civil rights
A Community in Transition
Posted July 17th, 2008 by TeishanFriends Neighborhood Guild with Scribe Video Center
This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.2 compilation DVD.
In 1949, interracial cooperative living was a radical idea in Philadelphia. The Friends Housing Cooperative transformed this concept into practice. Founded by the Friends Neighborhood Guild and the American Friends Service Committee—both Quaker organizations—to provide low-income collective housing for black and white families years before the organized Civil Rights Movement came to prominence, the Friends Housing Cooperative was a community of people who lived their ideals.
W.E.B. Du Bois : A Biography In Four Voices
Posted July 19th, 2007 by Gretjen
Produced and directed by Louis Massiah, Writer/Narrators: Wesley Brown, Thulani Davis, Toni Cade Bambara and Amiri Baraka
The long and remarkable life of Dr. William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B) Du Bois (1868-1963) offers unique insights into an eventful century in African American history. Born three years after the end of the Civil War, Du Bois witnessed the imposition of Jim Crow, its defeat by the Civil Rights Movement and the triumph of African independence struggles.
"A beautiful and moving epic - not only about a brilliant and important figure but about the struggle of a people in the 20th century...Will make a wonderful teaching tool. I was personally inspired." -- Lani Guinier, University of Pennsylvania
"An absolutely incredible job! Your film on Du Bois nears perfection . . . A resonantly full work of art. I can't imagine that Du Bois himself would not weep in gratitude upon seeing the work." -- Houston A. Baker Jr., University of Pennsylvania
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.
April 1996 - Circle Audience Award Winner, FilmFest DC (Washington, DC)
November 1997 - Bronze Plaque in Social Issues category, The Chris Awards, The Columbus Film and Video Festival (Columbus, OH)
November 15, 1995 - "Du Bois film to have advance showing here," MIT News Office
April 25, 1996 - "All Together Now: Scribe Video's Louis Massiah uses many voices to tell the story of W.E.B. Du Bois," by Jeannine DeLombard, Philadelphia City Paper
May 2, 1996 - "Well-attended Tribute Features New Document Comments on 'Philadelphia Negro' Reissue," by Jehron Hunter, Black Issues in Higher Education
February-March 1997 - "W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices," American Visions
February 7, 1997 - "Pioneer in Sociology, Persevering Fighter for Civil Rights," by Walter Goodman, The New York Times
February 8, 1999 - "Third World Center hosts movie, lecture on life of W.E.B. Du Bois," by Triza Cox, The Daily Princetonian
February 23, 1994 - Excerpts screened at Celebrating the Birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois event, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York, NY)
June 21, 1996 - Boundaries · Bodies · Borders, American Studies Summer Institute (Pullman, WA)
November 2, 1996 - Presented by Gerald Horne, Department of History, University of North Carolina at American Studies Association Annual Meeting: GLOBAL MIGRATION, AMERICAN CULTURES, AND THE STATE (Kansas City, MO)
1997 - Film/Video/Television & Socio-Economic Transformation in the African World, African Humanities Institute Programme, University of Ghana (Legon, Ghana)
February 7, 1997 - Broadcast nationally on PBS
February 20, 1997 - Film Studies Center at the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
October 5 & 6, 1997 - New Docs, Neighborhood Film/Video Project at International House (Philadelphia, PA)
October 20 & 24, 1998 - Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, PA)
February 7, 1999 - Screened at Third World Center, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
Summer 1999 - Du Bois Week, Institute for the International Education of Students, American Studies Program Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Berlin, Germany)
March 6, 2000 - Screened as part of "Telling Lives: African American Autobiographies 1890-1960," Ramapo College (Mahwah, NJ)
March 21 - 24, 2000 - Inaugural Mercer University Symposium, Mercer University (Macon, GA)
February 7, 2002 - Part of Louis Massiah's appaearance as new artist-in-residence in the Afro-American Studies Program at University of Pennsylvania, International House (Philadelphia, PA)
February 20, 2002 - Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY)
February 5, 2003 - Colby College (Waterville, ME)
February 5, 2003 - Featured screening in The Council on African Studies and the Afro-American Cultural Center at Yale University's VISIONS OF AFRICA: Contemporary African Cinema series
February 11, 2003 - Gettysburg College (Gettysburg, PA)
May 15, 2004 - "The Search for Equality: Brown Vs. Board of Education" film series, Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA)
February 7, 2005 - Screening of the first and second parts of the film, John Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD)
February 23, 2006 - Louis Massiah presents film in celebration of Du Bois' 138th birthday at Haverford College's Multicultural Center (Haverford, PA)
Louise Thompson Patterson: In Her Own Words
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenLouis Massiah and Scribe Video Center
If she had been a bigger fan of capitalism, Louise Thompson Patterson might have been a Horatio Alger heroine, lionized today as a pioneering woman of the Harlem Renaissance and a role model for both African Americans and women of all colors. Instead she put the skills and education that she fought for and won in a racist society to work for the liberation of African Americans, the US working class, and the exploited and oppressed peoples throughout the world.
ebruary 18, 2002 - Cinema on the Edge screening at Ithaca College's Park Hall Auditorium (Ithaca, NY)
- February 21-23, 2002 - Part of "Langston Hughes and His World: A Centennial Celebration," a Yale Department of African American Studies program (New Haven, CT)
- October 1, 2002 - Issues in Black Independent Cinema: The Documentary series at University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
- October 17, 2005 - Screened in the Jones Room of the Woodruff Library at Emory University, followed by a panel discussion with scholars and activists, including Pattersonís daughter, Dr. MaryLouise Patterson (Atlanta, GA)
- March 10, 2006 - Part of event focusing on the work of Louis Massiah and held at Squeaky Wheel/Buffalo Media Resources (Buffalo, NY)
October 2005 - "About Arts at Emory" Artist of the Month Interview with Randall K. Burkett prior to Emory University screening of documentary
A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown
Posted July 18th, 2007 by GretjenLouis Massiah
The history of activism, particularly youth activism, in Philadelphia has roots that are long and deep -- from struggles against slavery to contemporary struggles against racism, criminalization of youth and around educational issues. A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown looks at the growing community of youth activists that has developed in this area, how they have built upon the strategies of other progressive campaigns including the Civil Rights and labor movements, and the ongoing struggles around HIV/AIDS policy.
Mr. 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.
September 26, 2002 - Brief mention in Philadelphia City Paper's Screen Picks column
July 30, 2002 - Philadelphia Stories 2, WYBE-TV 35 (Philadelphia, PA)
October 1, 2002 - Issues in Black Independent Cinema: The Documentary, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
January 26, 2003 - Algonquin Indiefest (Lambertville, NJ)
April 10, 2003 - Saint Joseph's University, Campion Center, "The Role of Filmmakers on Telling Community Stories" (Philadelphia, PA)
