The Spiral Foundation is now selling a DVD we produced of their SAFE PLACE workshop on parenting strategies for facilitating attachment and sensory regulation. Clinical psychologist Dan Hughes and occupational therapist/developmental psychologist Jane Koomar present an engaging, content-rich session for parents facing these issues.
College Success for Students in Hidalgo, TX
School leaders in Hidalgo, Texas - a rural district of about 4,000 students near the Mexican border - made a commitment in 2005: all of their students would earn college credits before graduating from high school. Working with the Early College High School Initiative at Jobs for the Future (funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), they created a school system that focuses on preparing students for college - including English language learners, under-performing students, and those whose parents have little education themselves.
The district partners with local colleges, provides extensive support for individual students, and challenges students to take college-level courses. In the process, students are exposed to a "college-going culture," which eases their transition to higher education upon graduation.
By 2010, the first class graduated from Hidalgo Early College High School - two thirds of them with a semester or more of college credit. According to Jobs for the Future, Hidalgo's success is becoming a model for school districts around the country. There are currently 230 early college schools serving 50,000 students around the country.
I have just finished editing a video from existing material that gives a voice to the students' experience at this school. The video will be part of the Hidalgo Early College District Toolkit, designed to help other schools replicate Hidalgo's vision of college success for all.
Feedback from Harvard Students
Many thanks to Ross McElwee for inviting me to show my work-in-profess of Indelible Lalita to his Intermediate Video Class at Harvard today. It was interesting to show the film to a young audience, and get some final feedback as I finish the project.
Audition for BU Student Films
My Production I students are holding an audition for their final projects this semester (16 short films with minimal dialogue but hopefully strong visual storytelling) - please come if you are interested:
Thursday, Oct. 20, 6-9pm
640 Commonwealth Ave., Room 100
Boston, MA
Public Health Film Festival
The American Public Health Association is holding the eighth annual APHA Film Festival at its annual meeting and exposition in DC this fall. My piece Shifting the Public Health Paradigm, produced last year for the Center for Health Equity and Social Justice at the Boston Public Health Commission, will be showing on Wednesday, November 2 at 12:30pm. (For all of you who happen to be attending the conference and happen to be free at that time!)
NAPT funds MY LOUISIANA LOVE
We're so excited that Native American Public Telecommunications has just funded My Louisiana Love, a film by Sharon Linezo Hong that I am editing and co-producing. We're hoping this will mean a public television broadcast in 2012 or 2013.
My Louisiana Love traces a woman's quest to find a place in her Native American community as it reels from decades of environmental degradation. Monique Verdin returns to Southeast Louisiana to reunite with her Houma Indian family. But soon she sees that her people's traditional way of life - fishing, trapping, and hunting in these fragile wetlands - is threatened by a cycle of man-made environmental crises.
Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil leak are just the latest rounds in this century-old cycle that is forcing Monique's clan to adapt in new ways. Monique must overcome the loss of her house, her father, and her partner - and redefine the meaning of home.
Clarifying the Mission at Stand for Children
I had the pleasure of working with Maria Daniels , Communications and Marketing Director for Stand for Children, on a short video for their staff retreat. This great organization works to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, have equal access to a good education. We made a video that presented Stand for Children's national vision - what animates their work in many different states, and where they see their work going.