Louis J. Massiah
Scribe Video Center 1507 North 16th Street
4212 Chestnut Street, Third Floor Philadelphia PA 19121 USA
215-222-4201 lmassiah@scribe.org
Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA
I. Education
1982, SM Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture, Visual Studies
(documentary film and video)
1979 Harvard University, Carpenter Center (animation, non-degree)
1977, BA Cornell University, School of Arts and Sciences, College Scholar
II. Fellowships
1996-2001 John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow
1996,1990 Rockefeller Foundation Intercultural Media Fellow (Tribeca Institute Media Arts Fellowship)
1994-1995 Pew Fellowship in the Arts
III. Professional Experience
Professional Experience
1982–Present Founder and Executive Director, Scribe Video Center, Philadelphia region’s
leading media arts center, providing arts education, production resources and equipment access.
Created a media arts (video, film, audio, web-based digital media) education and
production institution that annually serves over 500 emerging, mid-level and experienced media
artists and members of community organizations.
Executive Producer and Artistic Director of major program activities, including
over 500 independent video productions, as well as screening series and educational programs.
Creator of a methodology for training community groups in documentary
production, which has been replicated nationally by peer organizations and internationally by UNICEF
Co-Director and Creator of Muslim Voices of Philadelphia, a community history
project documenting Muslim communities
Formed institutional affiliations with local colleges, including the University of
Pennsylvania, Temple University, Swarthmore College, Cheyney University and Haverford
College, and programming affiliations with local public television stations.
2004 Co-Curator, Robert Flaherty Film Festival 50th Anniversary
1998-2001 Senior Production Consultant, Robert Pinsky’s Favorite Poem Project for The
Newshour with Jim Lehrer
1998 Curator of Film and Video, National Black Arts Festival. Created the “Homage”
series and commissioned new films by Charles Burnett, Camille Billops, Leslie Harris and Reginald Hudlin.
1990 Series Writer/ Researcher for Journey of Souls (later developed as Africans in
America) a series for WGBH-TV
1988-1990 Producer/Director for Blackside, Inc. Boston. Projects included two films for the Eyes on the Prize II documentary television series, as well as consultation on narrative/feature film projects
1984-1988 Staff Producer/Director for public television station WHYY-TV Philadelphia.
Created Independent Acquisition Fund/Independent Focus series to support and broadcast
works by local independent film and videomakers.
Research & Creative Work
A. Productions: Commissioned
The Rule of Law Project: Interview with Daniel Heyman (2012, 90 minutes) An oral history interview with painter/print maker Daniel Heyman on his works documenting the stories of Iraqis who were tortured at Abu Gharab and other prisons during the US War on Iraq. Commissioned by the Columbia University Center for Oral History.
Role: Executive Producer/Producer/Director
President’s House (2011, 7 minutes x 8) Permanent video and audio installations at the site of home occupied by George Washington and John Adams at 6th and Market Streets,
Philadelphia. Commissioned by the National Park Service and the City of Philadelphia.
Roles: Executive Producer/Producer/Director
Writer: Lorene Cary
Towards Inclusion: Diversity at Penn (2006, 20 minutes) Documentary produced for the James Blister Society and the University of Pennsylvania Alumni Association.
Roles: Producer/Director
Co-Producer: Amadee Braxton
Writer: Lorene Cary
In Celebration of William Levi Dawson: African American Music and Identity at the Dawn of the Twenty First Century (2005) Unedited interviews with composers and documentation of conference, commissioned by Emory University.
Roles: Director/Camera/Interviewer
B. Productions for Broadcast Television – Primetime Documentaries:
A is for Anarchist, B is for Brown (2002, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for WYBE Independent Stories. Exploring young activists in Philadelphia and how race and ethnicity have affected contemporary political movements.
Roles: Producer/Director
W.E.B. Du Bois – A Biography in Four Voices (1997, 118 minutes) Documentary produced in
association with Scribe Video Center for primetime broadcast on PBS. A four-part portrait of the pre-eminent scholar, activist, writer William Edward Burghardt Du Bois.
Role: Producer/Director
Writers: Toni Cade Bambara, Amiri Baraka, Wesley Brown, Thulani Davis
Editor: Monica Henriquez
Distributor: California Newsreel
Eyes on the Prize II: A Nation of Law? (1990, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for Blackside, Inc for national primetime broadcast on PBS. The governments reactions to the demands of the Black freedom movement are explored in the stories of Fred Hampton and the Chicago Panthers and the Attica, NY prison uprising.
Role: Producer/director/writer
Co-producer/director/writer: Terry Rockefeller, Thomas Ott
Executive Producer: Henry Hampton
Distributor: PBS Video
Eyes on the Prize II: Power! (1990, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for Blackside, Inc for national primetime broadcast on PBS. Three manifestations of “Black power” in the 1960’s – the election of Carl Stokes’ in Cleveland, Ohio; the birth of the Black Panther Party in Oakland California; and the struggle for community control of schools in Brooklyn, NY.
Role: Producer/director/writer
Co-producer/director/writer: Terry Rockefeller
Executive Producer: Henry Hampton
Distributor: PBS Video
Digging Dinosaurs (1987, 28 minutes) Documentary produced for WHYY-TV and broadcast
nationally on PBS. Exploring two dinosaur digs in Montana, featuring paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner.
Role: Producer/Director
Cinematographer: Steve Ascher
Cecil B. Moore (1987, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for WHYY-TV Philadelphia. A biography of the leader and master strategist of Philadelphia’s civil rights movement.
Role: Producer/Director
Writer: Toni Cade Bambara
The Bombing of Osage Avenue (1987, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for national primetime broadcast on PBS. The story of the 1985 Philadelphia police bombing of the MOVE organization and the destruction of a West Philadelphia neighborhood.
Role: Producer/Director
Writer/Narrator: Toni Cade Bambara
Distributor: Scribe Video Center
The Burning of Osage (1986, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for WHYY-TV Philadelphia. The story of the 1985 Philadelphia police bombing of the MOVE organization and the destruction of a West Philadelphia neighborhood.
Role: Producer/Director
Writer/Narrator: Toni Cade Bambara
Trash! (1985, 58 minutes) Documentary produced for WHYY-TV Philadelphia. An encyclopedic look at trash as an aspect of American culture. National PBS primetime broadcast 1986.
Role: Producer/Director
Writer: Merle Kessler/Ian Shoals
My Own Boss (1984, 22 minutes) Documentary produced for WHYY-TV-12 Philadelphia, on the
worker owned/cooperative movement focusing on Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Roles: Writer/Director/Producer
Bolt of Lightning (1984, 28 minutes) Documentary produced for WHYY-TV-12 Philadelphia. A chronicle of the conceptualization and fabrication of the Isamu Noguchi sculpture in Philadelphia.
Roles: Producer/Director
C. Productions for Broadcast Television (Segments for National Broadcast)
911 Moments: Voices From the Inside (2001, 1 minute) Produced for ITVS for national
broadcast on PBS. Explores how the terrorism scare has affected the incarcerated.
Role: Producer/Director/Editor
911 Moments: Roots of Islam (2001, 1 minute) Produced for ITVS for national broadcast on PBS. A visit to a mosque in West Philadelphia.
911 Moments: Flag (2001, 1 minute) Produced for ITVS for national broadcast on PBS.
Commentary the flag.
The Favorite Poem Project – William Maxwell (2001, 8 minutes) Interview and performance for the PBS’ News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Roles: Producer/Director/Editor
The Favorite Poem Project – Susan Hambleton (2001, 8 minutes) Interview and performance for the PBS’ News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Roles: Producer/Director/Editor
D. Productions for Broadcast Television (News Coverage Live Television)
MOVE Commission Hearings (1985, 120 hours) 14 days of live broadcast for WHYY-TV
Philadelphia, pool fed to ABC, CBS and NBC. Philadelphia Special Commission into the May 1985 Bombing and Fire on Osage Avenue
Role: Producer
Philadelphia Height Limitation Hearings (1984, 6 hours) Live broadcast for WHYY-TV
Role: Producer
E. Productions for Broadcast Television (Interview and Performance)
The Muse with Terrie Gross (1985, 28 minutes x 9) Arts interview program with guest including: Michael Moshen, Milt Hinton, Melanie Stewart, Helmut Gottschield,
Role: Program Creator, Producer
Interviewer: Terrie Gross, Oliver Franklin
Set Design: Maya Linn
Jimmy Heath Quartet (1986, 58 minutes) Interview, performance and documentary program with the Jimmy Quartet.
Role: Producer
Host: Bob Perkins
Set Design: James Dupree
F. Independent Productions
Louise Alone Thompson Patterson: In Her Own Words (2002, 17 minutes) Produced for the
centenary celebration of Langston Hughes at Yale University. An oral history portrait of Louise Thompson Patterson, the Harlem Renaissance political activist and cultural worker.
Roles: Producer/Director
Editor: Pablo Colapinto
Consultant: Tina Morton
Distributor: Third World Newsreel
Words and Works: Three Artists from the Studio Museum of Harlem (1980, 20 minutes)
Documentary on Louis Delsarte, Jacqui Holmes and Candace Hill Montgomery on the occasion of their group show at the Augusta Savage Gallery at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst
Roles: Director, Camera, Editor
Miami Journal: the Haitian Refugees (1982, 28 minutes) Documentary produced as part of graduate study at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Roles: Producer/Director/Editor
Screenings: Local Public Television (Washington)
Berlin Film Festival – Market Exercise: swim2, pebble, martyr, remember (1975, 15 minutes) Experimental 16mm film –exploring race, gender and power.
Roles: Director/Writer
G. Productions - Scribe Video Center
Precious Places Community History Project (2005-2009, 62 programs x 8 minutes)
Roles: Project Creator, Artistic Director
Production Facilitators: Various Filmmakers and Humanities Scholars in the Philadelphia Area Production Workers: Various Community and Neighborhood Groups in Philadelphia, Camden, Ardmore and Chester Broadcast on WHYY (October 2007 to January 2008), WYBE Other screenings include: Council on Foundations Festival, Athens Film Festival, Finger Lakes Film Festival, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
Documentary History Project for Youth (1994 – 2009, 22 programs x 10 to 30 minutes)
Roles: Project Creator, Artistic Director
Screenings include: Council on Foundations Festival, Broadcast on – WHYY, WYBE
Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema, Institute for Contemporary Art, Philadelphia
Community Visions (1990 – 2007, 83 programs x 7 to 18 minutes)
Roles: Project Creator, Artistic Director
Broadcasts on WHYY, WYBE, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema
May Day Takeover (1989, 12 minutes) Documentary.
Roles: Producer/Director/Editor
The Taking of One Liberty Place (1988, 8 minutes) Documentary produced for the National
Union of the Homeless
Roles: Producer/Director/Editor
Camera: Carlton Jones
I. Production and Editorial Consultant
Niños de la Memoria (2012, 60 mins,) produced by Kathryn Smith Pyle and produced/directed by Maria Teresa Rodriguez
Role: Production Consultant
For Memories Sake (2009) directed by Ashley Maynor, produced by Ashley Maynor and Paul
Harrill
Role: Executive Producer
Beah: A Black Woman Speaks (2004), directed by LisaGay Hamilton, produced by LisaGay
Hamilton and Jonathan Demme
Role: Production Consultant
Service to the Community
Bread and Roses Tribute to Change Planning Committee (2006)
Pennsylvania Lesbian and Gay Task Force Advisory Board (2002 -2005)
Honors
A. Awards(partial)
Philadelphia Folklore Project’s Ella King Torrey for Visionary Service to Community Arts (June 2012)
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, University of the Arts, Philadelphia May 2011
Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia
Founders Award (awarded to an individual who has made extraordinary contributions to making art accessible, promoting excellence in creative expression, and enriching Philadelphia’s cultural resources) May 2009
Settlement Music School, Philadelphia (“Settlement 100 Award”) April 2007
Lincoln University, Founders’ Day Celebration, Lincoln, PA
Founders’ Award - Distinguished Contribution (May 2, 1997)
National Emmy Award Nomination – Research, W.E.B. Du Bois – A Biography in Four Voices,
1997
National Emmy Award Nomination – Writing, Eyes on the Prize II – Power!, 1990
DuPont Silver Baton, Eyes on the Prize II, 1990
George Foster Peabody Award, Eyes on the Prize II, 1990
Emmy Award – Regional, MOVE Commission Hearings, 1986
