poor
The New Faces of Aids
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenWe The People Living with Aids of the Delaware Valley & Scribe Video Center
Janet Williams & Cindy Wong
"I just love that place. It's a haven," a woman says with a joyous smile as the video opens. Featuring exuberant testamonials from HIV positive members of the We The People "family," this doumentary short lovingly documents a unique HIV and AIDS-themed social service agency located within shouting distance of City Hall. We The People, an organization run by and for people with HIV, has produced a moving video which documents the organization's efforts to emotionally, socially and economically empower people with the HIV-virus.
<"http://www.peoplewithaids.org">We the People Living with AIDS of the Delaware Valley is the only Philadelphia-based organization created and run by people living with HIV disease and AIDS. This organization serves as the major link to the larger medical and social services for the growing number of people with HIV/AIDS, many of whom are disenfranchised because of their own behavior or because of discrimination based on race, mental illness, substance abuse, income status, sexual preferences, lifestyles, etc. We The People does this by offering practical support services that our target population tells us that they need: diagnostic and medical services, meals, clothing, social connections, peer and professional substance abuse and mental health counseling and referrals, culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS risk reduction education, referrals to other services, and now a housing and recovery house.
Janet Williams works as a digital video artist and graphic designer in the Philadelphia area.
Cindy Wong has been a production facilitator for other Scribe projects including Face to Face and To the Point.
Lonely Struggles
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenH.E.R.O. (Helping Energize & Rebuild Ourselves) & Scribe Video Center,
Miyoshi Smith & Ryan Saunders with David Sarasti
Two women, Paulette and Karen, talk about their lives, and how they and their children have been affected by public policy. The women are former welfare recipients, are of similar age and have had similar backgrounds, but they left the public assistance rolls in very different ways. The documentary was produced in collaboration with members of H.E.R.O. (Helping Energize and Rebuild Ourselves) Inc., which was established in 1994 out of a concern for the plight of poor single mothers and their children. H.E.R.O.
H.E.R.O. (Helping to Energize and Rebuild Ourselves) was organized to assist women, primarily single African-American mothers and their children, to become self-sufficient. H.E.R.O. works with residents in the Tioga-Nicetown section of Philadelphia, and sponsors a teen leadership group, coordinates community meetings, and is establishing an education and training center in North Philadelphia.
May 6 & 7, 2000 - Part of Street Movies screenings at West Philadelphia Community Center and Clark Park respectively (Philadelphia, PA)
Montessori Genesis II : A Family Thing
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Montessori Genesis School & Scribe Video Center
Nadine Patterson
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)
May Day Takeover
Posted July 19th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by Louis Massiah and Scribe Video Center
Hey, does anybody recognize that van parked outside? No? On May 1, 1990, members of Dignity Housing, an organization of homeless and formerly homeless people working for permanent housing solutions to the shelter crisis, swarmed out of a van in an upper middle class neighborhood and put words into action. Much to the surprise of the neighbors, the members of Dignity staged a relatively polite and highly organized squat of a vacant, federally owned building in an community far from their own to emphasize the federal government's failure to address the housing needs of the poor.
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.
Dignity Housing is a non-profit organization that has been providing affordable housing and social service supports to homeless families throughout Philadelphia since 1988.
May 14, 1994 - 1994 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema's 9th Annual Festival of Independents (Philadelphia, PA)
January 14 & February 11, 1997 - Part of Tuesday Night Specials broadcast on DUTV Cable 54 (Philadelphia, PA)