"I think a major act of leadership right now, call it a radical act,
is to create the places and processes so people can actually learn together, using our experiences." -- Margaret J. Wheatley
BROWNSVILLE TO BUSHWICK
WHY FOCUS ON THESE NEIGHBORHOODS?
The pioneering spirit of local residents is very much visible and working to
impact on community development in both Brownsville and Bushwick!
Our Backstory Explains Our Choice Of the (2) Neighborhoods!
BROOKLYN YOUNG FILMMAKERS
Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Center Inc (BYFC) is a small non-profit run by volunteers. With this site we publicly re-brand as the People's Hollywood Project!
Our next step is to explain our vision to community leaders and organizations in the targeted neighborhoods of Brownsville and Bushwick, as well as to filmmakers and film organizations. At the same time we will be trying to interest potential (adult) students with our free online Lesson #1: Scriptwriting.
HISTORY
In (2001) we got our first grant from the Brooklyn Arts Council to offer a inter-generational Scriptwriting Class. We established a Film Salon Screening Series, started organizing panels with professionals from different film crafts, and began to focus more on adults than teens. We developed the Make A Film Class Series.
We used an array of locations including LIU and NYC College of Technology Continuing Ed, as well as public housing community centers and small businesses in the Fort Greene / Clinton Hill area where most of our Board then lived. We stopped offering services there in (2014).
Most of the small business that hosted our events had closed. Fort Greene had been taken over by affluent new residents (many in new highrises), and big-big budget non-profits. The big non-profits (such as BRIC Media Arts and BAM) do offer working-class artists important assistance and showcase opportunities.
But the pioneering spirit of working-class artists and organizers is no longer a major visible force in the actual Fort Greene neighborhood.
OUR RE-BIRTH
The last five (!) years Brooklyn Young Filmmakers has quietly dedicated to research, experimentation, and continuing to develop our own curriculum, as we brainstormed ways to turn low/no budget short filmmaking into an exciting vehicle for individual and community engagement and growth.
We also looked for a new neighborhood. We offered small workshops and did our own kind of on-the-street surveys in both Bushwick and Brownsville (special shout-out to the Brownsville Heritage House for its support!). Both neighborhoods are home to many developing filmmakers and artists (those aiming for careers and passionate hobbyists of all ages).
We continued gauging the many changes that have been happening in: society / non-profits / gentrifying neighborhoods in Brooklyn. This while witnessing the explosive growth of the New York Film and TV industry.
Out of all this grew our concept for the People’s Hollywood Project and the creation of a Community Filmmaking District in the Brownsville to Bushwick neighborhoods.
COMMUNITY BRIDGING
A goal of People's Hollywood is to provide neighboring local communities with platforms for its diverse members to show support for each other. Brownsville residents have more pioneering spirit than they have outlets for. There is no Netflix or other major company setting up in Brownsville.
Whereas Bushwick has been deemed the next Williamsburg as its areas with concentrated artist communities are rapidly being flipped from working-class to affluent.
Within these gentrifying areas are a vast array of independent owner run shops -- vintage clothing, hatmakers, furniture designers, and other craftspeople, as well as numerous art and photography galleries. Some of the people working in these shops are also film stylists and designers. Wouldn't they be wonderful mentors (even for a one-time meeting set up at their convenience)?
What if these artists and craftspeople agreed to offer discounts or low cost rentals (i.e. wardrobe, set, props) to beginning working-class filmmakers from Brownsville?
Would Brownsville residents travel to Bushwick to check out the goods? Would Bushwick's (majority) Latino working-class residents travel to this other part of Bushwick? And if a workshop in a specific craft was being offered at the Brownsville Heritage House would Bushwick residents travel?
RIDDLE!
If Brownsville's gutsiness, determination, and raw talent
were to match up with
Bushwick's spunk, resources, and developing and professional talent
what would you get?
