Precious Places Community History Project Vol. 12

Precious Places Compilation Price:

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

While tourists head straight for the city’s official “Historic District” and native Philadelphian’s think they have seen it all, Scribe Video Center’s Precious Places Community History Project reveals bypassed neighborhood sites as bright landmarks that surprise and inspire residents and visitors alike. Using the video documentary as a storytelling medium, neighborhood residents have come together to document the oral histories of their communities. Over the past three and half decades Scribe has collaborated with community groups from Philadelphia, Chester, Ardmore, and Camden to produce over 100 community histories. Precious Places is a regional history, an occasion for neighbors to tell their own stories about and the people and places that make their communities unique. This Compilation features 8 films.

Films Included In The Compilation:

Ardmore: Seen and Unseen by Ardmore Group (Ardmore, PA)

This film features stories from the historic and nurturing African American community of Ardmore, looking as well at current struggles against displacement by gentrification (00:11:00).

Central High School, on Whose Mighty Shoulders We Stand by The Central Community History Project (Logan)

This piece explores the gendered history of Central High School, told by the women who pushed the all boys school to admit girls in 1983 (00:10:20). 

Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center by Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, Inc (Cobbs Creek)

This piece tells the story of the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center, a vibrant resource providing intergenerational learning about science, nature and the land. (00:11:30).

The Cornerstone: Mt. Zion AME Church, Devon by Historic Mt. Zion Church and Devon Hill (Devon, PA)

The Main Line is a stretch of communities heading west from West Philadelphia, where African American communities live and thrive. After nearly 175 years, Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and Cemetery, Devon still stands. On the Main Line, of all African American congregations of any denomination, it is the first recorded, the oldest and continuous AME Church, and the only one with a cemetery. Mt. Zion Church and Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for the 1932-1934 Berwyn School Fight. Today, the church members use archival research, oral history, and remote sensing technology to uncover and preserve African American histories on the Main Line (00:11:46).

Fettersville by Crossing Over Community Development Corporation (Camden, NJ)

The story of the Fettersville community, an early African American settlement in Camden, highlights Macedonia AME church, a key stop on the Underground Railroad (00:11:27). 

Pine Forge Academy: Your Sons & Daughters by Pine Forge Academy (Pine Forge, PA)

The history of Pine Forge Academy, one of four remaining Historically Black Boarding academies, is chronicled through the experience of Mrs.Gloria Davis, a pioneer student who entered the school in 1946 as part of the school's first student body. Mrs. Davis gives a guided tour and oral account of her experience that details the school's purpose, spirituality, community, and impact on generations of black and brown students and families for over 75 years (00:11:38).

The Power of the Collective: Sullivan Progress Plaza by Leon H Sullivan Charitable Trust & Progress Trust Inc., (North Philadelphia)

Inspired by Rev. Dr. Leon H. Sullivan, founder and pastor that preached the gospel of Ujamaa (cooperative economics). Our Sullivan Progress Plaza story is about the power of the collective – working, building, and providing for each other – using our collective voice in our community for progress - together. Our brand is PROGRESS (00:11:56). 

The Pyramid Club and Studio 1517 by Studio 1517 (North Philadelphia) 

The Pyramid Club was a Black social club on Girard Ave famous for its art exhibits in the 1940s and 50s. Intisar and Joaquim Hamilton tell the story of slowly discovering this history of the building as they lived there, and how they created an art gallery space that had resonance with the Pyramid Club’s rich history (00:10:19). 

Quotes From Educators:

"Precious Places moves documentary practice away from the individualistic and idiosyncratic, typified in projects like Supersize Me (2004, by Morgan Spurlock) and Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004, by Michael Moore), towards collaborative interactions between neighborhoods, filmmakers, and scholars who create new histories. As a result, the project constitutes more than an intervention into the conceptualization of documentary. Importing concepts from postcolonial studies, the project shows how to embody difficult and sprawling polyvcalities and microhistories as a way to reclaim and revitalize ideas about the archive, history and memory. Rather than creating a single authorial vision, Precious Places advances the collaborative ethnographic and historical model, where community participants become the authors and not simply the objects of community history."

-- an excerpt from Patricia Zimmerman's article "Imbedded Public Histories" published in Afterimage, March/April 2006