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Introducing TPP-TV's Winter '08 Series

What: The Producers’ Project (TPP) -- a not-for-profit education corporation that teaches documentary filmmaking to New York City teachers and students as a way to build skills and knowledge, enhance teaching and learning, enrich lives and demonstrate results -- is proud to announce a Winter 2008 Television Series featuring educational, issue-oriented, emotionally resilient and musically charged videos and documentaries.

Over the course of the Series, The Producers’ Project will screen student- and teacher-produced films on topics ranging from truth in the media and the importance of math to everything to ways in which students and educators can creatively effect change in themselves, their schools and their communities.

When: Mondays, December 24; January 7 and 21, February 4 and 18; from 7:30 - 8:00 pm.

Where: Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) Youth Channel - Channel 34 for Time Warner subscribers, and Channel 107 for RCN subscribers. Also, available through streaming on the web at www.mnn.org - click on Channel 34.

Date Episode
Dec 24 "Alternative Superintendency -- 20 Years of Pioneering"
Profiling 10 pioneering schools and programs that serve a diverse universe of students.
Jan 7 "Media and the Truth"
High school students explore what constitutes truth in turbulent times.
Jan 21 "Concord, Transformed!"
Students create a promotional video about the Staten Island high school that has helped them to turn their lives around.
Feb 4 “Art of Becoming” and “Inches from Death”
“ Art of Becoming”
In this documentary film, students at Crotona High School in the South Bronx express their feelings about love, crime, poverty and education.

“ Inches from Death”
A Crotona High School student questions himself, teachers, peers and morticians about how our society views death and comes to very interesting and eye-opening conclusions.
Feb 18 "Time to Shine at 109"
A vibrant song, music video and documentary celebrating the unique achievements of I.S. 109's school, students, staff and community.

Additional details and copies of each episode available upon request.

Photo Credit: Simpson Xu
Irwin from Lower East Side High School

TPP-TV is produced by The Producers' Project (TPP) and NYU's Interactive Telecommunication Program (ITP), in cooperation with participating students and teachers from The Producers' Club (TPC). The Producers' Club, an extension of TPP's in-school and after-school programs, allows graduates to participate in extra-curricular activities that extend their knowledge and skills and that have cultural and/or educational significance. For more information on TPP or TPP-TV, please contact Wendy Dubit at 212.873.8158, or email at wendy@tpp.org.

 

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The Producers' Project Awarded "Best Series" at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network

TPP's 28 minute bi-weekly series on the MNN Youth Channel won Best Series during their Best of the Youth Channel judging sessions. MNN's announcement letter states, " Your video was one of three screened by two separate classes at City-As-School and Urban Assembly Media High School. Both classes felt that the series reflected issues that were important them in a comprehensive and creative way."

TPP will be joining MNN on June 21st for their Spring Wrap Up screening, IDEAS AND IDENTITIES, where an excerpt of the series will be screened and the organization will be presented with an award. There will also be screenings of other youth produced videos performances by Urban Word.

 

 

TPP and the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival

"Tuck That Shirt In" was an Official Selection for the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

In addition, "Living to Die," another film by TPP, was also announced as an Honorable Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival and was be included on the exclusive DVD distributed to press and audiences! Click here to download details.

Click Here to be taken to our special edition "TPP at Tribeca Film Festival" website...

 

"Tuck That Shirt In"
2006, U.S.A., 5 min.
Director: Diane Paragas
Producers: Derek Phillips, Wendy Dubit
Executive Producer: Shango Blake, Principal IS 109

In every school across America, there is a fight for our children’s futures. It’s the battle between the powerful forces of street culture, consumerism and gang violence and the often unhip, underfunded and undervalued institution of education. It is against this backdrop that Principal Shango Blake of I.S. 109 in Queens, New York used Rap, Hip-Hop and other innovative teaching methods to turn a school at risk into a model of success, as evidenced by improved attendance and performance and decreased violence. Tuck That Shirt In – an exuberant song and music video written, performed and produced by the students, staff, and parents of I.S. 109 – portrays this transformation and issues a call-to-action to schools and communities everywhere. Produced by Jorma Productions and The Producers’ Project, the short features a cameo appearance by NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

For more information about the event, visit the Tribeca Film Festival.

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TPP and the 2006 Urban Visionaries Festival

The Producers’ Project is proud to announce that our film "Concord High School: Staten Island's Best Kept Secret" wa an Official Selection for the 2006 Urban Visionaries Film Festival in the program titled “Killing Lies, Telling Truths.” The festival, which is New York City’s only youth-curated & presented film festival, was held April 6 & 7, 2006 in Manhattan.

 

"Concord High School: Staten Island's Best Kept Secret"
2006, U.S.A., 15 min.


In 2004 Concord High School was taken off New York State’s "SURR list" as a result of underachievement. Principal Ron Gorsky knew it was time to take action. He contacted The Producers’ Project, an non-profit educational partner since 2003, to work with guidance counselor, Glen Ladner’s, film class. The goal: Create a video that corrects misperceptions among the community, prospective students and parents about Concord High, thus highlighting the genuine identity and assets of Concord and its importance to Concord constituents and the community.

To the delight of the school and community, The Producers’ Project and Mr. Ladner found success. Students learned the skills and tools to produce a film that portrayed their school's unique strengths and character. Over the course of the school year, students conducted interviews with classmates, teachers, administration and parents, filmed classes, outings, ordinary moments and extraordinary events, to document and promote the Staten Island High School that transformed itself, and turned their lives around.

Click here to download the press release.

For more information about the event, visit the Urban Visionaries Film Festival.

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TPP gets an amazing mention in the Times Ledger

"[Principal] Blake followed up this year with a music video DVD, using the project to teach the students real-life applications of state education standards as they created budgets, wrote scripts and filmed segments for the video with the help of teachers and the Producers' Project, a non-profit organization in Manhattan."
Continue reading...

(note: you will be taken to the Time Ledger website, where you can sign up to read the full article FREE).

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The Producers' Project at the 4th Annual Tribeca Film Festival

The Producers' Project (TPP) proudly continued our third year of participation in the Tribeca Film Festival (TFF). In 2003, TPP students covered the first Festival as press—filming red carpet events and interviewing industry experts, including the producers of "Hooked," an independent documentary by Kicked Down Productions. The film those students made was premiered the following year at a TFF presentation of youth-produced movies.

This year, two Producers' Project high school students were among twenty filmmakers, aged 15-20, chosen to participate in the Tribeca Film Festival's four-day Youth Filmmaker Summit. Nominated by over a dozen innovative NYC youth media organizations, these filmmakers participated in workshops, panels, and screenings; exchanged ideas, explored the possibilities of cinema, and further developed their own cinematic visions and voices.
Student Filmmakers JB Liu (pictured on left) and Simpson Xu (pictured on right) from Auxiliary High School participate in a panel discussion after a screening of "Emotional Rescue" at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival.
 

 

Official Selection at The Tribeca Film Festival

"Time To Shine @ 109"
This rousing music video, made by the students, faculty, and Principal of I.S. 109 in Queens in collaboration with TPP, was selected by the programming committee to close the Youth Filmmaker Summit. See "Time to Shine @ 109" as part of Urban Truths a celebrity-hosted gala screening of youth-produced short films.  Learn more about "Time to Shine @ 109" and view streaming video clips on our Programs page.

Official Selection at The Tribeca Film Festival

"Emotional Rescue"
This short film, created by students from Auxiliary High School and Lower East Side Preparatory High School as part of TPP's Project Liberty workshop at City Hall Academy, was included in the Tribeca Family Festival's Downtown Youth Behind the Camera event on Saturday, April 23. Learn more about "Emotional Rescue" and view streaming video clips on our Programs page.

After the screening, students from each of the featured shorts participated in a panel discussion lead by Sydney Meeks from the Tribeca Film Festival.

 

 

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