PRECIOUS PLACES FILMS

 Thanks to the generosity of Scribe Video Center and the Precious Places Community History Project, we are excited to bring you  new short films by Philly community members  each week from April 20 through June 1! Each film will be available for one week only so make sure to catch it before its gone! Find the schedule below. 

These films are from Scribe Video Center's Precious Places Community History Project in the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Precious Places is a community oral history project inviting members of the Philadelphia region's many neighborhoods to document the buildings, public spaces, parks, landmarks and other sites that hold the memories of our communities and define where we live. Precious Places teaches the video production process to participating groups, fostering projects authored by those who intimately know the featured neighborhoods. 

Conceived as a way to allow neighborhood groups to celebrate their unique histories and as a tool to address current-day concerns, the Precious Places video documentaries explore the rich stories of our communities, the memories, and stories held in public spaces and community landmarks. They record community histories and help define where we live at a time when so many of the city's memories are undergoing so much change (Precious Places description from Scribe.Org 2020).

The Precious Places Community History Project is funded by The Independence Public Media Foundation, Comcast NBCUniversal Foundation, Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation, and The Alston Beech Foundation.

SCHEDULE OF SUMMER 2020 SCREENINGS

 WE ONE, THE LIFE AND LOVE OF NORRIS HOMES
April 20-27
(2019, 10:49 min)

 by Residents and Friends of Norris Homes in North Philadelphia 2019

We One: The Love and Life of Norris Homes. This film documents the history of a North Philadelphia public housing community affected by federal policy and is told from the perspective of former residents who lived at Norris going back to its earliest days in the 1950s.


PLENA AND BOMBA AT THE PUERTO RICAN INSTITUTE OF MUSIC
April 27-May 4
 (2019, 09:54 min)

by Instituto Puertorriqueño de
Música/Puerto Rican Institute of Music

Plena and Bomba at the Puerto Rican Institute of Music profiles the director and instructor of PRIM, Alberto Pagán-Ramírez, and his students, united by their love for Puerto Rican music and its deeply historical musical traditions, particularly Plena and Bomba music.


BUILD YOUR OWN DOOR --  ATKINSON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL  
May 4-11
(2018, 14:40 min)
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by the Hayti Historical Society 2019

In 1936, despite the ravages of segregation in Coatesville, PA, Dr. Whittier Cinclair Atkinson faced extraordinary challenges to build and successfully operate his own hospital. (00:13:10)


WHERE ART LIVES
May 11-18
(2018, 10:42 min) ​


by Paul Robeson House and the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance in West Philadelphia. 2018

Inspired by Paul Robeson, a man who used his artistic voice as an instrument against racism and oppression all over the world, the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance/Paul Robeson House & Museum from its namesake to its founding and its community programming symbolizes the man.

BETHEL BURYING GROUND
May 18-May 25
 (2018, 11:21 min)

by Bethel Burying Ground Production Team

An abandoned burial space, once owned by the historic Mother Bethel AME church, where more than 5,000 Black people were interred starting in 1810, was discovered. This is both an story of the struggle to reclaim the overlooked history of Black people in colonial Philadelphia, but also a story of the organizing, coalition building, and strategy employed by community members intent on preserving and memorializing what they termed as, "the ancestors of the African Diaspora.”


PLAYING IN THE WRECK
May 25-June 1
(2019, 09:15 min)

 by Grays Ferry Civic Association 

The 102-year old Vare Recreation Center, a decaying landmark in the Gray's Ferry neighborhood of South Philly, is a beacon of youth programming for a community navigating its own unique challenges and triumphs.

RESILIENT ROOTS COMMUNITY FARM
June 1-8
(2019, 09:13 min)

by VietLEAD 

Resilient Roots in East Camden was started as an intergenerational project between Vietnamese elder refugees and multi-ethnic youth in 2012. In this film, voices from the Resilient Roots family, community members, students, elders capture their history of Camden and give testimony to the importance of community control of land and schools.
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