Harvey Finkle’s Photography: A Call to Action

Producer: Joy Butts

For the past 41 years, Harvey Finkle has given numerous activist groups, otherwise overlooked by mainstream media, the opportunity to tell their story through the medium of photography. Harvey Finkle’s Photography: A Call to Action showcases his extraordinary ability to capture the grassroots movements for social, economic, political and cultural change as they happen in the streets of Philadelphia. Through this documentary Harvey reaches out to the public to continue his call to action on the relevant issues that define the groups he photographs.

Joy Esther Phillips Butts, a mother of three and grandmother of one, has been a community activist in West Philadelphia for the past 28 years. Her work with Kensington Welfare Rights Union, as an advocate for the poor within her community, and Philadelphia-at-large through public speaking, both nationally and internationally, and as coordinator of The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Project in connection with the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, puts her at the forefront of the “human rights” effort today! For ten years she has created, produced, and hosted the bi-weekly television show KWRU Presents……MARCHING ON!, on Channel 54, where she focuses on the economic human rights violations in housing, employment, education and healthcare. In 2003, she co-produced the documentary film All For The Taking about how the city of Philadelphia used eminent domain and various other means to evict poor residents from their home.