Philadelphia 4

Philadelphia 3

Philadelphia 2

Philadelphia 1

Philadelphia Stories 2 Series premiere June 4, 2002 Executive Producer: Sherri Hope Culver Producer: Hebert Peck Jr. Series Online Editors: Wesly Varghese Music: Phillip G. Parker Series Title Sequences and Design: EyeDog.com WYBE gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Philadelphia Foundation Philadelphia Stories 2 14 hours of innovative programming exploring the people, places and events in the City of Neighborhoods, as seen through the lenses of Philadelphia filmmakers.
Fully Funded Awards: Big Tea Party Ron Kanter Anula Shetty Wendy L. Weinberg Debora Kodish Mike Kuetermeyer and Anula Shetty Ken Winikur Ryan Saunders and Lydia Malkia	Finishing Fund Awards: Nathalie Applewhite Dorothea Braemer Sloan Seale and Dorothea Braemer Huixia Lu Louis Massiah and Scribe Video Center Sam Zolten Michael Dennis
In addition to commissioned works, WYBE Public TV 35 has secured nine hours of Acquired Programming WYBE Public Television strives to strengthen the sense of shared community among individuals of diverse backgrounds and cultures by providing a public communications connection.
Fully Funded Projects
Title: Chew This! Producers: Big Tea Party Length: 15 min. Date: 8/20/02 Description: Big Tea Party celebrates food in Philadelphia! The first part of Food in Philly focuses on an historic overview of some of the foods that make Philadelphia famous. The second segment capitalizes on "game show fever" by inviting a diverse group of Philadelphians to participate in a Nutritional Game Show spoof, testing their knowledge of nutrition. The final part features a recipe that takes a new twist on a traditional Philly food. The show is hosted by Elizabeth Fiend and contains her special brand of humor combined with edge-u-cational tips. Big Tea Party (Elizabeth Fiend, writer and host; Val Keller, editor, and Gretjen Clausing, camerawork) debuted on DUTV Cable 54 in January of 1998 where it has been a staple of the station's weekend lineup. Two original segments were featured in the premiere Philadelphia Stories series, on WYBE's Through the Lens, and on WHYY's Independent Images. In 2001 Big Tea Party completed Unconventional Coverage: The Message and The Means, an hour-long commentary on the Republican National Convention held in Philadelphia in August, 2000.
Title: Piano Suite Producer: Ron Kanter Length: 15min. Date: 6/4/02 Description: Piano Suite weaves three lyrical facets of the Philadelphia piano community into a fascinating aural and visual composition. Three movements reveal the ways in which pianos resonate in the lives of people who restore, play and love pianos. The first movement tells the story of Cunningham Piano a 110 year-old, family-owned business located in Germantown and world famous for rebuilding and restoring pianos. In the second movement we meet the craftsmen who bring pianos back to life and the thousands of parts - hammers, dampers, keys, and strings - that inhabit the most complex and expressive musical instrument ever created. The final movement and the leitmotif tying the video together are the individuals for whom one special piano has become a partner, a lover and a member of the family. Ron Kanter’s films on art, education, and social issues have been broadcast internationally and honored with numerous awards including two Emmys. He is currently editing New Cops his documentary about new recruits in the Philadelphia Police Department. Kanter’s company, Video/Film Associates, produces broadcast programming and corporate video and he teaches at the University of the Arts and Drexel University.
Title: Junk Mail Producer: Anula Shetty anula@termite.org Length: 20 min. Date: 8/13/02 Description: Set amidst the landscape of telemarketing, gun catalogues, letters signed by Ed McMahon and the promise of sweepstakes millions, this story follows the experiences of RUCHIKA, a "fresh off the boat" immigrant Indian woman's search for love, political voice and sexual discovery in Philadelphia. Anula Shetty received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Film & Media Arts from Temple University. She has been producing experimental media for Termite TV Collective since 1994. Her previous work includes the narrative short Paddana, Song of the Ancestors, (Best First Film, Mumbai International Film Festival in Bombay, India) and the documentary, Kamaka'eha, Aching Eye, (Gold Apple, National Educational Film & Video Festival, Grand Prize, U.S. Super 8 Film Festival.) She is a recipient of two Media Arts Fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
Title: The Art of Activism Producer: Wendy L. Weinberg artofactivism@earthlink.net Length: 30 min. Date: 6/18/02 Description: "I'm an activist," claims one artist. "I'm not," admits another. Yet these 8 artists-- sculptor, painter, dancer, theater director, puppet-maker, installation artist and two "public" artists-- have something in common, a political engagement with their communities that is passionately expressed through art. Wendy L. Weinberg has been in the business of making films and videos since 1983. For over four years, Wendy was Senior Segment Producer of Classroom Close-up, New Jersey, an award-winning magazine-style show broadcast out of Philadelphia and New York. Her documentary, Beyond Imagining: Margaret Anderson and the Little Review was nominated for an Academy Award, has screened at over 60 national and international festivals and special events, played theatrically at Cinema Village in New York, was included in the "New American Film and Video Series" at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She currently teaches video and filmmaking full-time at The University of the Arts
Title: Look Forward and Carry on the Past: Stories from Chinatown Producers: Barry Dornfeld, Deborah Wei, Debora Kodish kodish@folkloreproject.org Length: 30 minutes Date: 6/11/02 Description: A collaboration between Asian Americans United, the Philadelphia Folklore Project, and filmmaker Barry Dornfeld, this documentary illustrates the strength and complexity of Philadelphia's Chinatown. Focus is on the role of folk arts and community cultural expression in the community's continuing struggles for respect and survival. Touching on community efforts to stop a stadium from being built in the neighborhood (one of many fights over land grabs and "development,") and on other occasions when the community comes together (including Mid-Autumn Festival and New Year), the documentary attends to the everyday interactions, relationships, and labor so often overlooked that build and defend endangered communities. Folklorist Debora Kodish is Director of the Philadelphia Folklore Project, a local arts organization that works to sustain community-based culture. Activist and educator Deborah Wei is Asian/Pacific American Curriculum Specialist at the School District of Philadelphia and was a co-founder of Asian Americans United. Barry Dornfeld is Director of the Communications Program at the University of the Arts, and a documentary filmmaker. With assistance from Ming Chau, Linda Chung, Anh Ha, and James Yoo.
Title: American Street Producers: Mike Kuetermeyer and Anula Shetty mikek@termite.org Length: 25 min. Date: 8/13/02 Description: Using visual explorations and personal histories, American Street documents the evolution and rebirth of an old, industrial, American city street and it's community. The American Street neighborhood in Philadelphia is representative of many faded streets in the older urban areas in the United States. American Street encourages viewers to reflect on larger issues - the history of immigration in Philadelphia, the relationship of this neighborhood to other industrial neighborhoods across America, and what the story says about American Society in general. 25 minutes An award winning producer and teacher of experimental and documentary media, Mike Kuetermeyer is a founding member and co-director of Termite TV Collective. His work has screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Television and Radio and festivals and media art centers nationally and internationally. He teaches video production at Temple University in the Department of Film & Media Arts. He received a Fulbright Scholar Award to teach media production at universities and media art centers in India. Anula Shetty's bio can be found under her film, Junk Mail, above.
Title: John Lumia: Unauthorized Producer: K.M. Winikur kwinikur@yahoo.com Length: 25 min. Date: 6/18/02 Description: Actor/Writer/Performance Artist John Lumia has been shocking Philadelphia audiences with his hit one man show, Amputation Nation for the past year. But many people don't quite know what to make of him. Is he a great writer and performer with keen insights into the American cultural psyche? Is he a total nut who doesn't know when a joke is in poor taste? Or is he an artist pushing the boundaries of theater and performance, challenging his audience to critique American Pop Culture? K.M. Winikur, a Philadelphia based filmmaker, recently completed shooting on Bet Herut: Liberty Place, his Fulbright funded one-hour documentary shot entirely on location in Israel. His film The Pious Innkeeper is currently on the festival circuit having screened abroad at Bilgi University in Turkey and Tel Aviv University and in the US at the First Glance Los Angeles Film Festival and the Brooklyn Film Festival. Winikur completed his MFA in Film Production from Temple University in 2000 and has taught film production at both Temple University and University of the Arts. Winikur has also been a producer for WYBE- Public TV35.
Title: Mother Dot's Philadelphia Producers: Ryan Saunders and Malkia K. Lydia lydiagirlz@aol.com Length: 25 min. Date: 6/25/02 Description: Mother Dot's Philadelphia takes us on a tour of veteran faces and old-school places at the root of Philadelphia's rich African American music scene. The film follows Philadelphia jazz icon Dottie "Mother Dot" Smith as she visits her contemporaries of the 40s, 50s and 60s and the hot spots they once frequented. The segments are linked by a poetic thread of period re-enactments conveying Mother Dot's personal story of music success and life challenges. Ryan Saunders and Malkia K. Lydia met in the graduate film program at Temple University, from which they both earned M.F.A. degrees. Ryan Saunders' one hour video, Bacchanal Time, explores Caribbean-styled Carnival celebrations in North America, and premiered in November 2001. He is a Media Developer at Temple University, and he also conducts workshops in camera and lighting for digital video at Scribe Video Center. His productions have screened at several festivals and galleries in the Baltimore/Washington region, and on WYBE Public TV 35. Malkia Lydia has worked as Coordinator of the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association and holds an adjunct teaching position with Temple University's African American Studies Department. She is in postproduction on Gift, a 16mm narrative short set in Nicetown (Philadelphia), and is also producing a documentary about the Black community of her native Washington, DC.
Finishing Fund Project
Title: Picture Me an Enemy Producer: Nathalie Applewhite napplewhite@mindspring.com Length: 28 min. Date: 7/2/02 Description: Told through the intimate stories of Natasa Borcanin and Tahija Vikalo, Picture Me an Enemy portrays the experience of Yugoslavia's wars with sensitivity and unexpected humor. Although Natasa (Serbo-Croat) and Tahija (Bosnian-Muslim) were often pictured to one another and to the world as longtime "enemies," this documentary presents a moving portrait of two young women who defy such simplistic definitions. Filmed over the past six years in both Philadelphia and in the former Yugoslavia, Picture Me an Enemy reveals perspectives rarely seen on the evening news. Nathalie Applewhite has worked in the U.S. and abroad on independent documentaries and commercial productions as a Producer, Director and Editor. She received her B.A. in 1996 in Visual Anthropology from Temple University. Currently she produces educational media for the University of Pennsylvania, Literacy Research Center. Her video work was also recently featured in "Girls on the Rocks" at the Painted Bride Arts Center.
Title: Pigeons Producer: Dorothea Braemer dbra502027@aol.com Length: 5 min. Date: 7/23/02 Description: Pigeons is a fictional film about Jonathon and his memories of the pigeon Emily he had when he was a boy. Jonathon really loved Emily and could never forgive his mother who simply threw her out into the trash after Emily died. One day, during a walk in the park, Jonathon sees a French woman who is digging a grave for her pet bird, Sebastian. Jonathon starts talking to her, but when he finds out Sebastian is a sparrow and not a pigeon he loses interest and returns to his lonely world. 5 minutes A German filmmaker who, for the past ten years, has lived and worked in Philadelphia, Dorothea Braemer is a producer, educator, programmer, camera person and editor of independent films. Her work has been shown on local and national PBS affiliates, on cable tv, at festivals and museums-including the Museum of Modern Art and Anthology Film Archive in New York. She is also a member of the award-winning Philadelphia-based video collective Termite TV.
Title: Recovery Mural Producer: Sloan Seale and Dorothea Braemer Length: 21 min. Date: 7/2/02 Description: Recovery Mural is a study of art in progress. It is at New Jerusalem Now, the residential drug rehab program founded almost 20 years ago by Sr. Margaret McKenna, who has been there ever since providing a strong presence in the neighborhood. Visual artist Lynn Denton works with current residents to design and install a mural on an external wall of the building. Recovery Mural unfolds in the voices of the residents, Sr. Margaret, Lynn and others, who explore the unrelenting struggle between addiction and recovery, and the role of making art in that struggle. Sloan Seale, an independent film- and videomaker living in the Blue Bell Hill section of Philadelphia, received her MFA from Temple University. She teaches at Villanova University, The University of the Arts and Temple University's Tyler School of Art. She is developing her feature-length screenplay, Echoes from a Dungeon.
Title: Alice Liu's Weekend Producer: Huixia Lu luhuixia@hotmail.com Length: 26 min. Date: 8/6/02 Description: This is a documentary about a six-year-old Chinese girl's first experience with Philadelphia and how her family adapts to the new environment. Alice Liu's Weekend explores the cultural differences inherent in a foreign country. The Lius are a strong, loving and self-sufficient family, especially Alice, a happy and cheerful child, although she has some tough situations to deal with in her new life in America. Huixia Lu, an MFA candidate at Temple University, has won national or provincial TV awards in her native China for Harbin China; Morning Tune along the Riverbank, The Flood of the Songhua River in 1998; and Ice Sculpture. She has worked a a writer, director, correspondent, editor and, cameraperson, and hostess for Harbin Television Station in China.
Title: A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown Producers: Louis Massiah and Scribe Video Center scribe@libertynet.org Length: 58 min. Date: 7/30/02 Description: The history of activism, particularly youth activism, in Philadelphia has roots that are long and deep-from struggles against slavery to contemporary struggles against racism, criminalization of youth and around educational issues. A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown looks at the growing community of youth activists that has developed in this area and has built on the strategies of other progressive campaigns (the Civil Rights movement, the struggle around HIV/AIDS policy, the labor movement). 60 minutes. Founder and executive director of the Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia, Louis Massiah is an independent documentary filmmaker whose credits include W.E.B. DuBois: A Biography in Four Voices, and Louise Thompson Patterson: In Her Own Words. He has received several Emmy nominations; a Pew Fellowship in 1994; Rockefeller Intercultural Fellowships in 1990 and 1996 and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1996. He is currently artist-in-residence in the University of Pennsylvania's Afro-American Studies Department.
Title: Sam & Squirrel Producer: Sam Zolten zo110spain@aol.com Length: 26 min. Date: 6/11/02 Description: Recorded over the span of eight years Squirrel & Sam OR Sam & Squirrel reveals a very special bond that develops between two artists. Frank "Squirrel" Williams and Sam Zolten path crossed in the basement of a music store. Their relationship deepened and the video camera became a window on their respective worlds. 20 minutes Sam Zolten, the principal of Photo/Facts, a company that provides audio visual documentary services to the Delaware Valley legal community, produced, photographed and edited Odunde in collaboration with Termite TV Collective for their production of Schuylkill River. He received the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowship in 1999. His documentary, Just Call Me Kade is distributed by Frameline and was broadcast on WYBE in May, 2002.
Title: Jazzyfatnastees: Process Producer: Michael Dennis Length: 20 min Date: 6/25/02 Description: The Jazzyfatnastees are a vocal duo who have spent the last four years making music in Philadelphia. Process follows members Mercedes Martinez and Tracey Moore as they run through final rehearsals with a new band for a performance at The Black Lily, a weekly live music showcase for left-of-center female artists that they created in 1999. In 20 minutes we get a brief history of the group, as well as a glimpse into the rise of "Neo-Soul," a form of Black Music that mixes live instrumentation with hip-hop beats that the Jazzees helped pioneer. Michael Dennis was born and raised in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia. He has a BFA from New York University's film school and a MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. After two years in LA, he returned to Philadelphia to write screenplays. He is in production on Bring the Beat Back, a comprehensive digital history on Old School Philadelphia Rap Music. The first project, Philly Boy, A Movie About Mc Breeze premiered in January, 2002.
Aquired Programs
Title: Adele's Way Producer: June Fortunato Length: 20 min. Date: 6/4/02 Description: Adele, a young librarian, leaves work early to meet her sister and an arranged date. As she drives Philadelphia highways, heavy rain confounds her and she gets lost. She finds herself at the nursing home where her father stays. The film is seen through Adele's eyes, and she sees the world the way her father, an Alzheimer's victim, does. Jack Rosen: Portrait of a Photographer Producer: Lisa Chouteau For 40 years, Jack Rosen's black and white photographs have captured the humor of everyday life. His stark, simple, honest view of the world around him is embodied in his work. In the spirit of his photographs, his story is told here in the same simple, honest way: in black and white. 28:30 minutes
Title: Jack Rosen: Portrait of a Photographer Producer: Lisa Chouteau Length: 28-30 min Date: 7/9/02 Description: For 40 years, Jack Rosen's black and white photographs have captured the humor of everyday life. His stark, simple, honest view of the world around him is embodied in his work. In the spirit of his photographs, his story is told here in the same simple, honest way: in black and white.
Title: Mangia Nonnina Producer: Joseph DiGerolamo Length: 12:30 min. Date: 7/16/02 Description: "Mangia Nonnina" is a documentary about the filmmaker's grandparents. It starts off in late fall on their farm in southern New Jersey and documents the role they play in the family's "Italian" Christmas. Through his grandmother's various stages of preparation, from shopping (at the Philadelphia Italian market) to cooking, and his grandfather's activities on his vintage Christmas tree farm, the story climaxes with the gathering of the family and the celebration of Christmas Eve dinner.
Title: Labor's Glory Producer: Lefkovitz Karen Length: 12 min. Date: 8/6/02 Description: The Schuylkill River resonates for Philadelphians as an icon of a golden past. This video chronicles the city's industrial history, reviewing the use and condition of the river over a period from 1750 to the present. The ecology of the river is contrasted with the stark deterioration of the surrounding neighborhoods. The filmmaker weaves pinhole photography with live video to create an experimental documentary that raises concerns about urban redevelopment, common to all waterways in industrial cities.
Title: All Items $1 Producer: Jaising Shakti Length: 28:30min. Date: 7/16/02 Description: The story of a low-income neighborhood bordering Temple University in North Philadelphia, a once-prosperous blue-collar neighborhood that rapidly deteriorated in the early 1960's, is told through oral accounts provided by a local dollar store owner and two residents who shop there.
Title: Prison Dialogues: A Message to our Youth Producer: George McCollough Length: 54 min. Date: 8/27/02 Description: Realizing that they were seeing younger kids, in some cases, as young as 13 years old, serving hard time, inmates serving life sentences at Graterford Prison collaborated on a documentary that tells their stories. Working together on this project, the staff and the inmates hope to send a message that will change lives forever.
Title: Fly to Freedom: The Art by the Golden Venture Refugees Producer: Barry Dornfeld Length: 12 min. Date: 7/9/02 Description: In 1993 the Golden Venture ran aground off the coast of New York City. The ship carried approximately 300 passengers who had left their homes in China as early as 1991 for a better life in America. Fifty-two of those refugees were sent to York County Prison in Pennsylvania and held there for over four years. While incarcerated, survivors of the shipwreck fought the frustration of detention by creating over 10,000 intricate works of art, which they gave as gifts to their supporters.
Title: Sylvester Outley: A Man and His Mission Producer: Sheaff Kevin Length: 50 min. Date: 7/23/02 Description: Documentary on the early life of Dr. Sylvester Outley, Ph.D., one of the leading advocates of the addicted homeless in Philadelphia and recipient of the Mayor of Philadelphia's Making a Difference Award. Dr. Outley takes the viewer on an incredible journey of self-exploration and discovery of the human condition by tracing his life from growing up in "Jim Crowe" Texas of the 1920's and 1930's to a life of crime and drugs and finally to a life of redemption and respect.
Title: Stop Killing Taxi Drivers Producer: Mebrahtu Filmon Length: 8 min. Date: 6/25/02 Description: Short video verite about a group of African taxi drivers during their demonstration in August, stemming from the shooting death of a fellow cab driver from Senegal. Approximately 1,000 cab drivers were involved in the demonstration organized by the Philadelphia Taxi Association.
Title: The Hatred of Redundancy Producer: James McGillin Length: 19:14min Date: 8/6/02 Description: Harry can't finish his poem. He looks for inspiration from a jazz singer and her band. In a dream they show Harry that Art and Inspiration is all around him and he's just got to open his eyes to it. Based on the novel, "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse, this film was shot on location in Philadelphia and Washington D.C..
Title: Lunch Cart Producer: Kevin Diehl Length: 25:05 min. Date: 7/16/02 Description: New immigrants arrive in America daily. A vast majority seek safe haven from the political oppression and economic hardship of their native countries. Many manage to find it in the lunch-cart businesses that blanket the urban American landscape. They serve fast food from their native countries and their adoptive one, to a mix of students, cab drivers and professionals on the run. A fast paced look at fast food and colorful characters, "Lunch Cart" reveals a patchwork of lives in transition and often on the mend.
Title: The Fight Producer: Narcel Reedus Length: 15 min. Date: 6/4/02 Description: "The Fight", starring Steve Coulter is a visual poem describing the last thoughts of a black man preparing for the fight of his life. One of filmmaker Reedus' earliest works. "The Fight" has garnered numerous awards and has screened in Berlin, Germany and domestically on PBS.
Title: The Ash Barge Odyssey Producer: Michael Thomas Length: 58 min Date: 9/3/02 Description: In 1986, 14,000tons of toxic incinerated ash left Philadelphia on the cargo vessel Khian Sea and circled the Caribbean Sea in search of a dumping place. On New Year's Eve 1987, the ship arrived in Gonaives, Haiti, a small impoverished port town on the country's west coast and illegally dumped 4,000tons of the ash on the beach. The ash remained in Haiti for ten years until it was removed on Earth Day 2000 and brought to Florida where it is being held awaiting plans for a final resting place. The story is told through personal accounts.
Title: S.T.A.T.S. Sex Teen Aids: Take'em Serious Producers: Jackson Alicia/ M.E.E. Productions, Inc Length: 20 min. Date: 8/20/02 Description: Shot in the city of Philadelphia, S.T.A.T.S. explores some of the arguments young people use to justify risky sexual behavior. S.T.A.T.S.' interwoven mini-dramas, with performances by a group of talented young Philadelphian, tells the story of high school friends grappling - sometimes successfully, sometimes not - with their choices about sex and sexual behavior.
Title: Civil Disobedience Producers: Magal Uma and Maria Cortese Length: 5 min. Date: 7/2/02 Description: Long lines of cars wait along the stretch of road leading to Philadelphia International Airport. Who are these people? It turns out, they are waiting for a phone call from a friend, loved-one or colleague who's just landed in Philadelphia and is ready to be pick-up. This short video asks if this is a case of protest against the cost of airport parking or people just trying to be economical.
Title: Cynthia's Window Producer: Martin Eugene Length: 17min. Date: 7/9/02 Description: Cynthia Lawrence's life covered the dynamic years between 1895 and 1987. In her life she experienced two World Wars, the miracle of flight, and the coming of the Nuclear Age, all the while taking photographs as both a professional and an amateur. Cynthia's Window is a portrait, painted with an austere hand, of Cynthia Lawrence in the images of the city in which she lived most of her years, the city of Philadelphia. It is a film which is elegantly placed between the life of a great woman and her death.
Title: Turning Point Producers: The Big Picture Alliance Length: 21:53min. Date: 8/20/02 Description: A young man struggles to survive in a world of conflicting relationships and eroding life situations: a distant mother, abusive stepfather and adoring little brother mix with the challenge of "making it" in the streets as a young drug lord lead the 17-year-old Mike into the path of an unexpected family tragedy and a sharp refocusing on what's most important in life. Written by and starring 17-year-old Kevin Woodard from Carson Valley School in Flourtown, Pennsylvania.
Title: If You Call Them Producer: Tina Morton Length: 7 min Date: 8/13/02 Description: An experimental video that merges poetry, choreography, music film and video. It is the collaborative effort between filmmaker Tina Morton and choreographer Tamara Xavier who calls on the ancestors for direction and guidance through dance.
Title: City Halls 2.1.5. Producer: Michael O'Reilly Length: 5 min Date: 6/4/02 Description: Each City Halls piece is like a bucket full of words, music and images, drawn from an ever deepening well of media. Michael O'Reilly generates these pieces (there are at least seven in total) out of scraps of unused footage shot in and around Philadelphia. Using proprietary software, he makes meaning out the discarded, releasing each piece as an iteration of a growing whole.
WYBE gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Philadelphia Foundation.