kids

Ready or not, Here we come - Voices of child care workers

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Worthy Wage Campaign & Scribe Video Center

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Uma Magal with Bob Hering,

Year released: 
1998
Length: 
17 minutes

If we value our children so much, why is child care one of the lowest paying professions in the country?

Filmmaker's Name: 
The Worthy Wage Campaign of the Delaware Valle
Filmmaker's Bio: 

The Worthy Wage Campaign of the Delaware Valley is a grassroots effort to organize providers themselves to address the problem of poor compensation in child care. Started in 1991, the Campaign spearheaded the Loan Forgiveness program, organizes yearly advocacy events on Worthy Wage Day, May 1st, has done surveys of salaries and working conditions, leads ongoing training in leadership and advocacy (LEAP), organizes in the workplace in a variety of ways, and helped launch and staff Pennsylvania QUEST as a vehicle for moving forward the compensation agenda in the state.

Press: 

October 4, 1998 - "Small Beginnings Can Aid Big Changes," by Gerri DiLisi, Philadelphia Inquirer

August 1999 - "Speaking Out for Us," by Cheryl L. Saunders, Worthy Wage Campaign newsletter

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

February 4, 1999 - Please Touch Musuem (Philadelphia, PA)

May 7, 1999 - Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (Philadelphia, PA)

International House (Philadelphia, PA)

Worthy Wage Caucus @ National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference (Toronto, Canada)

Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children annual conference (Philadelphia, PA)

Focus on Our Future (York, PA)

Center for the Childcare Workforce national conference

Salford Mennonite CCC (Harleysville, PA)

The Caring Center (Philadelphia, PA

DUTV Channel 54, Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA)

Worthy Wage workshops in Philadelphia, Bucks County, Montgomery County, Millersville, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg

3 leadership development retreats and college courses for child care teachers

Early Intervention staff meeting (Philadelphia, PA)

Soks "Save Our Kids"

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Produced by Princeton Atelier and Scribe Video Center

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Louis Massiah, Charlene Gilbert and Carlton Jones

Year released: 
1997
Length: 
10 minutes

"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.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Princeton Atelier
Filmmaker's Photo: 
henrypannellSOKS.jpg
Filmmaker's Bio: 

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.

Press: 

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

The Princeton Nursery School : A Jewel For The Neighborhood

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Produced by Princeton Nursery School & Scribe Video Center

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Charlene Gilbert, Carlton Jones, Louis Massiah

Year released: 
1997
Length: 
12 minutes

Princeton Nursery School's mission is to provide a happy atmosphere for children at an affordable cost for their parents. Many of the school's parents are working, going to school, single -- or all three! The video chronicles the nursery school's history, as well as its daily routine and problems, including the recurring struggle to get loving but time-crunched parents to become -- and stay -- more involved.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Charlene Gilbert, Carlton Jones, Louis Massiah
Filmmaker's Bio: 

The Princeton Nursery School was founded in 1929 to respond to the needs of local mothers looking to place their children in a caring and educational environment while they worked outside the home. Children at the Princeton Nursery School experience diversity and daily successes, develop healthy attitudes toward mistakes, assume responsibility for their personal space and materials, and encounter decision-making opportunities in the planning of their independent activities.

Charlene Gilbert is an independent documentary film and videomaker whose award winning film, Homecoming, Sometimes I am haunted by memories of red dirt and clay, premiered nationally on PBS and won the NBPC Prized Pieces Award for Best Documentary. Ms. Gilbert also co-authored, with Quinn Eli, a companion book to the film entitled Homecoming: The Story of African American Farmers published by Beacon Press. Her most recent documentary, Children Will Listen, premiered at the 2004 AFI Silverdocs Documentary Festival and had its national primetime PBS broadcast premiere in the fall of 2005. Her films and videos have been screened in numerous international and national festivals including: FESPACO, the Athens International Film and Video Festival and the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema. Ms. Gilbert is also the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Rockefeller Media Fellowship and the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship award. She is currently working on a documentary project on Juvenile Justice and resides in Washington, DC where she is an associate professor in the School of Communication at American University.

Carlton Jones is a working videographer, a frequent Scribe video faciliator, and the head of Willow Grove, PA-based Carlton Jones Video.

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, and W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices. His award-winning works have been seen widely on public television and at international film festival and include Cecil B. Moore, an examination of the political leader and the Civil Rights struggle in Philadelphia, and A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown, on young political activists that emerged from a Hewlett video workshop at Haverford College.

Massiah's works for public television include Power! and A Nation of Law? for the award-winning series Eyes on the Prize II; <\em>Trash!, an encyclopedic look at trash as aspect of American culture; My Own Boss, exploring worker-owned and self-managed industries; and Digging Dinosaurs, profile of paleontologist, Jack Horner. In 2000, he served as senior production consultant for Robert Pinksy's Favorite Poem Project on the PBS' News Hour with Jim Lehrer. His current project, Haytian Stories, examines the complex relationship between the United States and Haiti over the last 200 years.

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

February 13, 1998 - Scribe Video Center Retrospective: Five on the Black Hand Side, Painted Bride Art Center (Philadelphia, PA)

Montessori Genesis II : A Family Thing

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Produced by Montessori Genesis School & Scribe Video Center

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Nadine Patterson

Year released: 
1991
Length: 
8 minutes

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.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Montessori Genesis II
Filmmaker's Bio: 

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.

Press: 

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

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

August 1997 - Street Movies screening at Montessori Genesis II playground (Philadelphia, PA)
August 1999 - Street Movies screening at Montessori Genesis II playground (Philadelphia, PA)

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