On Saturday, December 12th, 2009 at 12pm New Orleans Video Voices, the Make it Right Foundation, and the Contemporary Arts Center will host a reception for the presentation of the youth-directed video exhibit From Devastation to Hope: Rebuilding with Faith and Love and a youth-created photo exhibit. The exhibit was created by four - twelve and thirteen year old girls under the direction of the members of New Orleans Video Voices. Both the photo and video exhibit display the resiliency of Make It Right Homeowners and Lower 9th Ward Residents as they continue to rebuild not only homes, but the 9th Ward community.

New Orleans Video Voices (NOVV) is a local media collective dedicated to using new media to address underlying problems of racial tension, education, economics, health, and health care in our communities. Through community member participation, health and resilience is promoted and sustained. NOVV uses of documentary film to foster critical thinking and media literacy skills, engages the creative power of community and amplifies the voices of a largely unheard population.

Youth Directors

Noella Anderson, Sade Jones, Ebony Thompson, and Anastasia Woods all served as youth directors for the documentary From Devastation to Hope: Rebuilding with Faith and Love. Prior to directing this film, the girls directed From Our Point of View: Joining Hands to Save Our Community, a film that explores the history, triumphs, and struggles of the 7th Ward Treme area. This film won first place in the Elisabeth Irwin Human Rights Film Festival in New York, New York.

Anastasia Woods
Anastasia, 12, is an 8th grade Honors student at Slidell Junior High School and a Junior
Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. Originally from New Orleans, she
appreciates the culture and traditions of her home city. She aspires to be a Pediatrician.
Until then she enjoys movies, singing, dancing, maintaining excellent grades, and
media.  As a member of New Orleans Video Voices, she has the opportunity to continue
to do the things that she loves the most; documentaries.

Ebony Thompson
Ebony,12, is an eighth grader at Holy Ghost Private School and a Junior Mentor and
Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. She is an intelligent young lady who takes her
media skills to new heights. Ebony wants to be a doctor and a cosmetologist when she
grows up. She enjoys hair design, makeup, fashion, movies, singing, and of course
media. She has a natural knack for interviewing.

Sade Jones
Sade 12, is a  seventh grade Honors student at John Dilbert School and a Junior
Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. She enjoys singing, dancing,
talking on the phone, and media. Sade is a great camera person and has an eye for
scenes. With her new media skills, she is now avideographer for her whole family. The
media skills that she has acquired have allowed her to be a videographer of her family.

Noella Anderson
Noella is a thirteen year old eighth grade Honors student at Holy Ghost Private School
and a Junior Mentor and Facilitator for New Orleans Video Voices. The quiet one out of
the girls, Noelle is a great technical person, and great at setting up picture perfect
interviews. She loves taking B-Role for the documentaries.

Any Questions?

Contact Michele Burton-Oatis, Director of Community Collaboration, New Orleans Video Voices at michele@neworleansvideovoices.org.

The event was sold out just 48 hours after they announced it!  Watch it broadcast online…

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present

A free screening of In Harmony: Reflections, thoughts, and hopes of Central City.

Tuesday, March 10. 6:PM. 109 Dwinelle. UC Berkeley Campus

IN HARMONY is a film about everyday people finding their voices and coming together to tell the story of their neighborhood, Central City New Orleans.  It was conceived, filmed, and edited by people who felt that, despite the swarming of the mass media after Katrina and efforts by filmmakers from around the world, the real story of their neighborhood has not been told.  As schoolteacher Michele Burton-Oatis describes it, “I was tired of talking about what was wrong with the way that my city was being treated and rebuilt.  I decided to do something about it.  I used a video camera.”

As the New Orleans VideoVoice team learned to use video cameras to capture the story of their neighborhood, they interviewed dozens of neighbors and local leaders, some who they had known for years and some who they had never reached out to.  They built an archive of stories from local historians, business owners, activists, artists, parents and grandparents, police, homeless, teachers, medical providers, and more.  In Harmony is the first film to emerge from this intensive effort to capture the spirit of Central City and its people.

For more information, email catalani@berkeley.edu.