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Founded in 1975, Community Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services (COMHAR) helps people of all ages and cultures in the community who have developmental disabilities, mental health concerns, physical limitations and other challenges. Though this video focuses on a COMHAR branch serving three North Philadelphia neighborhoods, COMHAR provides assistance at home and a broad array of services at multiple COMHAR locations throughout Greater Philadelphia and lower Montgomery County.

Sharon Mullally began her career with 10 years in staff positions at broadcast television stations in Philadelphia and Baltimore. Since leaving the commercial broadcast industry to pursue documentary work, Sharon has edited several national PBS programs for WHYY-TV 12 in Philadelphia, including The Dinosaurs!, Furniture on the Mend, and Remember When. For her editorial work on Yearbook--The Class of '65, produced by Fox Philadelphia, she received an Emmy Award in 1996. Recent editorial work includes I Witness, a one-hour documentary on the anti-abortion violence in Pensacola, Our Food Our Future, a look at community food projects, and Daring to Resist, a beautiful and compelling portrait of three young women who resisted the Holocaust. All three of these programs have been shown on public television.

As Producer/Director, Sharon has just completed Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life, a documentary on a visionary American Quaker. She has also completed New Voices, a documentary on women moving from welfare to work; Peace Theater and Building a Peaceful Community, teaching self-respect and conflict resolution skills to children; Walk With Me, Sisters (winner of the Silver Apple Award from the National Educational Media Network), for women with HIV; and Connecting the Pieces: A City's Response to the AIDS Quilt. Sharon has also maintained an active role as an instructor, teaching media literacy to middle school children in Philadelphia. She has taught editing classes at Scribe Video Center.

Sharon Barr enrolled in a Scribe non-linear editing workshop in 1997 to learn how to assemble home videos for her parents’ upcoming wedding anniversary. The footage that she brought to class of an annual Brooklyn stick ball in upstate New York developed into Stickballs and Memories of the Street, a short documentary on the history of street games as an aspect of class and culture. Sharon, an attorney with an expertise in real estate, planning and development, provided pro bono services to Scribe in 1998 and joined the board in 1999. As a civic and cultural leader, Barr has served on the Boards of the Painted Bride Art Center (President), NetworkArts Philadelphia (Chair), Scribe Video Center, Mt Airy USA - A Community Development Corporation, the Fairmount Park Advisory Council, the Preservation Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, and as Co-Chair of the Building Committee for Mishkan Shalom Synagogue.

Emiko Tonooka, a Nisei (second generation) Japanese-American woman, is a former teacher longtime community activist who lives in Philadelphia. After Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1942, Emiko was one of the 110,000 Americans who were forced from their homes into internment camps, where they were incarcerated for the war's duration. Her renowned 1978 video, Emi, documents her effort to reclaim another part of her past as she makes a pilgrimage to the place of her wartime internment -- Manzanar, California.

Hébert Peck 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. A project of public television WYBE, Philadelphia Stories, now in its fifth season, features work by the regionís most talented film and video makers. 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).

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.

Donna Dudick is a filmmaker, wife and mother of three. She attended Temple University ’s graduate program for Acting (Professional Actor's Training Program) in the early 1980’s, after which she earned a J.D. from the California Western Law School in San Diego , and an M. Ed. from Arcadia University in Glenside , PA. Dudick practiced law in the Philadelphia area until 1995. During this time, she maintained her interest in film and theater by exercising her burgeoning skills as a dogmatic armchair critic.

The Mommy Track is the Warrington, PA resident's first film. In 2003, she directed her second feature film, this time shooting parts of it in Bethany, WV, the Poconos, and suburban Philadelphia. THE MIDDLE VOICE is a "noir narrative" about the residents of a fictional, blue-collar town who are threatened with a doctor walk-out in the midst of a looming health care crisis.

Dudick shot and edited 2 short films in 2005: "The Trick," and "Virgilio," a short film about the American haiku poet, NickVirgilio. She also directs the Algonquin Independent Film Festival of Bucks County.

Andres Nicolini's work has been shown in numerous festivals, television networks, and other venues nationally and internationally including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival and Valparaiso International Documentary Festival. His narrative film "Becoming American" won the best fiction film at New York CityVisions, and one of his first works, #28 [LINK] is part of the Scribe Video Center catalog. Nicolini is currently developing a narrative feature film about young immigrants in New York.

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.