Talk Bronx New York

Tribeca Film Festival 2008: Bronx 7th Graders Make Film For Student Festival

“If you say that the Bronx is violent and then you got places in the Bronx that’s a very good place that people, that’s good to raise a family. I want people to know that it’s not dangerous.”

A class of seventh graders from the Bronx Preparatory Charter School is making a short film about violence in the Bronx. More than 100 students from the school are participating in Tribeca Teaches: Films in Motion, run by the Tribeca Film Institute.

“By giving these students access, by giving them cameras and teaching them how to sort of translate their opinions and thoughts and feelings themselves onto film really gives them a tool they can continue to use and something that’s really powerful for this entire generation,” says Lisa Lucas of the Tribeca Film Institute.

The 10-week filmmaking program is called “The Stereotype Project.” The students were taught how to use the equipment. Then they went out into their community to interview people and each other about their thoughts on Bronx stereotypes including violence, housing, education, HIV and AIDS and poverty.

“The students are challenging their own thoughts and notions about their community, their school, just ideas that have been held for a very long time,” says Bronx Preparatory Charter School Elvani Pennil. “The other thing is, I didn’t realize we had so many burgeoning filmmakers.”

One of those is 13-year-old Letishia Dhanpauo. Read more..

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City Freezes Bronx Councilman’s Million-Dollar Non-Profit Play

Amid recent revelations about a secret Council slush fund and taxpayer-funded shenanigans at non-profits, the city has denied Councilman Larry Seabrook’s near million-dollar request to fund a new non-profit that’s located within his district headquarters.

The city system of checks and balances denied the Bronx Democrat’s appropriations, freezing his Fiscal Year ‘08 requests of $887,244 to fund the newly founded Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce. The non-profit did not have the proper paperwork in place for the money to be released.

A divider is all that separates the commerce chamber, at 3687-B White Plains Road, from Seabrook’s district headquarters at 3687-A White Plains Road.

The office of United States Attorney Michael Garcia would neither confirm nor deny that Seabrook or the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce were targets of the ongoing federal investigation, said spokesman Yusill Scribner. That investigation has already snared two former aides to Brooklyn City Council Member Kendall Stewart for their roles in funneling Council cash to the Donna Reid Memorial Education Fund, and then taking that money for personal use.

Neither Seabrook nor Carl Green, director of the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce, returned repeated calls for comment. The organization also denied repeated requests to furnish public records about its financing.

Being less than a year old, the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce does not have much of a public profile, only receiving media attention for a recent press conference to discuss a program to train minority applicants to become truck drivers. A group flyer announces the “Jobs to Build on Initiative,” jointly sponsored by Seabrook, that “offers free training and employment services to low skilled, unemployed or under employed individuals.”

According to the New York State Department of State, the Bronx African-American Chamber of Commerce was founded on May 2, 2007 — just weeks before the deadline for council members to submit requests for the FY2008 budget. The group incorporated using the Bronx address of 1530 East 222nd Street, but now shares Seabrook’s office. Read more..

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