Philadelphia’s Scribe

Producer: Tina C. Morton

Philadelphia’s Scribe chronicles the 25-year history of Scribe Video Center. Scribe is a media arts organization, founded by award winning filmmaker Louis Massiah, which teaches video production skills for nominal fees, giving many people and non-profit community groups access to the video and editing facilities within the Philadelphia region. Scribes importance in the Philadelphia area is often overlooked but until recently, Philadelphia was the largest US city without public access television.

Tina Morton is a media activist, video oral historian, and Assistant Professor of Radio, Television & Film at Howard University. Deeply committed to facilitating members of community groups in telling their own stories, Tina has taught various organizations in Philadelphia how to use media for social activism. Tina’s personal work focuses on oral community and family histories. Her award-winning documentary, Severed Souls, chronicles community memory of the wrongly executed Corrine Sykes, the first African American woman to be legally executed in PA. Most recently she co-created Belly of the Basin, a documentary on survivor stories from Hurricane Katrina. Presently Tina is working on documenting ODUNDE, the oldest continuously running African American Festival in Philadelphia, PA. and ART-iculation: If Walls Could Speak, about the nation’s largest number of working mural artists –who all live in Philadelphia.