Videos from the Tri-Co libraries about the Philadelphia area.
The Feature Films listed at the bottom of the page take place in Philadelphia, or were filmed in the area.
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Philadelphia Films : Videos from the Tri-College collection
ARTS:
Architecture:
City Hall 100
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc., c2001.
Performer: Hosted by Tracey Matisak.
Production: Editor, Pat Warner.
Format: VHS format.
Discusses the history of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania's City Hall, 100 years old in 2001.
Eastern State Penitentiary
Publisher: Waterville, ME : Forged Images Productions, [2006], c1998.
Performer: Narrated by Verna Avery-Brown.
Production: Written & directed by Christine Bowditch ; original music by Braydon McCormick ; edited by Paul Cady.
Format: DVD.
This documentary illustrated with period lithographs, engravings, and photographs, gives a detailed history of the prison from its initial practice of total solitary confinement through its transformation into an overcrowded "Big House" to its replacement with a modern facility in 1970.
My architect
Publisher: [New York, N.Y.] : New Yorker Video, [2005], c2003.
Performer: Narrator: Nathaniel Kahn.
Production: Director of photography, Bob Richman; editor, Sabine Krayenbühl; music by Joseph Vitarelli.
Format: DVD; Dolby Digital.
Nathaniel Kahn documents the life and works of his father, the American architect Louis Kahn.
PCN tours
Publisher: Camp Hill, PA : PA Cable Network, c1997.
Format: VHS.
Take a tour of American's oldest prison, Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, PA, where inmates existed in almost total silence in order to better contemplate the consequences of their crimes.
A walk up Broad Street
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : WHYY-TV12, 2000.
Performer: Tour guides: Bill Webber and Hyman Myers.
Format: VHS format.
Join Philadelphia media personality Bill "Wee Willie" Webber and architect and preservationist Hyman Myers as they take a 12-mile walking tour of Broad Street -- the longest, straightest urban street in the world. The tour begins at League Island at the southern end and continues to Cheltenham Avenue at Philadelphia's northern border. Includes discussions about The Navy Yard, St. Rita of Cascia Roman Catholic Church, The Civil War Rail Station, The Academy of Music, The Bellevue Stratford Hotel, The Union League, City Hall, Masonic Temple, Divine Lorraine Hotel, and Metropolitan Opera House.
Art:
A healing kaleidoscope
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Eternity Productions, c2004.
Production: Produced and directed by Nancy Rugart.
Format: VHS.
Documents the 20-year rise of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program from its roots as part of the city's Anti Graffiti Network to Philadelphia's "Outdoor Museum of Art" under the direction of its director, Jane Golden.
Mary Cassatt
Publisher: [New York, N.Y.?] : Educational Broadcast Corp., 1975 ;
Performer: Voices: Leora Dana (Mary Cassatt) ; Guy Sorel (Degas) ; Mary Jane Higby (women's voices) ; William Redfield (men's voices)
Production: Dorothy Monet, writer ; John Adams, music supervisor.
Mary Cassatt is now recognized as one of the great American artists of the 19th century. The best examples of her work have been collected for this presentation to reveal its quality, variety and originality. Her personal story--her years in Paris, her relationship with Degas, the influence of her socially prominent Philadelphia family, the places she lived and painted--is told with on-location footage and stills.
Mural
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc., 2002.
Performer: Muralists: David McShane, David Guinn, Diane Keller, Parris Stancell.
Production: Mural Arts Program's director, Jane Golden.
Format: VHS format.
Video diaries of four artists in Philadelphia who were commissioned by the city's Dept. of Recreation to paint murals in various locations to beautify and connect an art project with each neighborhood.
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Publisher: [Twin City, GA?] : Great Museums, c2002.
Production: Narrator, John Patrick.
Format: VHS.
Thomas Eakins
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc., c2001.
Performer: Narrator, Blythe Danner; includes interviews with curators and conservators of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
Production: Director of photography, Eric P. Sennheim.
Format: VHS format.
Coincides with the first major retrospective to be devoted to the artist in twenty years. Organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art . . . it surveys for the first time the artist's full range of achievements in painting, photography, sculpture and drawing.
Dance:
African American women in dance
Publisher: Swarthmore, PA : Swarthmore College, 1992.
Format: VHS format.
Lecture demonstration with women tappers from Philadelphia and New York City / Swarthmore College Music and Dance Festival, 1992.
Dance to live
Publisher: New York, NY : Cinema Guild, Inc., c2004.
Format: VHS.
Tells the personal stories of the dancers at Philadanco -- the Philadelphia-based African-American modern dance company.
Dances from the fringe
Publisher: Swarthmore, PA : Swarthmore College, 2000.
Format: VHS format.
The view from over here / The Pennsylvania Ballet, choreography by Jorma Elo -- The kitchen table / The Phrenic New Ballet, choreography by Bill Cratty. Recorded performances at Lang Performing Arts Center, September 9, 2000.
Dance
Publisher: [Philadelphia : Scribe Video Center,] c1998.
Format: VHS.
Celebrates the work of dancer Ione Nash, a 74-year-old African American woman who has been teaching dance in community centers in Philadelphia for more than thirty years. Includes interviews with several of her students, members of her dance troupe, her drummer/longtime collaborator Skip Burton, and others.
LaVaughn Robinson, dancing history
Publisher: [Conshohocken, PA : LaVaughn Video Project] ; c2003.
Performer: LaVaughn Robinson, Germaine Ingram.
Format: VHS.
Chronicles the artistic life of Philadelphia tap legend LaVaughn Robinson.
Plenty of good women dancers
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : Philadelphia Folklore Project, 2004.
Performer: Featured artists: Hortense Allen Jordan, Kitty DeChavis, Isabelle Fambro, Edith "Baby Edwards" Hunt, Germaine Ingram, Delores and David McHarris, LaVaughn Robinson, Libby Spencer, The cast of Stepping in Time, The Johnny Williams Band.
Format: DVD.
"African American women hoofers from Philadelphia." Features African American women tap dancers whose careers spanned the 1930s to the 1990s.
Todo el mundo dance!
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Scribe Video Center, c2000.
Performer: Interviewees: Kim Y. Bears, Myra Bazell, Joan Myers Brown, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Rennie Harris, Tony Nieves, Doris Reddick, Nito.
Production: Youth producers, Amina M. Ekpaji, Venture Lee, Llanira Esteves, John DeLancey ; production facilitator, Nadine Patterson ; dance content facilitator, Joan Huckstep ; project consultant, Brenda Dixon Gottschild ; editors, Dorothea Braemer, Carl Lee.
Format: VHS.
Documentary exploring the many different facets of dance in Philadelphia. Kim Y. Bears discusses theatrical dance and the contribution of Joan Myers Brown to making ballet training available to African-American dancers. Rennie Harris discusses the development of a universal technique and philosophy in hip-hop dancing, and notes Latino influences on hip-hop. Tony Nieves discusses salsa dancing and its origins. Myra Bazell discusses how many different dance forms and ethnic cultures combine in her jazz dance teaching and choreography. Brenda Dixon Gottschild discusses the cotillions held for the city's African-American debutantes.
Voloshky Ukrainian Dance Ensemble of Philadelphia
Publisher: Swarthmore, PA : Swarthmore College, [1992]
Format: VHS format.
Music:
As speech flows to music
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Anna Crusis Women's Choir : c1995.
Anna Crusis Women's Choir is a Philadelphia based vocal ensemble with a 20 year history of fostering empowerment for women and communities through song.
A joyful noise
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Borock Productions : c1999.
Performer: Hankus Netsky, Joe Borock, Elaine Hoffman Watts.
Format: VHS.
Documents the history of klezmer as it existed in Philadelphia in the first half of the 20th century. Includes interviews with musicians from that time, and with Hankus Netsky, the instigator of the klezmer revival of the 1980s and 1990s. Also includes some recent performance footage.
Marian Anderson
Publisher: West Long Branch, NJ : Kultur, [1998], c1991.
Performer: Narrated by Avery Brooks.
Production: Director of photography, Rick Malkames; editor, Anthony Black.
Format: VHS; Hi-fi; Stereo-compatible; Dolby system.
A biography of virtuosa Marian Anderson from the time she sang spirituals as a child at the Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia to the beginning of her classical career in Europe in the 1930's, her return to the United States, her eventual appearance at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955 (the first black person to perform there), to her retirement in 1965, "a national treasure"
Music from the inside out
Publisher: [New York?] : Docurama : c2007.
Performer: Musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Production: Edited by Bob Eisenhardt, Jean Tsien, Stan Warnow.
Format: DVD.
A cinematic exploration of the magic and mystery of music through the stories, passions, and artistry of the 105 musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Rock school
Publisher: Culver City, CA : Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment : 2005.
Performer: Asa, Tucker Collins, Madi Diaz-Svalgard, Paul Green, Napoleon Murphy-Brown, Will O'Connor, C.J. Tywoniak.
Production: Director of photography, Don Argott ; editor, Demian Fenton.
Format: DVD, region 1, widescreen (1.78:1) presentation; Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo.
A look at Philadelphia's Paul Green School of Rock Music, headed by former rock star aspirant Paul Green. An intense instructor, Green's students progress from group lessons to a showcase of their talents at a tribute concert to Frank Zappa in Germany.
Theater:
Children of Cambodia, children of war
Publisher: Media, PA : TOVA, c1994.
Performer: Chanty Jong, Peter Lay, Tim Ngeth, Houng Peach, Phaly Touch, Ciatta Dukuly, Shawn Moody, Andrea Nicotera, Dito Van Reigersberg, Khammanh Xayamoungkhoun.
Production: Director/writer, Paula Sepinuck ; music, Greg Scott.
Format: VHS format.
An original theater piece created by Cambodia teen refugees and their peers. Combines traditional Cambodian dance, music and fighting sticks with the performers' personal stories of life during the Cambodian civil war, their escape to the United States, and their cultural dislocation in inner city Philadelphia.
EDUCATION:
High school
Publisher: Cambridge, MA : Distributed by Zipporah Films, [1996]
Format: VHS format.
Frederick Wiseman's documentary study of Northeast High School in Philadelphia in 1968. Deals with the ideology and values of a large urban high school as seen through encounters between students, teachers, and parents in guidance sessions, college counseling, discipline, faculty meetings, corridor patrol, and brings out the implications of education at a very large high school.
How our garden grows
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Scribe Video Center, c1997.
Production: Video team, Joee Haxter, Jeanette Liou, Niki Taylor.
Format: VHS format.
The After School Program in Olney works with community organizations and artists to create an environment that addresses the multiple ways children and their families need support. This video documents how art and music are essential ingredients of their growing garden.
I am a promise
Publisher: New York : Video Verité, c1993.
Production: Photographed and edited by Alan Raymond.
Format: VHS format.
Enter Stanton Elementary School in North Philadelphia, equipped with few resources and surrounded by a community where drugs, crime, and poor housing offer a bleak setting in which to grow up.
To school or not to school
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Youth United for Change ; c1993.
Production: Produced, shot and edited by Youth United for Change: Charnell Battle, José Gonzáles, Megan Gordon, Ron Lopes, José Maldonado, Amy McKee, Johanna Ramos, Linda Rivera, and Luis Rivera.
Youth United for Change of Woodrock, Pennsylvania considers the issue of high school attendance and dropout. Includes interviews with high school students at Edison High School in Philadelphia and shares the stories of three teenage dropouts.
ETHNICITY:
African American:
African American women in dance
Publisher: Swarthmore, PA : Swarthmore College, 1992.
Format: VHS format.
Black Philadelphia memories
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : WHYY, c1999.
Performer: Patti LaBelle, narrator.
Format: VHS format.
Black Philadelphia Memories weaves together the recollections of historians, entertainers and relatives of famous Philadelphians to tell the story of a city with a dynamic African-American community ... through archival footage and photographs.
The bombing of Osage Avenue
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc. : 1988], c1986.
Production: Videographers, Keith Miller, Eric Sennhenn; editor, Michael Black.
Format: VHS.
On May 13, 1985, 61 homes on Osage Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were destroyed by the Philadelphia Police Department, and 11 members of the MOVE organzation were dead.
The bombing of West Philly
Publisher: Alexandria, VA : PBS Video, 1987.
Documents the confrontation between the city of Philadelphia and MOVE, a small radical group, which took place on May 13, 1985. Describes the complaints of the neighbors which were responded to by the police with tear gas, automatic weapons, and bombs.
Brotherly love
Publisher: Boston, MA : WGBH Educational Foundation ; c1998.
Performer: Narrator: Angela Bassett.
Production: Director of photography, Michael Chin, Buddy Squires ; editor, Jean Boucicaut ; music score, Bernice Johnson Reagon ; associate producer, Patricia Garcia Rios.
Format: VHS format ; PBS VIDEOindex.
"In this third episode, during the first 50 years of the new nation, freedmen and fugitive slaves in Philadelphia push the country to live up to the promises made in its Constitution. But with the invention of the cotton gin, slavery expands into America's western frontier, and a revolution in Haiti inspires slave rebellions throughout the southern United States,"--Container.
Dance
Publisher: [Philadelphia : Scribe Video Center,] c1998.
Format: VHS.
Celebrates the work of dancer Ione Nash, a 74-year-old African American woman who has been teaching dance in community centers in Philadelphia for more than thirty years.
Dance to live
Publisher: New York, NY : Cinema Guild, Inc., c2004.
Format: VHS.
Tells the personal stories of the dancers at Philadanco -- the Philadelphia-based African-American modern dance company.
Marian Anderson
Publisher: West Long Branch, NJ : Kultur, [1998], c1991.
Performer: Narrated by Avery Brooks.
Production: Director of photography, Rick Malkames; editor, Anthony Black.
Format: VHS; Hi-fi; Stereo-compatible; Dolby system.
A biography of virtuosa Marian Anderson from the time she sang spirituals as a child at the Union Baptist Church in Philadelphia to the beginning of her classical career in Europe in the 1930's, her return to the United States, her eventual appearance at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955 (the first black person to perform there), to her retirement in 1965, "a national treasure"
Plenty of good women dancers
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : Philadelphia Folklore Project, 2004.
Performer: Featured artists: Hortense Allen Jordan, Kitty DeChavis, Isabelle Fambro, Edith "Baby Edwards" Hunt, Germaine Ingram, Delores and David McHarris, LaVaughn Robinson, Libby Spencer, The cast of Stepping in Time, The Johnny Williams Band.
Format: DVD.
Features African American women tap dancers whose careers spanned the 1930s to the 1990s.
Asian:
American sroksrei
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : Medical Communication for Pan Asian Health and Understanding : 1999.
Format: VHS format.
A dramatization of the dilemma faced by a Cambodian teenager when the demands of his gang conflict with those of his girlfriend and his own better judgment.
Children of Cambodia, children of war
Publisher: Media, PA : TOVA, c1994.
Performer: Chanty Jong, Peter Lay, Tim Ngeth, Houng Peach, Phaly Touch, Ciatta Dukuly, Shawn Moody, Andrea Nicotera, Dito Van Reigersberg, Khammanh Xayamoungkhoun.
Production: Director/writer, Paula Sepinuck ; music, Greg Scott.
Format: VHS format.
An original theater piece created by Cambodia teen refugees and their peers. Combines traditional Cambodian dance, music and fighting sticks with the performers' personal stories of life during the Cambodian civil war, their escape to the United States, and their cultural dislocation in inner city Philadelphia. Investigates the effects of war and racism and how spiritual strength and cultural identity can begin to heal the wounds of war.
Face to face
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Asian Americans United ; c1996.
Production: Youth directors: Leap Chan, Pauline Cheung, Sotheavy Chhum, Chann Chhum, Thanh Hang, Khom Koung, Tone Meas, Yann Or, Channy Phoeung, Reth Sek.
Face to Face explores the high-school aged Asian-American experience in Philadelphia. Includes interviews with youths discussing the impact of racism, stereotypes, police/community relationships, and gangs on Philadelphia's teenage Asian-American population.
Look forward and carry on the past
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : Philadelphia Folklore Project : c2002.
Production: Camera, Barry Dornfeld ; editor, Barry Dornfeld.
Format: VHS format.
Stories from Philadelphia's Chinatown. Illustrates the strength and complexity of Philadelphia's Chinatown neighborhood, and focuses on the role of folk arts and cultural expression in the community's continuing struggles for respect and survival.
Jewish:
From Philadelphia to the front
Publisher: Waltham, MA : National Center for Jewish Film, c2006.
Performer: Interviewees: David Altman, Sidney Zubrow, Boris Drucker, Bill Hirsch, Joe Pepper, Milton Dank ; narration: Barbara Moskow.
Production: Editors: Julie Goldstein, Sharon Mullally ; camera: Erika Mijlin ; original score: John Avarese.
Format: DVD; all regions; NTSC.
Explores the world of the Jewish soldier in World War II through the eyes of six men from Philadelphia.
It's a mitzvah!
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc. , c2002.
Format: DVD.
Documents the Jewish community of the Delaware Valley, past and present.
A joyful noise
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Borock Productions : c1999.
Performer: Hankus Netsky, Joe Borock, Elaine Hoffman Watts.
Format: VHS.
Documents the history of klezmer as it existed in Philadelphia in the first half of the 20th century. Includes interviews with musicians from that time, and with Hankus Netsky, the instigator of the klezmer revival of the 1980s and 1990s. Also includes some recent performance footage.
Latino:
Latina salud
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : WHYY-TV12, 2002.
Performer: Narrator: Elisabeth Perez-Luna.
Format: VHS format.
An exploration of the cultural barriers affecting the health of Latinas in our community
This is family
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Congreso de Latinos Unidos, c1997.
Format: VHS format.
Highlights the work and services provided by Congreso de Latinos Unidos, a social service agency located in Philadelphia. Includes interviews with staff members and clients.
FOOD:
Full frame documentary film festival
Publisher: [United States] : Docurama ; [2005]
Performer: Interviews with: Rodney Williams, Rosalie Kunoth Monks ; voices: Ajay Raina, Shobha Ghosh.
Production: Directors of photography, Elizabeth Pearson, Melba L. Williams, Warwick Thornton, Sameer Mahajan, Mark Ceryak, Jack Flynn, Franko Galoso ; editors, Melba L. Williams, Dena Curtis, Narayanan A.V., Franko Galoso ; music, Jack Flynn.
Format: DVD, region 1, full screen (1.33:1) presentation; Dolby Digital stereo.
"The Great Cheesesteak Debate": A war wages in the streets of Philadelphia - who has the best cheesesteak? Pat's or Geno's?
Reading Terminal Market
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : HKA, 1993.
Performer: Narrator, Kevin Bacon.
Production: Directed and produced by Hal Kirn ; scripted by David Scher, Hal Kirn ; camera, Hank Shaw ; animation by Dave Koslo.
Format: VHS format.
Describes the history of public markets and the Reading Terminal Market in particular. This tape shows the growth of Philadelphia and its markets dating from 1690 on.
Sandwiches that you will like
Publisher: [Pittsburgh, Pa.] : WQED Pitsburgh, c2002.
Performer: Narrator: Rick Sebak.
Production: Editor, Kevin Conrad; photography, Buck Brinson.
Format: DVD.
Popular sandwiches from coast to coast. Included are visits to Geno's, Pat's, George's and Chickies Italian Deli in Philadelphia.
South Philly Italian style
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : WHYY-TV, c1997.
Performer: Host, Bobby Rydell.
Format: VHS format.
A traditional Italian wedding is used as a backdrop to showcase the rich culture of South Philadelphia's Italian neighborhood in this documentary.
GAY & LESBIAN:
The congregation
Publisher: [New York?] : Video Vérité, c2005.
Performer: Narrator: Susan Raymond.
Format: DVD.
The documentary story of two ministers, Fred Day and Beth Stroud, and the congregation at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown from May, 2002-September, 2004. The traditional style of the newly-appointed Fred Day causes a divide among the congregation. Simultaneously the congregation supports Beth Stroud in her challenge to the United Methodist Church's law banning gays in the clergy. The program covers the progression from Stroud's sermon announcing that she is a self-avowed practicing homosexual to her trial in which she loses her clergy credentials.
The currency of community
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Triangle Interests ; c1996.
Triangle Interests is a Philadelphia-based lesbian membership association committed to creating opportunities for women to improve their economic status through education and socially responsible investment opportunities.
Gay bingo
Publisher: Philadelphia : WHYY, c2000.
Format: VHS format.
It's outrageous. It's funny. It's deadly serious. It's Gay Bingo, the monthly bingo game that has become the premiere AIDS fundraising event in the Philadelphia region. Gay Bingo debuted in Philadelphia in 1996 as a fundraiser for The AIDS Fund, which benefits more than 40 AIDS service organizations in the region.
Gay pioneers
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Equality Forum, [2004]
Format: DVD.
The story of gay and lesbian activists who staged the first homosexual civil rights demonstrations in Philadelphia, Washington and New York from 1965 to 1969.
HISTORY:
All aboard for Philadelphia!
Publisher: Bala Cynwyd, Pa. : Invision Communications, Inc., 1995.
A lively trolley and railroad video tour of the booming city and its suburbs from the late 1890's through the 1930's.
The bombing of Osage Avenue
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc. : 1988], c1986.
Production: Videographers, Keith Miller, Eric Sennhenn; editor, Michael Black.
Format: VHS.
On May 13, 1985, 61 homes on Osage Avenue in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were destroyed by the Philadelphia Police Department, and 11 members of the MOVE organzation were dead.
The bombing of West Philly
Publisher: Alexandria, VA : PBS Video, 1987.
Documents the confrontation between the city of Philadelphia and MOVE, a small radical group, which took place on May 13, 1985. Describes the complaints of the neighbors which were responded to by the police with tear gas, automatic weapons, and bombs.
Brotherly love
Publisher: Boston, MA : WGBH Educational Foundation ; c1998.
Performer: Narrator: Angela Bassett.
Production: Director of photography, Michael Chin, Buddy Squires ; editor, Jean Boucicaut ; music score, Bernice Johnson Reagon ; associate producer, Patricia Garcia Rios.
Format: VHS format ; PBS VIDEOindex.
In this third episode of the AFRICANS IN AMERICA series, during the first 50 years of the new nation, freedmen and fugitive slaves in Philadelphia push the country to live up to the promises made in its Constitution.
Eastern State Penitentiary
Publisher: Waterville, ME : Forged Images Productions, [2006], c1998.
Performer: Narrated by Verna Avery-Brown.
Production: Written & directed by Christine Bowditch ; original music by Braydon McCormick ; edited by Paul Cady.
Format: DVD.
This documentary illustrated with period lithographs, engravings, and photographs, gives a detailed history of the prison from its initial practice of total solitary confinement through its transformation into an overcrowded "Big House" to its replacement with a modern facility in 1970. The narrative places Eastern's changing practices in their social context and raises serious questions about the contemporary growth of prisons in the United States.
Haunted Philadelphia
Publisher: [New York, NY] : A&E Television Networks ; c2000.
Performer: Narrated by John Glover.
Production: Editor, Margaret Moore ; director of photography, Christopher Landy ; original music score, 615 Music Productions.
Format: VHS format.
Ghost stories and hauntings in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The hunt for the Legion killer
Publisher: [Paramus, NJ] : Time Life Video, 1982.
Performer: David Fraser.
The frantic, frustrating search, led by David W. Fraser of the Centers for Disease Control, for the cause and a cure of what came to be known as Legionnaire's disease, which acquired its name in 1976 when an outbreak of pneumonia occurred among people attending a convention of the American Legion in Philadelphia.
In the King of Prussia
Publisher: [S.l.] : Turinfilm : c1982.
Performer: Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Dean Hammer, Carl Kabat, Elmer Maas, Anne Montgomery, Molly Rush, John Schuchardt (The Plowshares 8), Martin Sheen.
Production: Editor and technical director, Mark Pines ; music by Jackson Browne.
Reenactment of the trial of the Plowshares 8, who occupied the General Electric plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania in September of 1980 as a protest against nuclear arms.
Secrets beneath the streets
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : WHYY-TV12, 2001.
Performer: Tour guide: Derrick Pitts.
Format: VHS format.
The subterranean world of the Delaware Valley is a treasure trove of history and a hub of activity 24 hours a day. Historical photos and films set up the stories of these and other mysterious places, but the crux of the program consists of our cameras underground exploring these sites ourselves.
The shame of a city
Publisher: [United States?] : Dacua Communications, c2006.
Format: DVD.
Chronicles the 2003 Philadelphia mayoral race between Democrat incumbent mayor John Street and Republican challenger Sam Katz.
Strut!
Publisher: [Philadelphia, PA] : Sidmax Productions, 2002.
Production: Co-producer, Seymour Mednick ; editor, Kathleen Soulliere ; story consultant, Murray Dubin ; associate producers, Eric Chung, Ed Kirlin, Kathleen Soulliere ; still photography, Seymour Mednick, Sol Mednick.
Format: DVD format ; letterbox format.
Spotlights the world of the Philadelphia Mummers and their annual New Year's Day parade. The parade is a melting pot of pre-Colonial history, Vaudeville slapstick, cultural diversity, and 4-minute Broadway shows. Shot with no script, the Mummers' tale is told through revealing interviews, new and vintage footage, still photos, and music.
Things that aren't there anymore
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : WHYY, c1993.
Performer: Bill Campbell.
Production: Producer, Ed Cunningham; executive producer, Trudi Brown; music, Radio Active Productions.
Format: VHS format.
A tribute to the places in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley where people used to go to have fun.
Tocqueville in Philadelphia
Publisher: West Lafayette, IN : Purdue University Public Affairs Video Archives, c2000.
Performer: Participants: John Splaine, Sean Kelley.
Tocqueville and Beaumont visited Philadelphia in October 1831, where they stopped at Eastern State Penitentiary. Sean Kelley, program director of the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, discusses the Quaker-based practice of solitary confinement at Eastern State.
A walk up Broad Street
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : WHYY-TV12, 2000.
Performer: Tour guides: Bill Webber and Hyman Myers.
Format: VHS format.
Join Philadelphia media personality Bill "Wee Willie" Webber and architect and preservationist Hyman Myers as they take a 12-mile walking tour of Broad Street -- the longest, straightest urban street in the world. The tour begins at League Island at the southern end and continues to Cheltenham Avenue at Philadelphia's northern border. Includes discussions about The Navy Yard, St. Rita of Cascia Roman Catholic Church, The Civil War Rail Station, The Academy of Music, The Bellevue Stratford Hotel, The Union League, City Hall, Masonic Temple, Divine Lorraine Hotel, and Metropolitan Opera House.
William Penn
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : Outreach Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1995.
Production: Assistant producer, Kathy Wolff ; Camera, John Costello ; Sound, David Winston ; Edit, Sharon Mullally, Alan Wentzel.
Format: VHS format.
Workshop of the world
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : WHYY, Inc., c2001.
Performer: Narrator, Bill Fantini ; additional narration, Nels Hobdell.
Production: Original music, Skip Denenberg.
Format: VHS format.
Examines the industries that supported and defined Philadelphia in the 19th and early 20th centuries: ship yards; textile, railway, iron, steel and food factories; the brewery and publishing industries; and others. Some of the companies profiled include Henry Disston & Sons, New York Ship, Pennsylvania Railroad, J.B. Lippincott Publisher, Campbell's Soup Co., and RCA Victor.
NEIGHBORHOODS:
Frankford stories
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Scribe Video Center, c1988.
Performer: Features interviews with: Beatrice Franklin, Anthony Rothwell, Alyce Turner, Bertha Brehmer, Howard Barnes.
Production: Writer and producer, Martha Kearns ; director, Roni Chernin ; sound, Donna Peronace ; camera, Carlton Jones ; associate producer, Carlotta Bradley.
Format: VHS format.
Long time residents of this old, close-knit working class community in Philadelphia reflect both upon the character and charm as well as the changes they have witnessed in Frankford during the span of their lives. Part conversation, part oral history and part folklore, Frankford stories interweaves history and current culture.
Girls like us
Publisher: New York, NY : Women Make Movies [Distributor], c1997.
Performer: Lisa Bronca, Anna Chau, Raelene Cox, De'Yona Moore, Chentevy Saing.
Format: VHS format.
Four years in the lives of four teenage girls living in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Growing up female, the impact of class, sexism, their dreams and expectations.
Precious places 2005
Publisher: Philadelphia : Scribe Video Center, c2005.
Production: Executive and artistic director, Louis Massiah ; project coordinator, Jamese Wells.
"On July 23, 2005, ten neighborhood groups in Philadelphia, Camden and Ardmore participated in a unique community video history project -- Precious Places. On a single day, members of neighborhood organization who had been trained in filmmaking and research techniques, dispersed throughout the region recording stories of past grandeur, current struggles, and future aspirations for their communities.
Rittenhouse Square
Publisher: Philadelphia, PA : Max L. Raab Productions, c2005.
Performer: Caeli Veronica Smith, Nancy Heinzen, Neil Stein, Anthony Pinkney, Simon J. Rosen, Jennifer Bare and Michael Munson, Sharon Pinkenson, Time for Three.
Production: Director of photography, Peter Powell ; edited by Stan Warnow ; co-producer, Eric Chung.
Format: DVD. Letterbox. 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound.
Robert Downey's documentary about the Philadelphia park.
RELIGION:
The canonization of Katharine Drexel
Publisher: Philadelphia : WHYY, c2000.
Performer: Jack Jones, narrator.
Format: VHS format.
Katharine Drexel - born into one of Philadelphia's wealthiest families - gave up her wealthy, comfortable life for one of poverty, religion, service and abstinence. In 1891, she founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which grew in her lifetime from an original 14 members to a sisterhood of over 500 women staffing 65 institutions nationwide.
Christ Church, Philadelphia
Publisher: Thousand Oaks, CA : Goldhil Video [distributor], [c1999]
Performer: Host: Schuyler Sackett.
Production: Writer and producer, Schuyler Sackett ; videographers, Steven Del Monte, Ken Willinger ; music, Associated Production Music.
Format: VHS.
The history of the church where George Washington, Ben Franklin and Betsy Ross all worshipped is a direct link to the faith that inspired the founders of our nation.
The congregation
Publisher: [New York?] : Video Vérité, c2005.
Performer: Narrator: Susan Raymond.
Format: DVD.
The documentary story of two ministers, Fred Day and Beth Stroud, and the congregation at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown from May, 2002-September, 2004. The traditional style of the newly-appointed Fred Day causes a divide among the congregation. Simultaneously the congregation supports Beth Stroud in her challenge to the United Methodist Church's law banning gays in the clergy. The program covers the progression from Stroud's sermon announcing that she is a self-avowed practicing homosexual to her trial in which she loses her clergy credentials.
An Epistle from the Koreans
Publisher: [Mount Laurel, NJ] : NFL Films, 2007.
Production: Executive producer, Arthur M. Byers, Jr. ; produced and directed by Lloyd Young ; associate producer, Burt Martin ; written by H. Kenn Carmichael ; narrator, Hugh Douglas.
The true story of the brutal murder of Korean exchange student In Ho Oh by a group of eleven black teenagers in Philadelphia during the spring of 1958. The film examines the background and trial of the teenagers, and the response from In Ho Oh's Christian parents, in the form of a letter, asking for forgiveness and mercy for the murderers.
God and the inner city
Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2003.
Performer: Narrator, Phylicia Rashad ; commentary, John DiIulio.
Format: DVD.
Profiled is the Amachi Program for children of incarcerated parents in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia Friends reunification
Publisher: Philadelphia : Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, [2005]
Performer: Narrator, Lauren Williams.
Production: Directed by Jared Taber and Laura Smoot ; executive producers, Tom Hoopes, Fran Beer ; co-producer, Melanie Douty ; director of photography and editor, Mitch Martinez.
Format: DVD, region 0.
In March 2005, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting celebrated the 50th anniversary of its reunification, 128 years after the Hicksite/Orthodox split. This documentary offers some perspectives on the occasion of that anniversary.
National Shrine of Saint John Neumann
Publisher: Philadelphia, Pa. : National Shrine of Saint John Neumann, c1999.
Production: Hosted by Pat Ciarrocchi.
Format: VHS.
SOCIAL PROBLEMS:
Eastern State Penitentiary
Publisher: Waterville, ME : Forged Images Productions, [2006], c1998.
Performer: Narrated by Verna Avery-Brown.
Production: Written & directed by Christine Bowditch ; original music by Braydon McCormick ; edited by Paul Cady.
Format: DVD.
This documentary illustrated with period lithographs, engravings, and photographs, gives a detailed history of the prison from its initial practice of total solitary confinement through its transformation into an overcrowded "Big House" to its replacement with a modern facility in 1970.
First things first
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Philadelphia Unemployment Project ; c1993.
"Philadelphia Unemployment Project is a group of unemployed and low-income workers organized around issues affecting the poor. This video documents the struggles, philosophies, and strategies that guide their work"
Habitat for humanity
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Scribe Video Center, c1997.
Production: Director, Deborah Wilson Williams ; Producers, Habitat for Humanity and Scribe Video Center ; Writers, Catherine Minnis and Deborah Wilson Williams.
Format: VHS format.
Philadelphia residents work with Habitat for Humanity to restore a city block in the Cathedral Park neighborhood of West Philadelphia.
Homeless diaries
Publisher: [Philadelphia?]: Frances Negron-Muntaner, c1996.
Performer: Narrator, Frances Negron-Muntaner.
Production: Producer and director, Frances Negron-Muntaner.
Format: VHS format.
A documentary about the tent city erected by homeless Philadelphians in the summer of 1995 across from Independence Hall, and the subsequent move of the group to squatting in a nearby unused church.
The Magnum eye.
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : First Run/Icarus Films [distributor], 1992.
Format: VHS format.
This is an inside look at a crack infested neighborhood in Philadelphia. A graphic portrait of desperation, homelessness, and the addicts' unraveled lives.
May day takeover
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Scribe Video Center, c1991.
Performer: Features interviews with: Sabrina Baker, Diane Johnson, Denice Williams, Alica Christian, Janet Jacobs, Gerard Dombrowski, Habeebah Ali, Janet Dingle, Mayretta Davis.
Production: Planning and production crew: Toni Cade Bambara, Laurel Brook, Bryn Clark, Antonio Da Motta Leal, Louis Massiah, Aishah Simmons, Beatriz Vierira ; editor, Sharon Mullally ; producer, Louis Massiah.
Format: VHS format.
A documentation of the May 1, 1990, housing takeover staged by Dignity Housing, an organization of homeless and formerly homeless people working for permanent housing solutions to the shelter crisis.
Mediation
Publisher: [Philadelphia, Pa.] : Good Shepherd Neighborhood Mediation Program ; c2005.
Production: Producer, DeVonne Coleman-White ; director, Michael G. Campbell.
The Mediation Program at Good Shepherd House is the only neighboorhood justice center in Philadelphia. This film explains the process of mediation for individuals and families.