Individual Film Price:

Higher Education Institutions & Government Agency DVD | $49.95
K-12 & Public Libraries DVD | $49.95
Home Video DVD License – Restrictions Apply | $5.95

Community Visions Compilation Price:

This video is available for purchase as part of a Community Visions Vol. 9 compilation DVD.

Higher Education Institutions & Government Agency DVD | $139.00
K-12 & Public Libraries DVD | $79.00
Home Video DVD License – Restrictions Apply | $20.00

Scribe Video Center Program:

The Community Visions program teaches documentary video-making skills to members of community organizations in Philadelphia, Chester and Camden (NJ). A powerful way to document community concerns, celebrate cultural diversity, and comment on the human condition, Community Visions is a part of Scribe’s mission to explore, develop and advance the use of video, film, audio and interactive technology as artistic tools and as tools for progressive social change.

Project Facilitator: G Johnston

Film Summary:

Many older Camden residents have fond memories of a healthier, safer, more vibrant city and can trace its tranformation from a bustling center of industry after World War II to the present. "It was a beautiful place," says Reverend Heyward Wiggins III. "Such a beautiful place to grow up."

But that was before -- before the shipyards closed. Before Campbell's shut down the soup factory where many of Wiggins' family members worked. Before Highway 676 was built through the heart of the city, displacing 3,800 families. It was before the riots in the early seventies prompted many whites and upper-income minorities to leave the city. It was before Camden was declared the second poorest city in the nation; before street-corner drug dealing and violent crimes became everyday occurrences.

For 17 years, Camden Churches Organized For People (CCOP) leaders, representing 30 of the city's congregations, have fought an uphill battle to revitalize their ailing city. The video, guided by the tesimony of CCOP community leaders and other residents, documents their mthods, partnerships, successes and the battles still to come.