women

Las Parcelas

Film Still: 
Precious Places Title Image small.JPG
Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Norris Square Neighborhood Project with Scribe Video Center

Year released: 
2005
Length: 
10 min 31 seconds
Price: 

This video is available for purchase as part of a Precious Places Community History Project Vol.3 compilation DVD.

Once a vacant lot, Las Parcelas is now a lush urban garden and community center in Norris Square. Founded in 1990 in this largely Puerto Rican neighborhood in North Philadelphia, the garden is a place where the dedicated women of Grupo Motivos tend a small piece of the island for their community. The garden's verdant vegetable beds "remind me of Puerto Rico," says one gardener, who was unable to travel back to her home on the island for 30 years.

Women Housing Women

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Produced by the Women's Community Revitalization Project & Scribe Video Center

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Women's Community Revitalization Project and video facilitator Gretjen Clausing

Year released: 
1992
Length: 
15 minutes
Price: 

$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses

Buy this Video: 

To purchase a DVD please call 215 222 4201 or email inquiry@scribe.org.

In this intimate portrait of the women of the Women's Community Revitalization Project (WCRP), a culturally and economically diverse group of tenants, staff and board members speak of their success in developing affordable housing for low-income and formerly homeless women.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Women's Community Revitalization Project
Filmmaker's Bio: 

The Women's Community Revitalization Project (WCRP) is committed to social and economic justice for low-income women and their families. They develop housing and neighborhood facilities; provide supportive services; advocate for policy change; and honor leadership, dignity, and equity in our communities.

WCRP believes that when you start with women, you are at the core of communities and families. There is power in women working together to make change. WCRP has created a model that works for community development, putting that power to work for low-income women and their families.

Gretjen Clausing is an independent media programmer and activist, who has made her home in Philadelphia since 1989. Prior to joining Scribe's staff in September 2004, she was the Program Director of Film at the Prince. She is a founding member of the Philadelphia Coalition for Public Access, a grassroots group that has been working since 1999 to get public access television activated in Philadelphia. She has worked at Scribe as a part-time facilitator since 1990. She joined Scribe as Program Director in 2004 and was the Producer of the NAMAC conference in 2005.

Press: 

February 8, 1993 - "Expressing Themselves," by Ann Kolson, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Rape Stories

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Margie Strosser

Year released: 
1989
Length: 
25 minutes
Price: 

$79 for Community Institutions: Libraries, Schools, Non-Profits / $99 for Universities & Businesses

Buy this Video: 

To purchase a DVD please call 215 222 4201 or email inquiry@scribe.org.

In October 1979, Margie Strosser was raped in the elevator of her apartment building. Two weeks later, she asked a friend to interview her about the incident. Ten years later, she remembers and recounts the rape, revealing the emotional texture of the experience and the reshaping of the event through memory.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Margie Strosser
Filmmaker's Photo: 
margiestrosser.jpg
Filmmaker's Bio: 

Margie Strosser is an award-winning producer, director and writer in television and film whose projects include fictional works such as Strange Weather and Moon Juice. Recently, Margie was the senior producer/writer for three seasons of Birth Day, the Discovery Health Channel's highest rated daytime show. She and writing partner Cate Wilson are currently collaborating on a romantic comedy and a psychological thriller adapted from a British novel. She also worked on several videos in the Scribe Video Center catalog including Art Is Food, Dance: Heartbeat of a community, and I Used to Teach English. [LINK]

Press: 

February 8, 1993 - "Expressing Themselves," by Ann Kolson, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

Prix du Publique, Montreal International Festival of Films & Videos by Women; London International Film Festival; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Strong Shoulders

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Scribe Video Center,

Year released: 
1995
Length: 
30 minutes

This upbeat and engaging program is a collaboration between 10 local film and video makers and a surprising and dedicated cast of individuals who work in the field of AIDS/HIV healthcare and activism. The video stems from Scribe's 1995 call for local videomakers to shoot "a day in the life of" AIDS/HIV caregivers, advocates and activists, in observance of world AIDS day.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Warren Bass, Dorothea Braemer, Chris Emmanouilides, Keith Fulton, Mike Kuetemeyer, Adrienne Murphy, Frances Negron, Andres Nicolini, Louis Pepe, Sloane Seale, Anula Shetty, Marie-Ann Walke
Press: 

December 1, 1995 - "Local Video Shows AIDS' Effect on People," The Philadelphia Tribune

November 30, 1995 - "Day Without Art," by David Warner, Philadelphia City Paper

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

December 1, 1995 - Simulcast at Painted Bride (Philadelphia, PA)

December 1, 1995 - Simulcast at International House (Philadelphia, PA)

December 1, 1995 - Simulcast on WYBE-TV Channel 35 (Philadelphia, PA

Shizue

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Directed by Emiko Tonooka, Edited by Nadine Patterson

Year released: 
1991
Length: 
17 minutes
Price: 

$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses

Buy this Video: 

To purchase a DVD please call 215 222 4201 or email inquiry@scribe.org.

Emiko Tonooka, a Nisei American woman, traveled to Japan in 1986 to find her unknown half-sister, Shizue. Through storytelling, photography and carefully choreographed video work, a powerful portrait of family emerges when Tonooka's narrative crosses the chasm of time, culture and continents to bear witness as the two siblings attempt to recover their lost histories.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Emiko Tonooka
Filmmaker's Bio: 

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.

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY) [details not found]

Served Souls

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Produced by Tina Morton

Year released: 
1997
Length: 
30 minutes

Did she do it?

In 1944, twenty-two year old Corrine Sykes was an illiterate housemaid accused of killing her employer, Freda Wodlinger -- and in 1946 she became the first African-American woman to be executed in Pennsylvania. But years after Corrine's death by electric chair, rumors circulated within the African-American community about a death-bed confession made by Wodlinger's husband that was published in an obscure corner of a local Philadelphia newspaper. Everyone remembers reading the confession but copies of the article were never found...

Filmmaker's Name: 
Tina Morton
Filmmaker's Bio: 

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.

Press: 

June 2, 2004 - "Soul Searching," by Kia Gregory, Philadelphia Weekly
May 16, 2001 - "Severed Souls - Wrongly Accused, Corrine Sykes, First Black Woman Executed," by Arlene Edwards, Philadelphia New Observer
May 15, 2001 - Philadelphia Tribune article
May 9, 2001 - The Leader article

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

February 4, 2006 - Black Independent Film Festival, sponsored by Quinnipiac’s Multicultural Affairs Committee and the School of Communications, Quinnipiac University (Hamden, CT)
May & June 2004 - Art Showcase Gallery (Philadelphia, PA)
March 4 & 5, 2004 - Sisters Defining Sisters Conference (Philadelphia, PA)
March 2002 - Sedgwick Cultural Center (Philadelphia, PA)
2002 & 2003 - Part of Women in the Directors Chair Touring Festival
November 2002 - International Black Women's Film Festival (San Francisco, CA)
November 2002 - DocSide Film Festival (San Antonio, TX)
October 2002 - University of Chicago, Gender Studies screening (Chicago, IL)
October 2002 - Northwestern University (Chicago, IL)
August 2002 - Broadcast on DUTV, Cable 54 (Philadelphia, PA)
June 2002 - Manhattan Neighborhood Network Channel 34 (New York, NY)
March 2002 - Women in the Director's Chair (Chicago, IL)
March 2002 - DC Independent Film Festival (Washington DC)
March 2002 - Color of Violence Conference (Chicago, IL)
March 2002 - Future Faculty Fellowship Presentation (Philadelphia, PA)
March 2002 - Gene Siskel Black Harvest Film Festival (Chicago, IL)
February 2002 - Hollywood Black Film Festival (Los Angeles, CA)
December 2001 - McCallister College (St. Paul, MN)
November 2001 - "Independent Women Filmmakers: Viewpoints From Within" at the African American Museum of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA)
October 2001 - Oral History and Video: Oral History Mid-Atlantic Region Conference (Philadelphia, PA)
September 2001 - "Prison Breaks: Redemption, Revolution and Reality" at Prince Music Theater (Philadelphia, PA)
August 2001 - Street Movies! sponsored by Scribe Video Center (Philadelphia, PA)
May 2001 - "Philadelphia Stories" broadcast on WYBE-TV35 (Philadelphia, PA)
April 30, 2001 - 10th Annual Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema (Philadelphia, PA)

Lonely Struggles

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

H.E.R.O. (Helping Energize & Rebuild Ourselves) & Scribe Video Center,

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Miyoshi Smith & Ryan Saunders with David Sarasti

Year released: 
1999
Length: 
18 minutes
Price: 

$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses

Buy this Video: 

To purchase a DVD please call 215 222 4201 or email inquiry@scribe.org.

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.

Filmmaker's Name: 
H.E.R.O. (Helping to Energize and Rebuild Ourselves)
Filmmaker's Bio: 

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.

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

May 6 & 7, 2000 - Part of Street Movies screenings at West Philadelphia Community Center and Clark Park respectively (Philadelphia, PA)

Her Story: The Philadelphia Black Womens Health Project

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Philadelphia Black Women's Health Project & Scribe Video Center

Filmmaker Facilitator: 

Lillian Leak & Nadine Patterson

Year released: 
1993
Length: 
12 minutes
Price: 

$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses

Buy this Video: 

To purchase a DVD please call 215 222 4201 or email inquiry@scribe.org.

What's the skinny on black women's health?

Filmmaker's Name: 
The Philadelphia Black Women's Health Project
Filmmaker's Bio: 

The Philadelphia Black Women's Health Project (PBWHP) was established by African American women from Philadelphia who attended a historic national conference on women's health held in the early 1980s. PBWHP was known by residents, service providers, community groups and clergy for its health promotion activities for African American women and teens in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the organization became defunct in 2004, but the national umbrella organization, recently renamed the Black Women's Health Imperative, still offers considerable resources in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia-based independent producer Nadine Patterson has been making independent film/video for the past twenty years. She has produced and directed programs for the School District of Philadelphia's cable station, and WYBE Public Television. She earned her MA in Filmmaking at the London Film School. Previous work includes Shizue, a Scribe Video production that was screened at the Museum of Modern Art, NY; and Moving with the Dreaming, winner of a Prized Pieces Award from the National Black Programming Consortium. A recipient of a Media Arts Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, her award-winning work has often been broadcast on public television.

Press: 

February 5, 1993, "Premiere of New Community Programs," Scoop U.S.A (Philadelphia, PA newspaper)

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

February 10, 1993 - Part of Community Visions premiere at Neighborhood Film Video Project at International House (Philadelphia, PA)

Summer 1997 - Part of Street Movies screening series (Philadelphia, PA)

August 15 & 23, 1999 - Part of Street Movies screenings at Malcolm X Park & Winchester Community Center (Philadelphia, PA)

On Strong Shoulders

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Produced by Scribe Video Center

Year released: 
1995
Length: 
30 minutes
Price: 

$20 for individuals / $35 for Community Institutions ie: libraries, schools, non-profits / $50 for Universities & Businesses

Buy this Video: 

To purchase a DVD please call 215 222 4201 or email inquiry@scribe.org.

Contributing film and videomakers: Warren Bass, Dorothea Braemer, Chris Emmanouilides, Keith Fulton, Mike Kuetemeyer, Adrienne Murphy, Frances Negron, Andres Nicolini, Louis Pepe, Sloane Seale, Anula Shetty, Marie-Ann Walker

Press: 

December 1, 1995 - "Local Video Shows AIDS' Effect on People," The Philadelphia Tribune
November 30, 1995 - "Day Without Art," by David Warner, Philadelphia City Paper

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

December 1, 1995 - Simulcast at Painted Bride (Philadelphia, PA)
December 1, 1995 - Simulcast at International House (Philadelphia, PA)
December 1, 1995 - Simulcast on WYBE-TV Channel 35 (Philadelphia, PA)

Mommy Track, The

Producer of the Work / Filmmaker: 

Written and directed by Donna Dudick, Up and Over Productions

Year released: 
2001
Length: 
94 minutes

"The Mommy Track" is a comedic drama about three sisters coming together for their mother's funeral. After the will is read, it becomes clear that one of the sisters has been disinherited, and the sisters try to uncover the reason as they deal with the grieving process, uncover hidden truths about one another and handle their respective midlife crisis situations. Dudick stars in the film as Midge, the sister who works as a family law attorney and is so over-burdened that she fantasizes about marrying the local newspaper man and becoming a professional BASE jumper.

Filmmaker's Name: 
Donna Dudick
Filmmaker's Bio: 

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.

Press: 

June 26, 2001 - Feature film to be shot in Warrington in July, The Doylestown Patriot
July 18, 2001 - Lights...Camera...Action!, The Doylestown Patriot
February 12, 2003 - The Mommy Track (review), Film Threat Magazine

Public Screenings, Broadcasts and Festivals: 

May 10, 2002 - DeSales University (Center Valley, PA)
June 22, 2002 - Sedgwick Cultural Center's "Digital Divas" women-in-video program (Philadelphia, PA)
October 20, 2002 - Mike Lemon Casting Workshop series (Philadelphia, PA)

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