Passionate Voices: Americann Jews and Israel

10 Minutes
Rocco V. Iacovone
Premieres July 15 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 19 at 10 pm
10 minutes. 10 million dollars. It could be the perfect crime. She's young and looking for a quick score. She's marked and jaded. She wishes she was not there. Sometimes 10 minutes can seem like an eternity.

Born and raised on the Lower East Side of New York City, award-winning video and filmmaker Rocco V. Iacovone has produced and directed numerous independent shorts, documentaries and television commercials. He wrote and produced the feature film, The Week That Girl Died, a comedy that has been invited to more than a dozen film festivals and has played to sold-out audiences worldwide. He originally wrote 10 Minutes as a play and adapted it to the short video premiering on WYBE. He has produced films and videos in New York, California, New Jersey and the Greater Philadelphia area.

An Appointment with Mr. Robert
Bert Shapiro
Premieres July 22 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 26 at 10 pm
Filmed at a NYC atelier that has been making hairpieces for famous stars of film, stage and TV for over 50 years, this documentary provides a light-hearted peek into the hidden world of custom-made hairpieces. Mr. Robert, the master craftsman, meets with a private client for an amusing impression of the hand-made process from mold making to final fitting. Close-ups capture the sophisticated skills of hair color matching, weaving one hair at a time, and the final shaping to sculpt the perfect wig that will be virtually invisible.

During a long career as a publisher of educational materials, Bert Shapiro became interested in documentary video making. He changed his career in 1995 and in 1997 began to work full-time at acquiring the technical skills necessary for effective camera work and non-linear editing. He has made a number of award-winning documentaries.

Barbeque with Bobby Seale
Kevin Diehl with Bobby Seale
Premieres July 15 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 19 at 10 pm
Imagine a cooking show like Emeril Live with its high production values: a great set, a live studio audience, and a lively band to play in and out of show segments. But instead of Emeril, the host is Bobby Seale, founding chairman of the Black Panthers and author of the cookbook Bar-b-que'n with Bobby. Engaging, eloquent and funny, Seale weaves historical and socio-political insights throughout this half-hour, down-home cooking show. Bobby's co-host is his wife, Leslie M. Johnson-Seale.

Kevin Diehl is an art director, video maker and musical composer. He is founder of the marketing and visual communications firm eye-dog.com. He creates title effects, graphic show packaging, and web and print campaigns for independent film and broadcast. His projects include: Daring to Resist, Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life, Scribe Video Center and the website PIFVA.org. Recently awarded the American Composers' Forum: Community Partners Residency. Diehl's commissioned composition IT, penned specifically for multimedia performance, debuted at the Prince Music Theater's Film at the Prince. IT was perfomed by Diehl's ensemble, Sonic Liberation Front, in collaboration with Termite TV Collective. Kevin's documentary, Lunch Cart, was acquired and aired during the second season of Philadelphia Stories and on WHYY's Independent Images series.

Beat-Box Philly
Warren Bass, Liz Goldberg
Premieres September 30 at 9 pm; rebroadcast October 4 at 10 pm
An animated film in which a character bebops through a series of recognizable Philadelphia scenes and neighborhoods in a marathon walk or jog, to the tune of mouth-generated beat-box rhythms by Edward Snyder.

Warren Bass is an independent film and video maker who has produced over 70 projects. He is a full professor and has served for extensive periods as Director of the Graduate Program in Film and Media Arts at Temple University. A teacher, director, artist and media producer, his work has received more than 90 regional, national and international awards. Liz Goldberg is trained in painting and graphics and is on the Art faculty of Philadelphia University. She and Warren Bass have collaborated on animated films since 1999, including Drumba, Motion Studies, Puppets' Cabal, Satyr Play, and Guido's Harem. Their work has received four international first prizes, and juried recognition in more than two dozen festivals in ten countries.

The Best Kept Secret
Lawnside Historical Society, Inc., Scribe Video Center
Premieres July 29 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 2 at 10 pm
The Best Kept Secret takes the viewer to the home of Peter Mott, a stop on the Underground Railroad, for which Mott acted as a "conductor" and shares the legacy Mott left to this New Jersey town and the nation.

The Lawnside Historical Society, Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization founded in March 1990 because of the urgent need to protect, preserve and maintain the Peter Mott House. Scribe Video Center (see Los Trabajdores, above)

Between the Edges
Joseph Ruscitto
Premieres August 19 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 23 at 10 pm
With her life threatened, her mother kidnapped and living in hiding in her home country of Colombia, Ana moved to the United States and settled into the equally challenging community of North Philadelphia. A documentary on the muralist/artist, Ana Uribe, looks at Ana's struggle to leave the fear behind and her efforts to make a new life. Primarily a landscape painter, Ana was invited by Jane Golden, the director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, to paint a mural after Golden saw an exhibit of her paintings. Ana found that by continuing to paint murals, she not only was helping herself but also the community. She lives and works in a primarily Latino section of North Philadelphia, and the community uses the murals as a rallying point to reclaim and beautify their neighborhoods.

Originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, Joseph Ruscitto holds a BM in Jazz Performance and Bachelor and MFA degrees in film production from Temple University. He was the sound designer and special effects editor on Diary of a City Priest, a film by Eugene Martin, which was shown at Sundance, 2001. As a percussionist, he has performed with the Brazilian ensemble, Samba Nosso, and the Spoken Hand Society, a fifteen-piece percussion ensemble. Mr. Ruscitto is also a member of the Middle Eastern group, Atzilut, with performances at the United Nations, the Atlanta Arts Festival, and the Jewish Arts Festival in Berlin, Germany to its credit. The group has released a CD, Souls on Fire.

Chance
Lowell Boston
Premieres August 12 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 16 at 10 pm
Inspired by real events, Chance is a live-action adaptation of a poem, Life and Poetry, written by the filmmaker. Based on the inconclusive results of a medical exam, Chance is about the risk one faces in life, the choice one makes, and the power of hope. Blending prose text, moving images and photography, this experimental video was shot in Collingswood, NJ, Manayunk and Fairmont Park.

Lowell Boston, who earned his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, teaches Animation at both the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and the Art Institute of Philadelphia. He works independently on his own animated and live-action films, takes on freelance projects and teaches animation workshops across the Delaware Valley.

Child Prodigies: Where Are They Now?
Maria Cortese, Upma Singh
Premieres July 8 at 9 pm; Rebroadcast July 12 at 10 pm
Winner of the 48-Hour Film Project's Best in The City, Child Prodigies: Where Are They Now? is a clever parody that portrays the artistic journey of a child ballet superstar turned self-proclaimed kinetic engineer.

Maria Cortese was most recently the Coordinating Producer of the Broad Street Project for the Scribe Video Center. Currently, she is the Coordinator of the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association (PIFVA). Her other independent work includes Civil Disobedience which premiered at the 2002 Philadelphia Festival's Festival of Independents and was later acquired for the second season of Philadelphia Stories. Upma Singh earned her MFA from University of North Carolina. She is the media center manager for Scribe Video Center and the founder of Feckless Productions. Her past work include a music video for The Doleful Lions, a rock band from Chapel Hill, NC, an experimental short entitled Whisper and a stop-motion animation using action figures, Design Friends.

Chinatown Life Stories
Termite TV Collective, Asian Arts Initiative
Premieres July 22 at 9 pm; Rebroadcast July 26 at 10 pm
Termite TV, in collaboration with youth participants from the Asian Arts Initiative's Youth Arts Workshop: Tien Duong, Barbara Jerome, and Michael Zhao Ð presents a new video exploring the variety of lives that cross paths in Philadelphia's Chinatown. Residents share their passions, dreams and philosophies and the only question that is asked of them is "Will you tell us your life story in five minutes?"

Termite TV (www.termite.org) is a Philadelphia based collective of video artists who create alternative content for television and the web. This is their first collaboration with the Asian Arts Initiative (www.asianartsinitiative.org), a community arts center grounded in the belief that the arts can provide an important political and cultural voice for the Asian American community in Philadelphia.

City Light
Lynn Denton
Premieres August 12 at 9 pm; Rebroadcast August 16 at 10 pm
This experimental film traces patterns of natural light, beginning with a cat on a rug inside the house moving outside and down the street. Three sections define three different moods accentuated with a jazz-based score by pianist Uri Caine.

A visual artist, performance artist and filmmaker, Lynn Denton has exhibited her work nationally for more than 25 years. Her work includes collaborations on I Have Something to Tell You, Red White Black, and the solo piece Rooms; her films include Don't Go to Bed Angry, If This Then That, and Clair-Obscur. She has received funding from the Leeway Foundation, Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association and the Philadelphia Foundation.

Confession
Marina Petrovskaia
Premieres July 29 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 2 at 10 pm
"I want to make a confession. I used my camera as a weapon to manipulate a now defenseless person and she has been haunting me ever since," declares filmmaker Marina Petrovskaia in her pioneering documentary, Confession. Petrovskaia journeys to Germany with the explicit purpose of confronting her ailing aunt and coaxing her into disclosing an unsavory episode in their family's history. Shot in black and white, with generous use of archival images and artfully placed text, Petrovskaia challenges conventional documentary techniques by purposely manipulating interviews and incorporating experimental devices to disjoint her aunt's narrative. While chronicling her confessional, the filmmaker calls into question her own moral authority over her investigation and, ultimately, presents a probing critique on the ethics of non-fiction filmmaking.

Marina Petrovskaia is a Russian independent filmmaker who lives in the United States. In April 2001 she founded Cinewindow Productions, a documentary production unit, and produces her own work independently from Russian and American studios. She is an advanced MFA candidate in Filmmaking at Temple University Film School. Marina has produced several experimental films, which she intends to put together as a collection of shorts, among them: An Attempt at a Fairy Tale, Rossini and Bolex and Fake Nostalgia. Currently, she is in pre-production on her thesis film, a feature length DV documentary, The Round Trip, about Russian adoption to the USA.

Cosmic Trane
Nadine Patterson
Premieres July 29 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 2 at 10 pm
Cosmic Trane, an experimental video in three parts that uses music, movement, visual art, and documentary footage to convey some of the issues explored in John Coltrane's music. Part One provides a brief introduction to the musician. Part Two, The Gospel According to Trane, includes collage works of Theodore A. Harris with footage of Philadelphia in the '60's. Part Three, A Love Supreme, includes dance interpretations of Acknowledgement from Coltrane's album A Love Supreme. Patterson employed the work of her relative, Cornelia Gosnell, who took 8mm shots of family and community gatherings in the 1960's.

Nadine Patterson is an award-winning independent producer with the following credits: I Used to Teach English, Anna Russell Jones: Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit; Moving with the Dreaming; Todo El Mundo Dance!; Shizue; and LoqueeshaAshleyFranklinJosieBrown, which was part of the second season of Philadelphia Stories. She has received funding for her projects from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, WYBE, the National Black Programming Consortium, the Philadelphia Foundation and the Leeway Foundation. She has taught courses in video production at Scribe Video Center, Arcadia University, Temple University and Drexel University. Ms Patterson recently completed a group project, the Scribe Video Workshop documentary Brick by Brick: Reflections on Philadelphia Public Education. She currently attends the Masters of Arts program at the London Film School.

Crop Circles
BiG TeA PaRtY: Elizabeth Fiend, Valerie Keller, Gretjen Clausing
Premieres September 16 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 20 at 10 pm
This documentary digs into Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a growing trend taking root across the country, committed to bringing back old ways of connecting people to farms and farmers. Host Elizabeth Fiend chats with local farmers and consumers who all concur that CSAs are important not only for personal health but also for the health of the environment and the preservation of local farms producing locally grown food. Between visits to rural and urban locations, BiG TeA PaRtY has some fun by sneaking into a fast food restaurant to see if people have lost their connection to the land that feeds them.

Since its formation in January 1998, BiG TeA PaRtY has produced 23 episodes of the hit TV series that regularly airs on Drexel University TV. On WYBE, BiG TeA PaRtY has been included in the Through the Lens and Philadelphia Stories series. Unconventional Coverage: the Message & the Means, their hour long commentary on the protests at the 2000 Republican National Convention, won the Best Documentary award at the 2001 Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, Festival of Independents. BiG TeA PaRtY's episode on the Philadelphia skateboarding scene, Sk8 B-Lo I-95 was aired as part of the second season of Philadelphia Stories and screened as part of ESPN's X-Games Tube Action Sports Film Festival. BiG TeA PaRtY is also the recipient of a Puffedin Grant for continued, progressive media education.

Eunuch Alley
Shashwati Talukdar
Premieres September 2 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 27 at 10 pm
This Bollywood-noir film follows the strange adventures of a journalist as he encounters eunuchs, his mother and famous criminal, Charles Sobhraj. Transcending realism, this absurdist romp is set in India, but was shot in Philadelphia, using a multi-racial cast. Using elements of the Bombay film musical and the film noir styles, this film rollicks its way from chases to musical numbers to lush flashbacks.

Shashwati Talukdar has made several films and videos that have been screened at venues including the Margaret Mead Festival, MediopolisBerlin, the Whitney Biennial, Kiasma Museum of Art in Helsinki and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. She has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Taraknath Das Foundation and the Wexner Center for the Arts. She received the James T. Yee mentorship award from NAATA for her project Sights Unseen. Currently, she has a fellowship from the Independent Feature Project in New York. She was born in India and has an MFA from Temple University, Philadelphia. Professional credits as an editor/assistant editor include America Undercover (HBO), Michael Moore Live (BBC), Intimate Portraits (Lifetime) and, most recently, a feature-length documentary on the legendary avant-garde theater director Robert Wilson.

The Geometry of Grief
Michael O'Reilly
Premieres July 8 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 12 at 10 pm
This film combines many elements, including personal narratives, archival documentary footage,3D generated period and virtual sets in a hybrid style that weaves a collage of imaging techniques (time lapse, blue screen live action compositing, documentary style shooting) and draws a visceral connection between the Titanic disaster and the events of September 11.

A filmmaker, composer and writer living in Philadelphia, Michael O'Reilly has had films shown in the London and Philadelphia ICA and The New York Film Festival, and included in the collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, among others. He has received fellowships from the Pew Fellowships in the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts, and most recently from the Independence Foundation's Fellowships in the Arts, as well as numerous grants on the local, state and national levels.

Girls Like Us
Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio
Premieres October 7 at 9 pm; rebroadcast October 11 at 10 pm
An ethnically diverse group of four working class girls strut, flirt, and testify in this vibrant, affecting portrait of teenage girls' experiences of sexuality. Filmed in South Philadelphia and following its subjects from the ages of 14 to 18, Girls Like Us reveals the conflicts of growing up female by examining the impact of class, sexism, and violence on the dreams and expectations of young girls. In documenting the friendships, challenges, and triumphs of these four young women, acclaimed filmmakers Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio have created something truly rare: a searingly honest, inspiring depiction of girls' experiences that provokes reaction from and dialogue between educators, parents and young women alike.

Jane C. Wagner and Tina DiFeliciantonio have been partners in Naked Eye Productions Ltd. since 1988. Their critically acclaimed work has been screened at museums, film festivals, educational institutions; and community organizations, and broadcast in countries throughout the world. Their film Girls Like Us has garnered a number of top honors including a National Emmy Award for Outstanding Cultural Program and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. In addition to their own films, DiFeliciantonio and Wagner have worked on dozens of documentaries as cinematographers and sound recordists, and have lectured at universities and participated on various panels and juries. Support for their work has come from organizations such as the American Film Institute, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Independent Television Service, the Women in Film Foundation, the California Council for the Humanities, and the New York State Council for the Arts. They are members of The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Hair Appointment for Josie, An American Beauty
Nicole Keating
Premieres September 16 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 20 at 10 pm
This compelling short film focuses on Josie Wierzbicki, a lively, 75-year-old South Philadelphia woman who tells the story of her life to her hairdresser while getting her hair done. In this "cinema verite" documentary, the filmmaker explores the meaning of this ritual for women in their "golden years", who often continue to visit beauty salons regularly despite strong social messages that they are no longer considered beautiful.

Nicole Keating is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of the Arts. She has published on topics dealing with women and film, and received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (specializing in the representation of history through documentary). She has also worked as a writer/researcher on a number of documentaries. This is her second short documentary.

LaVaughn Robinson: Dancing History
LaVaughn Robinson, Barry Dornfeld, Carol Boughter
Premieres September 9 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 13 at 10 pm
A world-renowned Philadelphia-based hoofer, articulate commentator, influential teacher and artistic survivor, LaVaughn Robinson's career in dance spans more than 65 years. LaVaughn Robinson: Dancing History recounts and illustrates Robinson's artistic legacy and connects his personal biography with Philadelphia's cultural history.

LaVaughn Robinson has performed his distinctive style of tap dance all over the world. At the age of 75, Robinson is a graceful dancer with a 65 year history of making a living performing. He has both a National Heritage Fellowship Award and Pennsylvania Governor's Award for the Arts to his credit and is an experienced teacher and insightful observer of dance, history, regional politics, and culture. Barry Dornfeld is a documentary filmmaker with over 20 years of experience producing moving programs about cultural performance and is the Director of the Communications Program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Carole Boughter is an artistic presenter and non-profit leader who has worked extensively with Mr. Robinson for more than 15 years.

Los Trabajadores
El Comite de Apoya Los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA), Scribe Video Center
Premieres September 16 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 20 at 10 pm
Los Trabajadores tells the stories and day-to-day experiences of mushroom farm laborers from Kennett Square and Reading, and examines their efforts to improve working and living conditions through organizing.

El Comite de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agricolas (CATA) is a migrant farmworker organization that is governed by and comprised of farm workers who are actively engaged in the struggle for better working and living conditions. Scribe Video Center is a Philadelphia not-for-profit arts education organization whose mission it is to enable community members to create their own video documentaries about important cultural, social, economic or political issues.

The Making of the Black Ninja
Anne Cremieux
Premieres August 26 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 30 at 10 pm
The Making of the Black Ninja explores the issue of racism in the film industry. It is composed of interviews of the cast and crew of The Black Ninja, a 35 mm feature-length African-American action/adventure film independently produced and directed by Philadelphia native Clayton Prince. The racially mixed cast and crew of The Black Ninja talk about the lack of diversity in the film industry, the difficulty of small budget production, and the lack of investors willing to support African American films.

Anne Cremieux is an independent French filmmaker living in Philadelphia. She has been making short films and documentaries for five years. The Making of the Black Ninja was originally inspired by her dissertation work on African American filmmakers. She currently teaches a film studies class at the University of Pennsylvania. She is finishing a short film, Crystal, and is working on a feature-length documentary entitled Ladyfest, about the 2003 Ladyfest in Philadelphia.

My Mother
Rob Baniewicz
Premieres August 19 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 24 at 10 pm
My Mother is a documentary about the director's trek into the life experiences of the poised matriarch of his family. Told mainly through an interview, and brought to life through old film footage and photos, this short gives the viewer a look at the torrid and remarkable life history of a humble native Philadelphian Baniewicz's mother.

Rob Baniewicz is a third year student at Drexel University. My Mother is his first professional documentary.

Next Tuesday
Michael Dennis, Rob Kates
Premieres July 22 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 26 at 10 pm
"Accepting responsibility leads to adulthood," is the theme in this contemporary tale of father and son. Told over the course of one afternoon, this is the story of Mack, 30, who decides to visit his son Andre for the first time since his birth 13 years prior. When things don't go as planned, both are forced to accept one another on more human terms and come to respect each other as men.

Writer and Director Michael Dennis is a graduate of both NYU's Film School and the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. He has worked public relations for Bill Cosby, written a screenplay for Chris Rock and created a feature length digital portrait of Philly Rap legend M.C. Breeze. He is in the process of developing Bring The Beat Back, a multi-part, multimedia history of Old School Rap Music in Philadelphia. As founder of Syncopation Studios, he has produced promotional DVDs for local artists Lady Alma and Kindred. His film Jazzyfatnastees: In Process aired as part of Philadelphia Stories' second season and was recently awarded Best Documentary at the 2003 Cine Noir Festival. Producer Rob Kates has been part of Philadelphia's advertising and media community for over 15 years. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association (PIFVA) and coordinates the Greater Philadelphia Film Office's PhillyDV networking group. While not working on indie film projects, he runs Kates Media.

Not Without a Past
Ned Eckhardt, Gina Maiorano
Premieres September 23 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 2 at 10 pm
Homeless individuals are a part of society that most people choose to ignore. But everyone comes from somewhere, and no one exists without a past. By learning who the homeless are and why they have fallen on hard times, it is possible to help them build productive lives. This documentary asks the viewer to understand who these unfortunate people are and to feel the struggles they are encountering.

Ned Eckhardt is a producer of many award-winning documentaries for the Odyssey of the Mind Organization and the New Jersey Historical Commission. He is a Professor of documentary production and Chair of the Radio/TV/Film Department at Rowan University, a visiting Professor at Osnabruck University in Osnabruck, Germany, and former producer at WCAU-TV, Channel 10 in Philadelphia. Co-Producer Gina Maiorano began working for the homeless as a volunteer in 1992 at the Samaritan Homeless Interim Program (S.H.I.P.), in Somerville, NJ.
A public relations coordinator for S.H.I.P as well as an office volunteer, Gina is also a freelance reporter for cable stations throughout the area.

Optimistic
Bobby Miller
Premieres August 19 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 23 at 10 pm
Casper is paranoid. So paranoid, in fact, that he decides to wear a gasmask at all times. Casper has a crush on a quirky waitress named Julie. Julie has a beautiful outlook on life which includes the unique hobby of collecting face-up pennies on the ground and putting them into an album. Casper's friend, Fred, talks to Julie for Casper, so that Casper can get an update on how she is doing without having to confront her himself. Will Casper ever talk to Julie? What do people think of his gas mask? And what will Julie think?

Bobby Miller is currently studying digital media and film/video production at Drexel University in Philadelphia. His cartoon series, Stickman Theatre, is featured in Drexel's newspaper. Miller's website, www.riggedproductions.com, features all of his work.

Passionate Voices: American Jews and Israel
Cindy L. Burstein, Tony Heriza, Wendy Univer
Premieres July 8 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 12 at 10 pm
For American Jews, no subject stirs more passion or arouses more fear than the future of Israel. The entire world now realizes the importance of the search for peace in the Middle East. Yet, Philadelphia's Jewish community is splintered among groups who care deeply, but see conflicting truths in the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Passionate Voices shows grandparents and teens, political activists and artists, congregational leaders and lay people as they form their ideas, act on their convictions, and respond to other opinions. This program asks the question: Is there room for many voices within the conversation about Israel's future? If not, what is lost?

Cindy L. Burstein received an MFA from Rutgers University. An independent producer of social issue documentaries, she also teaches community-based media production and creates video for non-profit organizations. She has a background in community organizing, and currently serves as the local ITVS Community Connections Project Field Organizer. Her work has aired on WYBE and been screened in numerous film festivals. Since co-founding the Community Media Workshop in Dayton, Ohio, in 1974, Tony Heriza has been engaged in media production for social change-producing, teaching and working with community organizations. His documentaries have been broadcast nationally on PBS and screened at the Margaret Mead and other festivals. He is currently Associate Director of Communications for the American Friends Service Committee. Wendy Univer writes and produces broadcast documentaries and many forms of media for organizations engaged in social change. Her work has been seen on PBS, WYBE, WHYY, and Discovery and in the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Wendy has also helped create Web sites on many topics, including breast cancer and the human impact of the war in Iraq.

Philadelphia Shaikh
Zilan Munas,Warren Bass
Premieres September 30 at 9 pm; rebroadcast October 4 at 10 pm
Philadelphia Shaikh is a portrait of a charismatic holy man, (Guru or Shaikh) Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, and the international religious community he founded in Philadelphia. Compared to what is typically portrayed in the news, this film examines another side of Islam Ð a view of Islamic life and Sufi thought within the context of an American setting.

Zilan Munas is an independent film and video maker who has produced programs on educational, minority, feminist, medical and Third World concerns for regional and international broadcast, for 20 years. In addition to works for broadcast, she has produced many educational and corporate videos. Her work in film and video has received awards from the American Film Institute, UFVA, Sony, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. For information on Warren Bass, see Beat-Box Philly.

Recovery Portrait
Sloan Seale
Premieres July 15 at 9 pm; rebroadcast July 19 at 10 pm
Recovery Portrait follows the construction of outdoor sculpture at New Jerusalem Now, a drug recovery center in North Philadelphia. The story unfolds through the telling of artist Lynn Denton, residents of New Jerusalem and neighborhood children. The result is, as one resident puts it, a "spiritual collage about healing the place that made you sick."

Sloan Seale is a Philadelphia-based filmmaker, screenwriter and film scholar. She received her MFA from Temple University. Her films and videos include This Happened on My Street, Kelly Drive and Recovery Mural. Her screenplay, Wyoming's Day of Rage was in development at DreamWorks. Her latest screenplay is Dungeon Echoes. She is currently on the faculty at Temple University.

Religious Identity
Mark Scalese
Premieres September 30 at 9 pm; rebroadcast October 4 at 10 pm
Members of a local Muslim community reflect on their religious identity in the wake of the September 11 attacks. This film piece takes an unexpected turn when one of the subjects turns the microphone on the interviewer. The violation of the usual documentary etiquette creates a charged dynamic that becomes the emotional and structural spine of the piece.

Mark Scalese, SJ, is a Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits). His professional background includes experience as an art teacher, an associate television producer at Frank Frost Productions in McLean, VA, and a pastoral minister at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Washington, D.C. He is currently an MFA student in the Film and Media Arts department of Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Rhythms of Nostalgia
Leo Aristimuno
Premieres September 9 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 13 at 10 pm
A documentary portrait of Panamanian-born Emiliano Pardo-Tristan, prolific avant garde composer and virtuoso guitarist now permanently established in Philadelphia. Personal anecdotes of Mr. Pardo-Tristan's life as an immigrant in Philadelphia intertwine with his explanation and descriptions of his most recent compositions, his creative process, his artistic goals, and his strong bond to his native Panama. Punctuating and guiding Mr. Pardo-Tristan's story are exclusive performances of his dynamic musical works by the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Trio and a host of other talented Philadelphia musicians.

Director and Producer Leo Aristimuno is an independent media maker whose works have included film, video, multimedia performance and theater. His thematic interests center around the stories of the immigrant experience, particularly those of the Latino population, as well as stories of intercultural collisions, clashes, and exchanges. His works have been screened and performed in London, Havana, Chicago, Minneapolis and Philadelphia. Born In Buenos Aires, Argentina, Leo migrated to the US in 1978. He has studied theater at King's College and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, cultural studies at Lancaster University in Lancaster, England, and Film and Media Arts at Temple University, Philadelphia. He has taught Film and Video Production, Critical Media Studies, and International Cinema at Temple University, The University of the Arts, and Drexel University. Currently, he is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University, Montreal.

Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life
Sharon Mullally, Barbara Attie
Premieres August 5 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 9 at 10 pm
Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life is a video documentary on the life of this Quaker mystic, theologian, professor and social activist. At the end of 1938, Rufus went nose-to-nose with Nazi leaders to negotiate the release of Jews from Germany. He was a founder of the Nobel Prize-winning American Friends Service Committee and is a proponent of living your beliefs in the world.

Sharon Mullally worked for 10 years in staff positions at broadcast television stations in Philadelphia and Baltimore. An award-winning independent producer and editor, Mullally's most recent work is Fadi Flies a Kite, a video poem reflecting the hopes of children in the occupied West Bank. She has also produced videos on women moving from welfare to work and programs teaching self-respect and conflict resolution skills to children. Mullally's editorial work includes several national PBS programs and numerous locally broadcast documentaries and educational videos. Barbara Attie has been producing award-winning documentaries for more than a decade. Her just-completed documentary, Maggie Growls (produced and directed with Janet Goldwater), about Maggie Kuhn, founder of the Gray Panthers, premiered nationally in February, 2003, on PBS' Independent Lens.

Sideman
Chad Jenkins.
Sideman is a documentary film about the life of Mickey Roker, the legendary Philadelphia jazz drummer who has worked with such luminaries as Oscar Peterson, Nancy Wilson, and Dizzy Gillespie, among many others. Known throughout the musical community as one of the most prolific and influential drummers to claim Philadelphia as home, Roker has had a career that has spanned over five decades, and he has played on an estimated 750 albums. In addition to several live sequences that illustrate Roker's musical prowess, the film highlights his family life and his experiences living in the city for over 50 years.

Chad Jenkins is a senior at the University of the Arts, in the Communications Department with a concentration on documentary filmmaking. Sideman is his first film and was completed in his junior year. A long time musician, Jenkins currently plays in the local band Clio and is working on a feature-length documentary about two Vietnam War heroes. In addition, he is finishing a film about school reform in the Philadelphia Public School System, along with Brendan Jerome, for his senior thesis.

Suzana's Dream
Nora Malone
Premieres August 5 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 9 at 10 pm
Based on the life of Suzana Jeremic, Suzana's Dream is an experimental documentary that intimately explores the protagonist's relationship to domestic violence. Focusing on the fluctuating affinity to her mother within this context, the narrative follows Suzana's evolving efforts to remove herself from this cycle. With inspirational courage and endurance, she ventures from her home in impoverished rural Serbia, to Belgrade University during the onset of civil war, to the theatrical stages of New York City. Using the motif of Suzana's vivid, recurring nightmares, this piece weaves emotional reflection and biographical information to trace her life journey.

Nora Malone is an independent film and video maker based in Philadelphia. She is an adjunct faculty member at Temple University in the Department of Film and Media Arts, where she is completing her Master of Fine Arts in film production. She is a grant recipient in support of Suzana's Dreams and Drinking Raoule (2002), a seven-minute experimental piece that explores the conflict between romantic ideals and societal attitudes towards women's sexuality.

Taxi Driver
Eric Thomas
Premieres September 30 at 9 pm; rebroadcast October 4 at 10 pm
Philadelphia's Haitian community comprises 30,000 Haitian Americans scattered throughout the city. With the help of Haitian taxi driver and part-time radio host Jocelyn Jean-Baptiste, explore the Haitian community's attempts to preserve their French Creole culture and instill in their people a sense of support and unity.

Eric Thomas has worked in the Greater Philadelphia area on independent documentaries as a Producer, Camera Op and Editor. His past experiences include ten years as a newspaper
photojournalist. A PIFVA member and part of the Michael Thomas team, his video work has been shown at film festivals here and abroad, on public television and cable TV.

Under New Management: Student Voices & School Reform in Philadelphia
Maria T. Rodriguez, Wendy Weinberg
Premieres September 23 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 6 at 10 pm
This documentary examines the first year of privatization of the Philadelphia Public School System by focusing primarily on those who are affected the most by this reform: the students and their families. Philadelphia, the seventh largest school district in the country, is becoming a national laboratory for school reform. Policy makers and parents alike are looking at the privatization model as a litmus test for national urban public education.

Maria T. Rodriguez is an award-winning independent film and video maker and a 2001 Pew Fellowship in the Arts recipient. In addition to producing and directing her own documentaries, which have been exhibited nationally and internationally, she has also produced for PBS and taught at Scribe Video Center and the University of the Arts. Wendy Weinberg was a Senior Segment Producer of the award winning Classroom Close-Up, New Jersey, a half hour magazine show broadcast on NJN, which focused on public education students in documentary video production at high schools in various cities. Wendy was the Philly Producer in charge of five schools, including Martin Luther King High School. Awards from this program include the National Scholastic Press Association All American Video Yearbooks Award.
Wendy L. Weinberg has been in the business of making films and videos since
1983 and has worked in all genres, in many different capacities, and in
collaboration with independent makers, public television stations,
corporations and non-profit organizations.

Wendy¹s latest documentary, The Art of Activism, aired in June 2002 on WYBE
as part of Philadelphia Stories 2. The 30-minute video examines the role of
art in social and political activism, through the work of 8 local artists.

Wendy is also the Producer, Director, Writer, Cinematographer, Sound
Designer, and Editor of the Academy-Award nominated short documentary,
³Beyond Imagining: Margaret Anderson and the Little Review.² ³Beyond
Imagining² has screened at over 60 national and international festivals and
special events and has aired on PBS stations in New York and Philadelphia,
as well as Australia, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and Ireland. ³Beyond
Imagining² was included in a show at the Whitney Museum of Art and played
theatrically at Cinema Village in New York for nine days. Wendy¹s film is in
collections in 22 states and 9 countries, including Singapore, Hong Kong,
and Japan.

For over four years, Wendy was Senior Segment Producer of ³Classroom
Close-up, New Jersey,² a half-hour magazine-style show which focused on
public education. The bi-weekly show, produced by the New Jersey Education
Association, was broadcast out of Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York and
won numerous local, regional and national awards, including a New Jersey
Cable Television Network CAPE Award as ³Best Program² and a ³creative
excellence² award from the U.S. International Film and Video Festival.

Currently, Wendy is an Assistant Professor of Film and Digital Video in the
Media Arts Department at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

When I Was Young
Huixia Lu
Premieres September 2 at 9 pm; rebroadcast September 27 at 10 pm
This film chronicles a woman's emotional journey in one night. Life does not stir her anymore and she realizes that she is unable to love and be involved. She recalls her past and remembers other choices she might have made. Now she feels helpless and trapped. Should she let life slip away or should she try to grasp it?

Huixia Lu, an MFA candidate at Temple University, has won national and 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 as a writer, director, correspondent, editor, cameraperson, and hostess for Harbin Television Station in China. She was awarded a Philadelphia Stories 2 production grant for her documentary Alice Liu's Weekend.

Winter
James McGillin, Frank Guerin, Nate Heaton.
Premieres August 12 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 16 at 10 pm
With the onslaught of nuclear war looming in the collective unconscious of many Americans, the fear of regret--of not saying "I love you" to the wife before heading to work, or of not asking for forgiveness from a friend prior to the "fallout" eating at them, the three main characters must focus on solidifying their relationships before the inevitable happens.

Winter is the debut project of this production team representing Philadelphia's Irish American community. Frank Guerin is an independent artist with a degree in Photography from the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Nate Heaton is a freelance writer/web designer. James McGillin is an independent producer.

You Never Know
Dennis Nelson and the Big Picture Alliance
Premieres August 12 at 9 pm; rebroadcast August 16 at 10 pm
James Carter is like any other 17 year old high school student. He goes to class, has a part time job and enjoys hanging out with friends and flirting with girls. James starts his new job at the local health clinic and his life is forever altered when a mandatory screening reveals that he is HIV positive. As James searches for the answers to how he may have contracted the virus, secrets are revealed by both his girl friends and his family that show how one mistake can affect the lives of so many others.

Dennis Nelson is a 16-year-old junior at Dobbins Randolph AVTS. He wrote and co-directed You Never Know. The film was developed in the Big Picture Alliance student filmmaking workshop, now in its fifth partnership with Dobbins High School. Dennis also performs the lead role in the film.