Scribe Video Center

Scribe Video Center was founded in 1982 by Pew and MacArthur Fellow Louis Massiah as a place where individuals and communities learn media-making and explore the use of video as both an artistic medium and a tool for progressive social change. A nationally known and community-based media arts center, Scribe has compiled more than 350 documentary works that represent a history of Philadelphia told by its citizens. In 2012, Scribe received a Center Project grant to work with members of the area's Muslim communities, which have existed in Philadelphia as far back as the 1870s, in creating media that depict their own histories in the region. In 2014, Scribe received Center support to work with media artists to create site-specific works exploring the Great Migration and its impact on Philadelphia. A 2019 Project grant supports The Tenants of Lenapehocking in the Age of Magnets, a new documentary film by Massiah that surveys North Philadelphia’s black community from 1896 to 1968. In 2021, Scribe received a Re:imagining Recovery grant for new staff positions and media production equipment that will enable the organization to revamp its workshop curriculum, offer more virtual programming, and advance its role as a resource for artists and community makers in telling their stories through film and video.