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..
Bronx Teen Takes Aggressive Approach To Raise Jeans For Teens
Fourteen-year-old Myles Miller can’t help but get involved - in everything.
The freshman at Bronx Preparatory Charter School in Morrisania is a national oratory champion; a member of his school’s debate team; and heads RFK, a news station he founded at his school two years ago to get the voices of youth into mainstream media.
So when Myles recently heard about “Teens for Jeans” - a national campaign to donate denims to homeless youth - he jumped on board.
“Who wants to live in a homeless shelter and have to go to school every day in the same old clothes?” he said. “Self-esteem comes into play and it really relates to some of the hard-hitting topics happening here in the Bronx.”
Last month, the nonprofit teen group Do Something teamed with Aeropostale clothing stores to launch the jeans campaign. People who donated gently-used jeans to any of 800 Aeropostale stores nationwide got 20% off a new pair of jeans. The denims are to be donated to local shelters and charities.
The ultimate goal was to collect 100,000 pairs of jeans by Feb. 10. Myles has been encouraging his fellow students to do their part.
CRUNCH TIME:Today’s state test counts toward Chancellor Klein’s report card on all schools, including Bronx Prep.
Bronx Charter School Takes Day Off Before Student’s Biggest Test
January 8, 2008 — As if the stakes weren’t high already.
Fifth-graders at the Bronx Preparatory Charter School preparing for today’s state English exams had to temporarily add “location” to their concerns about the annual tests.
Their parents were told over the weekend that Bronx Prep’s principal and board of directors decided to close the school yesterday - the day before an exam that determines promotion for third-, fifth- and seventh-graders.
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