Tina Morton film retrospective showcases short films about Black Philadelphians
The Citizen Recommends: Body of Piece of work
A three-solar day retrospective showcases Coatesville native Tina Morton'southward short films about Black Philadelphians
Sep. eighteen, 2019
These days, anybody fancies themselves a filmmaker—from teens wielding iPhones to capture their unamused cat, to dads perfecting their digital techniques, to students dabbling in the "aboriginal" art of flick.
Everyone, it seems, has latched onto the same notion: cameras, good.
For Coatesville native and Temple alum Tina Morton (right), even those smallest of personal stories thing; they are the center of what she does equally a filmmaker, media activist and associate professor at Howard University, where she nurtures budding filmmakers. "Information technology's of import for people to tell their own personal stories, because nobody else is going to do it," she says.
Morton'southward story as a filmmaker starts in the 1980s, when she worked as a hospital ten-ray technician. After attending the Philadelphia Festival World Cinema in the late 80s, she felt compelled to follow her true love: film. She chosen Linda Blackaby, the director of the festival, looking for ways to get involved.
From there, she constitute her way to Scribe Video Center, the Philly-based media production educational center established in 1982 to teach pic, video, and audio product, and the resources Morton credits with giving her the foundation she needed.
"Scribe empowers the community to tell their own stories, and since I came upward with Scribe, that's my ethos [as a instructor]. 'I'm not gonna tell your story, let me teach yous how to tell your story,'" Morton says.
Morton took every workshop Scribe offered and learned under the tutelage of Louis Massiah, Scribe's executive director. Her outset project, completed in 1997, was called Severed Souls, and centered around Corrine Sykes, the start Black adult female to exist wrongly executed for murder in the state of Pennsylvania.
"Your personal story is important," she says. "And the small stories are larger stories, because it's your little space right here that affects a whole body of folk who may be going through the aforementioned thing."
With Philly as a backdrop, Morton has uncovered endless stories well-nigh individuals and milestones hither. "Philadelphia," she says, "is a really adept space and place to exist a filmmaker."
Now the educatee turned professional and professor has go the subject of a retrospective at the identify that nurtured her: From September 18th through the 20th, Scribe Video Eye volition host Torso of Work, an in-depth look at and chat with Morton.
Ranging from seven minutes to an hour, each motion-picture show in the exhibit is a documentary-way product focusing on developments in vastly unlike Black communities. Severed Souls volition be shown, as will When We Came Up Here, a series of brusk documentaries about the function The Philadelphia Tribune played in sharing data with people who were part of the Peachy Migration from the South, and particularly to Philadelphia.
Through all of her piece of work, i constant has remained: "I really hardly ever
brought a big coiffure, because I find there are more than intimate stories when it's not a 1000000 people around," Morton says.
Looking beyond this calendar week'due south prove, Morton has teamed up with Lois Fernandez, creator of the Odunde Festival in Philly, to tell the story of how Odunde, the largest African American street festival in the U.South., now in its 45th year, came to fruition.
"Information technology's simply such an important story," Morton says. "All the stories are important, but I don't nonetheless know what story I want to tell about Odunde."
"Philadelphia," she says, "is a really skilful space and place to be a filmmaker."
As a professor, Morton strives to teach her students the importance of upstanding filmmaking, the value of their own time and worth, and an appreciation for the tools they have costless access to through their school. She urges them to observe pregnant in their own personal stories.
"Your personal story is of import," she says. "And the pocket-size stories are larger stories, because information technology's your trivial infinite right here that affects a whole body of folk who may be going through the same thing."
September 18-twenty, 7–ix pm, Scribe Video Middle , 3908 Lancaster Avenue, $5.
Header photo is a screen capture from Tina Morton'south short film "Severed Souls" 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/tina-morton-scribe-video-center/
0 Response to "Tina Morton film retrospective showcases short films about Black Philadelphians"
Post a Comment