The Urban Video Project is a model video arts education program which combines the arts and social sciences. It is a unique school program which works collaboratively with a local arts organization, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and an independent videographer. The project uses the city as its classroom, drawing on the rich cultural resources of New York city. Since 1986, student participants of the Urban Video Project at Satellite Academy Forsyth on the Lower East Side have learned documentary video production, journalism and research skills and have produced documentaries about Black and Latino Communities in New York City. We give a special thanks to our funders: New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA), CitiGroup, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC). For more information and/or videos contact:

Derek Jones, Project Director
Monday - Friday 8:30am - 3:30pm
Phone: (212) 677 - 8900 | Fax: (212) 260-3063

The Documentaries

  • Urban Society: Exposed! Entrapped! Extinct?? (28 mins. 2002)
    Project Technician: Lester Grant
  • Behind the Label: What you didn't know about brand name clothing (28 mins. 2001)
    Project Technician: Melissa Lohman
  • Know Justice Know Peace (35 mins. 2000)
    New York city youth speak out on the topic of police brutality. Students document organization and protests surrounding the Amadou Diallo verdict. This tape features leading New York City youth-run organizations.
    Project Technician: Melissa Lohman
  • The Young and the Hip-Hop 2000 (20 mins. 1999)
    This is an update to an earlier video done in 1991- Rap! What it is. In Hip-Hop 2000 students explored the explosion of Hip-Hop culture in America and world-wide.
    Project Technician: Telly Karussos
  • Steppin' into the Next Millennium (28 mins. 1998)
    This video explores the African-American art form of Step. The documentary takes a look at the African origins of Step and how it has developed over time to influence African American Fraternities/Sororities as well as the youth.
    Project Technician: Kara Lynch
  • New York Teens Gettin-Down-n-Dirty (27 mins. 1997)
    Students document teenage minority New Yorkers who are composting and working in school and community gardens. Composting is explained at length and the youth reveal how they are perceived by friends and relatives on the Lower East Side. Project Technician: Kara Lynch
  • It's Child's Play (15 mins. 1996)
    Students interview 92 year-old Bessie Nickens who wrote and illustrated "Walking the Log: Memories of A Southern Childhood". Then they compare and contrast their urban childhoods with Bessie's.
    Project Technician: Patricia Montoya
  • 198 Forsyth Street (20 mins. 1995)
    Students interview a Satellite custodian who is an artist and marched with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; they profiled three young Satellite talents and enact a scenario tracing the difficulties facing teens at 198 Forsyth.
    Project Technician: Patricia Montoya
  • Whose Art Is It Anyway? : A Video Diary of Black and Latino Curators (26 mins. 1995)
    Students follow the Visual Thinking class as they research,visit and choose artists for an art show at a SOHO gallery. This tape includes short discussions of Black and Latino Art in the U.S.
  • Capoeira: In Tribute to the Past (25 mins. 1993)
    Looks at the Afro-Brazilian dance/martial art form of Capoeira. Students interview masters of this art form and experts in the field. The dance, music and history is explored using archival material, poetry, song and performance footage.
  • We've Gotta Have It: the Story of African American Film-making (30 mins. 1992)
    This tape explores the history of African-American film-making which goes back to the early 20th Century. It covers the Century up to the new outporing of Black film-making. Students talk with people in the industry, a historian and people on the street. The new movies are highlighted. Racism in the medium is examined.
  • Rap! What It Is... (30 mins.1991)
    This documentary aks three essebtial questions:What is Rap? Where did it originate? Where is it going? Amateur and professional rappers, poets and experts, like percussionist Max Roach, answer these questions while student chosen Rap videos complete this exciting look at a controversial musical style.
  • The Orisha Tradition : The Gods in Exile (30 mins.1990)
    Students explore Santeria and other African descended religions in New York City. The tape includes archeival material, student narratives and interviews with scholars and other prominent people involved with this legacy from the African diaspora. In addition, there is an analysis of media prejudice towards these traditions.
  • Women of Their Word: Conversations with Black and Puerto Rican Artists (60 mins. 1990)
    Students interview community-based Black and Puerto Rican women artists. Intercut into the interviews are archival materials on the history of Puerto Rican and Black women in New York City; statistical information on their economic conditions; and a survey of their contributions to American society. The tape also includes orignal poetry composed and recited by students.
  • Eyes on Harlem (30 mins. 1987)
    Students explore the history and culture of the Black community of Harlem and some of the issues it was facing. They speak in-depth with Harlem merchants, residents and community-based artists. Included is poetry, street interviews, archival photographs and music.
  • New York/West Indies: Voices from the Jamaican Migration (18 mins. 1986)
  • El Pasaje: Recollections from the Puerto Rican Migration (23 mins. 1986)


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