New York National Parks

Hear Every Voice: NYC and the National Park Service

Brian Lee — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:22:07 +0000

Hear Every Voice: NYC and the National Park Service, a documentary by Stephen Ogumah was created in the summer of 2009. This film documents a civic engagement project produced in partnership with Brooklyn College of the City University of New York and Gateway National Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park Service.

Made possible in part by a grant from the National Park Foundation through the generous support of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the Popplestone Foundation the project was an effort to reach out to the residents of Brooklyn and Queens. This was one of the tandem projects created to coincide with the airing of the Ken Burns documentary, America’s Best Idea about National Parks, in September.

We were very fortunate to have worked together with many dedicated and creative individuals: Professors Jerry Krase and Jennifer Adams of Brooklyn College, Steve Ogumah, filmmaker, Jahneille Edwards, Nyocia Edwards, Carlen Primus, Binish Qadeer, Zareen Tasneem, and Candice Wright– interns from Macaulay Honors Academy, Brooklyn College, and the Brooklyn College Academy HS, and our own Sheridan Roberts and Charles Markis National Park Rangers.

Professor Krase’s Visual Sociology Class provided the foundation for the students who became the interns for the project. These students received special training in researching community demographics and interviewing techniques. They learned about the National Park Service, its mission of stewardship and Gateway National Recreation Area’s rich and diverse resources, facilities and programs from the park’s knowledgeable and enthusiastic ranger staff. Through their interviews in Caribbean communities of Brooklyn and Queens, the students have created a bridge for Gateway to a population that has had limited exposure to the breadth of the park and have opened a dialog between the park and the community. This film represents more than the completion of a rewarding project – it is the beginning of new understanding and involvement.

African Burial Ground Digital Diaries: EARTH

Brian Lee — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:06:33 +0000

EARTH — The Reinterment Grove is where 419 ancestral remains were laid to rest in 2003 after being rediscovered in 1991 during construction of the Ted Weiss Federal Building. Grassy mounds mark the seven crypts that contain sixty coffins each.

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African Burial Ground Digital Diaries: REFLECTION I

Brian Lee — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:23:55 +0000

REFLECTION I — A visitor discusses the grassroots, civic engagement undertaken by New Yorkers in the decade between the ancestral remains’ rediscovery and reinterment.

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Treasures in the Harbor: Film Credits

Brian Lee — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:43:33 +0000

Treasures in the Harbor

Produced by
Jim Brennan

Hosted by
Bill Baker

Associate Producer
Jennifer Hallam

Director of Photography
Marc Kroll

Audio
JT Takagi
Paul Cote

Editor
Michael Weingrad

Gaffers
Brian Hwang
Damon Bundschuh
Kevin Hunt
Michael Pruitt-Bruun

Additional Photography
Brian Hwang
Evan Eames
Ari Haberberg
Additional Aerial photography courtesy WLIW

Additional Audio
Michael Karas
Bradley Schirmer

Production Assistants
Fabian D Freire
Leandro Goicuria
Joshua Cohen
Benjamin Schaeffer
Mark Kachelries

Production Interns
Demi Ray
Erin McElhinney
Nicole Pagano

Transcribers
Sherry Alwell
Erin Chapman
Aubrey Strickland
Stephanie Carter

Translators
Caroline Hahn
Laura Ricciardi

Special Thanks
Maria Burks
Commissioner, National Parks of NY Harbor

Cynthia Garrett
Superintendent, Statue of Liberty NM & Ellis Island

Tara Morrison
Superintendent, African Burial Ground NM

Linda Neal
Superintendent, Governors Island NM

Barry Sullivan
Superintendent, Gateway NRA

Darren Boch
National Parks of NY Harbor

Brian Feeney
Gateway NRA

Special Thanks

Lisa Eckert
Superintendent, Jamaica Bay Unit, GNRA

Marge Fallon
Sandy Hook Unit, GNRA

Pete McCarthy
Assistant Superintendent, Jamaica Bay Unit, GNRA

Shirley McKinney
Deputy Superintendent, Manhattan Sites

Frank Mills
Deputy Superintendent, Statue of Liberty NM & Ellis Island

John Zuzworsky & Kim Tripp
Jamaica Bay Institute

Marie Salerno
President & CEO, National Parks of NY Harbor Conservancy

Bob Zahn
Broadcast Video Rentals

Blimp ride courtesy of Airship Management Services Inc.

Christian & Steve Stathis
Boarders Surf Shop

Derf McTighe & Chris Triplett
Island Style Surf Shop

Fran O’Neill & David Cohen
New York Studio School

Archival Footage
National Park Service
Bill Crowley
footage from “The African Burial Ground: An American Discovery”
courtesy of Christoper Moore & US General Services Administration

Archival Stills
Library of Congress
Gateway NRA Archive, Fort Wadsworth
Tamra Walker
Richard Schmeelk
Sung Won Kim
Theodore Roosevelt Collection -Harvard College Library

Additional Editing
Mary Ann Toman

Assistant Editor
Cynthia Lovett

Graphics
David Chomowicz
Michiel Pilgram

Online Editor
Kerry Soloway

Sound Re-Recording
Richard Fairbanks

Sound Editing
Rob Daly

Supervising Producer
James Nicoloro

Executive Producer
John DeNatale

City of Parks

Brian Lee — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:24:23 +0000

Produced by WNET.ORG and Reel Works Teen Filmmaking as a local companion piece to Ken Burns’ latest PBS series THE NATIONAL PARKS, this film follows six high school auteurs as they seek out the often overlooked beauty and history of New York City’s National Parks and Monuments.

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Treasures in the Harbor

Brian Lee — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:12:08 +0000

Join host Bill Baker as he explores the natural beauty and vibrant history of the Treasures in the Harbor. See the largest wildlife refuge on the Northeast, surf within view of the Empire State Building, and visit the once-forgotten burial ground that is America’s newest National Monument.

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Film Credits

Buy the DVD

African Burial Ground Digital Diaries: AIR

Brian Santalone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:24:28 +0000

AIR — The Circle of the Diaspora is a communal space where the identities of New York’s early Africans are etched into stone. Various symbols, engraved above an expansive map, mark the historic and perpetual dispersal of indigenous cultures throughout the world.

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African Burial Ground Digital Diaries: FIRE

Brian Santalone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:24:13 +0000

FIRE — One enters the Ancestral Chamber, with its naval design, through the “Door of Return.” This area of the memorial fuels visceral reflection of the Middle Passage or Africans’ Transatlantic deportation to the “New World.”

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African Burial Ground Digital Diaries: REFLECTION II

Brian Santalone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:23:48 +0000

REFLECTION II — We accompany a visitor through the memorial as he explicates each chapter of his journey from the Monument’s surface to the underground. He touches on what the site means for him personally as a first-generation descendant of Chinese immigrants.

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African Burial Ground Digital Diaries: WATER

Brian Santalone — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:09:49 +0000

WATER — Waterfalls straddle two visitors on the steps of the Ancestral Libation Court. A man and boy speak on being inspired by this constant honoring of New York’s African forefathers through this element.

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