Did you know that about 25% of Philadelphians live below the poverty line? And that the first district in Philadelphia is considered the second hungriest district in the United States? Are you aware the private builders are purchasing project land to build condominiums that will displace local residents? These statistics represent Ferasha Films' own backyard. Philadelphia is a city where 500,000 people are literacy challenged, and 200,000 people are without a high school diploma, according to Mayor Michael Nutter. *
We are from the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia, PA. At Ferasha Films we take our films beyond the screen. We aim to bring awareness through documentation and creating premiere events in order to inform and challenge our followers to impact their community. We believe that there are many stories of poverty here in our own city of Philadelphia. We will be filming in an area that the locals call "Penn Town." We have invited four teenagers to document their lives and Philadelphia poverty through video journals using Flip Cameras. We will work with these four fledgling 'cinematographers' to produce authentic and honest account of their lives. In order to do that, we will hold film classes and teach them how to use their cameras, capture footage, etc. Every month until June 2011 we plan to give them one topic to document. Their first assignment will be to introduce themselves and give us a tour of their everyday life. We will then follow up on each of their video journals with a professional quality interview.
Our goal is to serve the children of the Penn Town Projects and give them an opportunity to tell their story. We would like their voices to be heard.
*a recent interview on WHYY with Mayor Michael Nutter (http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2011/10/03/a-con...)
Who We Are: A Professional Volunteer Staff
Amanda Danziger: Founder/Filmmaker
Nienke Izurieta: Director of Still Photography
Bruce Kite: Cinematographer
Lucas Clauser: Art Director
Brendan Schaller: Communications
Ariel Danziger: Copy Editor/Script Writer
Impact
To inform our viewers that third world poverty is not always located in a third world country, but right at home. We also hope to provide positive influences and be role models to the children we serve. Our biggest hope is to see people pledging their own time to after school programs.
What We Need & What You Get
We already started filming this project but we need your help to continue. Your donation will help invest in filming for this specific project and future projects to come. We need a few pieces of equipment to get our project rolling. The equipment that you help invest in will also allow us to continue doing future projects such as this. As a sign of your gratitude, our team custom designed items in appreciation for your donation. If we don't reach our goal, we will purchase what we can and seek for sponsorships. We hope to reach above and beyond our goal so we can also put the funds towards helping us become an official non-profit. But, we want you to know that your donation will be well invested in a group of people who are passionate about impacting their community.
Things that we need:
2 LaCie 2TB Hard Drives + 2 500GB Hard Drives
2 Sennheiser G3 Wireless Pack with Lav Mic
Lighting Kit
DSLR Baseplate
Manfrotto Tripod Kit
Rode VideoMic Pro
Marantz Flash Field Recorder
Sennheiser Shotgun Mic Kit
$1,000 to help us become a non-profit
Funds to help us create DVDs
*frames not included.
Other Ways You Can Help
Every Tuesday of this school year we plan to volunteer at Helping Hand Rescue Mission located right in Penn Town for tutoring and mentoring. Tutoring hours are from 3pm-5pm. Won't you consider joining us and pledging your time? It's time to make a difference in your backyard. Find out more information by getting in touch with us: info@ferashafilms.com
We also need you to help us get the word out about The Backyard Philly Project! Please tweet, facebook, blog, and e-mail your friends and family.
Music by: "humm ok" by Gablé (http://www.gableboulga.com/)
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Poverty Documentary CSby Rald141155 views
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