school district
Fighting For Our Schools
Posted July 18th, 2007 by GretjenThe Philadelphia Student Union and Scribe Video Center
This video is a buoyant profile of the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU), a city-wide organization of public high school students who advocate on behalf of all students in policy discussions about public education. Conceived by the students as an organizing tape and produced collaboratively with the Scribe Video Center as part of its Community Visions program, the video highlights some of the most important campaigns of the student-led group. PSU still uses the video as an organizing tool to reach new students in the district and encourage them to join the union.
The Philadelphia Student Union was started by a group of young people angry about the low quality of education in their schools and eager to do something about it. In 1995 a group of twelve students convinced the White Dog CafĂ to sponsor a leadership development program. After a year of building organizing skills, the students decided they were ready to start the Student Union, and it became a project of the White Dog's new non-profit, Urban Retrievers. In 1996, one of the Student Union's founders became Urban Retrievers' director and youth organizing became Urban Retrievers' total focus. Since that time, the Student Union has remained a youth-run organization committed to fighting for a high quality education for all young people.
November 19, 2001 - Part of Community Visions Premiere at Prince Music Theater
(Philadelphia, PA)
February 6, 2002 - Part of "Documenting the History of African-American Life: The Work of - Louis Massiah" screenings at University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)
September 6, 2002 - Part of Street Movies screening at Wingohocking Park (Philadelphia, PA)
December 3, 2002 - Broadcast on WYVE TV's Through the Lens 12 (Philadelphia, PA)
February 2004 - Part of Art Sanctuary's 20th Annual Celebration of Black Writing (Philadelphia, PA)
Brick By Brick
Posted July 18th, 2007 by GretjenProduced by the Fall 2002 Documentary Production Workshop
Nadine Patterson and Phil Rothberg, Humanities Consultant: Dr. Tondra Loder
An eclectic group of public school students, city politicians, parents and public school teachers reflect on the unfortunate inequities, questionable fixes and and sometimes painful ironies of the city's public school system.
"I love learning but they're killing that love."
- Evan Kornfield, Creative and Performing Arts High School senior
"I think we don't value our children, even when we say we do."
- Melanie Ekpaji, parent and Philadelphia Public School teacher
Dolores Luis Gmitter, Tondra L. Loder, Amy Roy, Pauline Stakelon all participated in the fall 2002 Documentary Production Workshop at Scribe Video Center. They were inspired by Toni Morrison's poem, The Big Box, a lyrical allegory of what happens when Patty, a good, but rambunctious student's freedoms are slowly taken away from her for "the greater good."
Nadine Patterson runs the awarding-winning film company, Harmony Image Productions. Her productions focus on African-American culture and the city of Philadelphia. Patterson is an award-winning independent producer of works such as I Used to Teach English, Anna Russell Jones: Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit; Moving with the Dreaming; Todo El Mundo Dance!; Shizue; and LoqueeshaAshleyFranklinJosieBrown, which was part of the second season of WYBE TV35's Philadelphia Stories. She has received funding for her projects from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, WYBE, the National Black Programming Consortium, the Philadelphia Foundation and the Leeway Foundation. She has taught courses in video production at educational institutions including Scribe Video Center, Arcadia University, Temple University and Drexel University. Her latest work is Cosmic Trane, an experimental video in three parts that uses music, movement, visual art, and documentary footage to convey some of the issues explored in John Coltrane's music.
Phil Rothberg is an independent film and videomaker. He also serves as Scribe's Street Movies coordinator and has served as a facilitator for several Community Visions projects at Scribe Video Center.
