Executive Director of Scribe Video Center, Louis Massiah, is a documentary filmmaker who has produced works for PBS exploring political and historical subjects, including W.E.B. Du Bois - A Biography in Four Voices, The Bombing of Osage Avenue, Cecil B. Moore, and two films for the landmark PBS series Eyes on the Prize II.  A recipient of a five-year MacArthur Foundation fellowship (“genius award”), he has been a faculty member and guest artist at City College of New York, Princeton University, Haverford College, American University, the University of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College. He was awarded a Emmy for producing the MOVE Commission Hearings and nominated for national Emmy awards for  Power! (Documentary- Writing) and Eyes on the Prize II (Documentary - Research) and W.E.B. Du Bois (Documentary –Research). He produced and directed the five channel video installation for the President’s House historic site at Independence National Historic Park.  Massiah is the founding director of Scribe, Artistic Director of the Precious Places Community History Project and a Workshop instructor.  He is the Co-Director of the Great Migration Project.

Project Co-Director, Charles Hardy, is a producer of award-winning radio, video, and web-based documentaries, and a professor of history at West Chester University.  An expert on oral history and new media, his work includes the Goin North: Tales of the Great Migration radio documentary series (1984) and "I Can Almost See the Lights of Home: A Field Trip to Harlan County, Kentucky," (1999), an aural history essay-in-sound co-authored with Alessandro Portelli. A former president of the Oral History Association (2008-09), two time winner of the Oral History Association Non-Print Media Award, and a group leader of  "Oral History in the Digital Age" (2009-12), he is coeditor, with Janneken Smucker, of Goin' North.org, a student-built website that includes oral history interviews, biographical sketches, and digital storytelling projects. Since 2003 he also has served as Supervising Historian for ExplorePAhistory.com, a collaborative Pennsylvania history website built around state historical markers.

Artists

• Julie Dash
• Kevin Jerome Everson
• Lonnie Graham
• Tina Morton
• Mendi + Keith Obadike

Communities & Locations

• Universal Negro Improvement Association – African Communities League -  Thomas Harvey Division (UNIA)
• Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Philadelphia
• The Philadelphia Tribune
• Ruth Bennett House of Chester, Pennslyvania
• Wissahickon Boys & Girls Club
• YMCA Christian Street

Project Staff

• Co-Director:   Louis Massiah
• Co-Director:   Charles Hardy
• Project Coordinators:    Julie Rainbow & Nadine Patterson
• Advisor/Archive Resource:   Diane Turner
• Web Design:   Interactive Mechanics
• Media Relations:   Brownstone PR
• Project Advisor:    Fath Ruffin
• Project Advisor:    Marcus Hunter
• Exhibition Advisor:    African American Museum in Philadelphia

PROGRAMMING FOR THE GREAT MIGRATION: A CITY TRANSFORMED (1916-1930) IS SUPPORTED BY THE PEW CENTER FOR ARTS & HERITAGE. 

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage is a multidisciplinary grantmaker and hub for knowledge sharing, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and dedicated to fostering a vibrant cultural community in Greater Philadelphia. The Center fulfills this mission by investing in ambitious, imaginative arts and heritage projects that showcase the region’s cultural vitality and enhance   public life, and by engaging in an exchange of ideas concerning artistic and interpretive practice with a broad network of cultural leaders. For more information, visit pcah.us. 

Additional Funding Provided By:

• Department of History of Art, University of Pennsylvania
• Center for Africana Studies and Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania
• Lincoln Financial Foundation
• Hamilton Family Foundation
• West Chester University

Scribe Video Center was founded in 1982 as a place where emerging and experienced media artists could gain access to the tools and knowledge of video making and work together in a supportive environment. Scribe provides training in all aspects of film, video and audio production. We also offer classes in computer-based interactive media to individuals and community organizations as well. We give emerging and mid-level video makers the skills and opportunity to use video and film as tools for self-expression and for representing and supporting their communities. Scribe has a particular focus on collaborative media projects that explore local community issues and histories.

Staff at Scribe Video Center

• Dane Bard - Technical Coordinator
• Alexia Chororos - Development Director
• Lou Iatarola - Technical Coordinator
• Amanda Johnson - Media Center Manager
• Louis Massiah - Executive Director
• Dorothea Morris – Bookkeeper
• Boone Nguyen – Street Movies! Producer
• Hye-Jung Park - Associate Director/Program Manager
• Michael Prendergast - Intern
• Alex Vuocolo – Communications and Outreach Coordinator