta
May 1998 - Black Lesbian & Gay Pride Film Festival
February 1998 - Brown University
May 1997 - Hobart and William Smith Colleges
April 1997 - Antioch University
March 1997 - London Black Lesbian & Gay Centre Film Festival
December 1996 - University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
July 1996 - National Black Arts Festival
June 1996 - Law Admissions Council
December 1995 - University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
June 1995 - University of Michigan
April 1995 - Emerging Young Wo/men Filmmakers: A Spring Film Festival
March 1995 - Villanova University's Womanist Visions Series
March 1995 - Black Nations/Queer Nations? - A Working Conference
March 1995 - Lesbian Film Festivals (Hungary & Croatia)
March 1995 - Central High School (Philadelphia, PA)
January 1995 - CEC Feminist Film and Video Series (Philadelphia, PA)
November 1994 - University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
October 1994 - Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival (Rochester, NY)
July 1994 - Various locales in Capetown, South Africa
June 1994 - San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
June 1994 - "Through the Lens 4," WYBE-TV 35 (Philadelphia, PA)
March 1994 - Central High School (Philadelphia, PA)
March 1994 - CEC Feminist Film and Video Series (Philadelphia, PA)
February 1994 - "On the Q-Tip" exhibit, Painted Bride Arts Center (Philadelphia, PA)
November 1993 - Through Our Eyes Film Festival
November 1993 - Chicago International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival
May 1993 - Festival of Independents, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
Served Souls
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Tina Morton
Did she do it?
In 1944, twenty-two year old Corrine Sykes was an illiterate housemaid accused of killing her employer, Freda Wodlinger -- and in 1946 she became the first African-American woman to be executed in Pennsylvania. But years after Corrine's death by electric chair, rumors circulated within the African-American community about a death-bed confession made by Wodlinger's husband that was published in an obscure corner of a local Philadelphia newspaper. Everyone remembers reading the confession but copies of the article were never found...
Tina Morton is an award-winning and prolific film and videomaker whose previously completed films and videos, include: The Dance in Aunt Ida Lee [LINK TO SCRIBE CATALOG ENTRY], A Day's Work, We The People, OpnFlo: Investigation, If You Call Them, The Plan and A Promise Fulfilled, which documents a Vietnam veteran who made a promise to his fallen comrade to journey across country in a horse-drawn covered wagon in the tradition of the Buffalo Soldiers. Morton's work has been broadcast on public television, featured in film festivals, exhibited in galleries and museums, and taught in colleges and universities in numerous cities across the United States.
Tina divides her time between Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC where she is an assistant professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Film at Howard University. In addition to her teaching experience at Howard University, she has taught several film/video production courses at Temple University and has served as a project facilitator for several Scribe Video Center community based projects.
June 2, 2004 - "Soul Searching," by Kia Gregory, Philadelphia Weekly
May 16, 2001 - "Severed Souls - Wrongly Accused, Corrine Sykes, First Black Woman Executed," by Arlene Edwards, Philadelphia New Observer
May 15, 2001 - Philadelphia Tribune article
May 9, 2001 - The Leader article
February 4, 2006 - Black Independent Film Festival, sponsored by Quinnipiac’s Multicultural Affairs Committee and the School of Communications, Quinnipiac University (Hamden, CT)
May & June 2004 - Art Showcase Gallery (Philadelphia, PA)
March 4 & 5, 2004 - Sisters Defining Sisters Conference (Philadelphia, PA)
March 2002 - Sedgwick Cultural Center (Philadelphia, PA)
2002 & 2003 - Part of Women in the Directors Chair Touring Festival
November 2002 - International Black Women's Film Festival (San Francisco, CA)
November 2002 - DocSide Film Festival (San Antonio, TX)
October 2002 - University of Chicago, Gender Studies screening (Chicago, IL)
October 2002 - Northwestern University (Chicago, IL)
August 2002 - Broadcast on DUTV, Cable 54 (Philadelphia, PA)
June 2002 - Manhattan Neighborhood Network Channel 34 (New York, NY)
March 2002 - Women in the Director's Chair (Chicago, IL)
March 2002 - DC Independent Film Festival (Washington DC)
March 2002 - Color of Violence Conference (Chicago, IL)
March 2002 - Future Faculty Fellowship Presentation (Philadelphia, PA)
March 2002 - Gene Siskel Black Harvest Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
February 2002 - Hollywood Black Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA)
December 2001 - McCallister College (St. Paul, MN)
November 2001 - "Independent Women Filmmakers: Viewpoints From Within" at the African American Museum of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
October 2001 - Oral History and Video: Oral History Mid-Atlantic Region Conference (Philadelphia, PA)
September 2001 - "Prison Breaks: Redemption, Revolution and Reality" at Prince Music Theater (Philadelphia, PA)
August 2001 - Street Movies! sponsored by Scribe Video Center (Philadelphia, PA)
May 2001 - "Philadelphia Stories" broadcast on WYBE-TV35 (Philadelphia, PA)
April 30, 2001 - 10th Annual Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (Philadelphia, PA)
Sam Brown
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Virginia Braxton for Scribe Video Center
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
A tribute to a Philadelphia area Black American visual artist, Sam Brown profiles an active and prolific octogenarian whose work has been acclaimed nationally and throughout the world. Brown has served as a role model, influencing many younger painters and sculptors who credit him for serving as a trailblazer for them, and as a "living resource." In addition to being an accomplished artist, Brown has devoted his life to teaching others, always generous in his interest and support of those who dedicate their life to art.
Paul Keene
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Carlton Jones for Scribe Video Center
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
"I want a confrontation," says Keene about his art. This short documentary portrait details the vision, inspiration and philosophy that grounded the work of this extraordinary Black American painter, a self-described "abstract realist" whose story reflects both the accomplishments and the difficulties of African American artists in the 20th century. As we listen to Keene and see his most commanding paintings and drawings (accompanied by a leisurely jazz and blues score), a colorful and well-rounded picture emerges of a nationally known Philadelphia-based artist at the height of his powers.
Paul Keene was a Philadelphia-born black artist who earned an prominent reputation at a time when that was exceedingly difficult for artists of his race. He earned three degrees and taught at Temple University's Tyler School of Art and the Philadelphia College of Art. In 1960 he was promoted to Associate Professor of Art at the Philadelphia College of Art. He remained there until 1969, when he left to become a full-time professor at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania, where he helped to establish a new art department. He retired from teaching in 1985 and took up his brushes full time.
In addition to the Michener Art Museum, Keene's work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, Tucson Museum of Art, and the Woodmere Art Museum, among others. His subject matter reflects his personal responses to experiences of African Americans, and his work includes voodoo symbolism, ancient Haitian deities, and depictions of jazz musicians.
Carlton Jones is a working videographer and the head of Carlton Jones Video based in Willow Grove, PA.
February 13, 1998 - Scribe Video Center Retrospective: Five on the Black Hand Side at the Painted Bride Art Center (Philadelphia, PA)
Montessori Genesis II : A Family Thing
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Montessori Genesis School & Scribe Video Center
Nadine Patterson
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
Unhappy with your child's schooling? Don't call the principal; start your own school. That's what a group of low-income African-American families from the Mantua community decided to do 30 years ago, and as this short video testifies, the results have been astounding.
Montessori Genesis II (MGII) was founded in 1976 by sixteen low-income Black families. The children of these families had had a very successful Montessori pre-school experience at the Early Learning Center in the Mantua section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. These parents wanted their children to continue enjoying a high quality education during their elementary years. But there was no nearby elementary school prepared to follow up on the Montessori education that had been so successful.
The group of sixteen families joined together to take on this challenge. They solicited the help of two Religious of the Assumption nuns who were trained Montessori teachers to instruct their children and started their own school, Montessori Genesis II. Serving as something of a magnet, Montessori Genesis II now draws students not only from the surrounding community, but from throughout the Philadelphia area such as North Philadelphia, Germantown, Greater Northwest Philly and beyond. The quality of the education and personal growth afforded the students at MGII is such that when they leave, they can go out and successfully navigate the waters of all levels of higher education and post-academic life.
August 7, 1997 - "Hey, That's Me!," by David Warner, Philadelphia City Paper
August 8, 1999 - "New Program Takes Films Out Of Theaters and Into the Streets," by Daniel Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer
August 1997 - Street Movies screening at Montessori Genesis II playground (Philadelphia, PA)
August 1999 - Street Movies screening at Montessori Genesis II playground (Philadelphia, PA)
Giant Steps
Posted July 18th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by The John W. Coltrane Society & Scribe Video Center
Toni Cade Bambara & Carlton Jones
$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses
This vibrant video takes its name from the seminalalbum legendary jazz saxophonist Coltrane released in January 1960, the first album devoted entirely to his own compositions and which bore the double-edged sword of furthering the cause of the music as well as delivering it to an increasingly mainstream audience.
The John W. Coltrane Cultural Society is dedicated to the preservation of the life, memory and works of the great John W. Coltrane and conducts forums, lectures and concerts focusing on jazz and the self-expression found in music. It also offers numerous childrenís music workshops, a live backyard performance series, as well as annual birthday celebrations in remembrance of John Coltrane. The goals of the JWCCS are to develop activities and programs to help young students to achieve self-esteem and accomplish self-expression through music. The society also wishes to make the cultural contributions of African Americans more visible to accessible to Philadelphia communities, especially through storytelling and music.
Toni Cade Bambara authored two short story collections, Gorilla, My Love and The Seabirds Are Still Alive; a novel, The Salt Eaters; and a collection of fiction, essays, and conversations, Deep Sightings and Rescue Missions (all of which are available from Vintage Books). A noted documentary filmmaker and screenwriter, Bambara taught writing workshops at Scribe for many years and collaborated on numerous productions. Her film work includes the documentaries The Bombing of Osage Avenue and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices. She died in 1995.
Carlton Jones is a working videographer and the head of Carlton Jones Video, based in Willow Grove, PA.
Brick School Legacy, The
Posted July 18th, 2007 by GretjenWilla Cofield
Filmmaker and educator Willa Cofield traces the colorful history of the Brick School, a pioneering boarding institution which provided education for African-Americans in segregated North Carolina from 1895 to 1933. The Brick School Legacy details the story of educator Thomas Sewell Inborden, who founded the Brick School in 1895 to serve the large number of rural African-Americans in the eastern North Carolina counties, and to provide solid academic training and an extension program for agricultural workers.
Dr. Willa Cofield began classes at Scribe Video Center in the fall of 1998 after an eight-year search for a filmmaker to bring the story of Brick School to the screen. She has deep roots in North Carolina, having lived in Enfield, three miles from Brick School, for much of her life. Retired from the NJ Department of Education, she now resides in Plainfield, NJ, where she co-leads Women in Conversation and works with Girls in Conversation and the Black Women's History Conference, which she founded in 1983. During the summer, she serves as a small group leader for SEED (Seeking Educational Equity and Diversity) in California, Minnesota, and New Jersey.
Fall 2002 - Cofield wins a Philadelphia Independent Film & Video Association subsidy
2004 - Winner of 2004 United States Super 8 Film + Digital Video Festival Screening Jury Citation (However, the video is not screened during festival.)
July 2003 - Winner, Best Documentary, PhilaFilm International Film Festival at the African American Museum, PA
June 12, 2002 - Film: Repertory, Philadelphia Weekly (brief mention)
June 13, 2002 - Screen Picks, Philadelphia City Paper (brief mention)
June 13 & 14, 2002 - Part of Scribe's 20th anniversary celebration kick-off at Prince Music Theater
January 23, 2003 - The North Carolina Museum of History (Raleigh, NC)
June 28, 2003 - Premiere, Inborden School (Enfield, NC)
Summer 2003 - McWilliams Family Reunion (Rocky Mount, NC)
February 2004 - Black History Month Celebration (Tarboro, NC)
Spring 2004 - Women in Conversation (Plainfield, NJ)
May 21-22, 2004 - Westfield High School Ninth-Grade English Classes (Westfield, NJ)
July 3, 2004 - PhilaFilm International Film Festival at the African American Museum, (Philadelphia, PA)
June 17, 2004 - One-Room School House Conference, University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA)
June 2004 - Vinegar Hill Festival, University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA)
July 2004 - SEED Leaders' Conference, San Deomenico School (San Anselmo, CA)
March 9 & 16, 2005 - Women of Color Film Series at Santa Rosa Junior College (Santa Rosa, CA)
January 15, 2005, Plainfield Cable Television (Plainfield, NJ)
Bombing of Osage Avenue
Posted May 8th, 2007 by GretjenProduced & Directed by Louis Massiah for WHYY-TV 12, Written & Narrated by Toni Cade Bambara
$99 for Community Institutions: Libraries, School. Non-Profit / $129 for Universities & Businesses
On Mother's Day, 1985, a virtual army of city and state police converged on a quiet block in historic Cobb's Creek, a blossoming neighborhood of parks and children, aluminum siding and basketball stars nestled in the heart of Philadelphia's African American community. By the next day, 61 homes were destroyed and 11 people were dead, all members of the communitarian MOVE organization. In this, the winner of 1987's Global Village Best Documentary Award, Massiah establishes the setting for the tragedy early on, and Toni Cade Bambara's poetic narration draws us deeper into the drama.
"...an excellent film which explores the social and politcal context in which the confrontation between MOVE and the City of Philadelphia developed." -- Bettye Collier-Thomas, Director, Center for African American History and Culture
"This extraordinary documentary is an intricately woven story of government overkill and its impact on the innocent." -- Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Women's Resource and Research Center, Spelman College
Louis Massiah is the founder and executive director of Scribe. He also produced and directed the documentary works Louise Thompson Patterson: In Her Own Words, two films for the Eyes on the Prize II series, and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices.
Toni Cade Bambara wrote several books of fiction, including The Salt Eaters, The Sea Birds Are Still Alive, Gorilla, My Love, and Those Bones are Not My Child: A Novel, and taught writing workshops at Scribe for many years and collaborated on numerous productions. She died in 1995.