iPhone Photography and Filmmaking Classes at the Fortune Society
THESE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE FOR SALE. GO TO THE PRODUCTS FOR SALE TAB. THEY WERE TAKEN BY THE STUDENTS OF THE DIGITAL MEDIA TRAINING PROGRAM AT THE FORTUNE SOCIETY.
Congratulations to Ocean Morisset, our illustrious Digital Media Training Program iPhone photography instructor, who moved to Costa Rica. He's featured in January/February’s Essence Magazine with a photo spread called Worth The Trip featuring photos from his new home.
I want to thank Ocean for his expert instruction during our virtual class in the fall of 2020 and congratulate him on his beautiful photographs in Essence. We look forward to seeing more from him in the future.
Colin Absalom, Helen Davis, Joseph Soto, Carolyn Marie, and Lionel Doc Limage exhibit at MoMA PS1.
The Fortune Society, MoMA PS1, and the Digital Media Training Program are pleased to announce the opening of a photography exhibit composed of photographs taken by formerly incarcerated men and women. The exhibition will run from September 9 to October 11 at MoMA PS1, 22-25 Jackson Avenue, Queens, New York 11101. Reserved timed tickets can be obtained online at https://www.moma.org/ps1.
In November 2020, the DMTP began teaching an online iPhone photography and filmmaking workshop in partnership with the Fortune Society. Most of the students are formerly incarcerated men and women who resided at the Fortune Society’s Castle Gardens facility in Harlem. The long-term goal is to create a cadre of digital-media storytellers capable of producing news and feature programming centered around the community of Harlem for distribution via radio, television, podcasts, and social media.
The program is administered by Melvin McCray, a former editor at ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. He taught broadcast journalism as an Associate Adjunct Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism from 2002 to 2015. McCray worked alongside photography instructor Ocean Morisett and filmmaking instructor Bianca Miller to teach the students in a virtual class using Zoom. McCray created the DMTP in 2013 and has trained over 400 underserved residents of West Harlem in video production, photography, 3D animation, and hands-on engineering.
Columbia University is funding the iPhone classes through a Community Benefits Agreement with Manhattan Community District 9. Corporate sponsors and individual donations contributed additional funding and iPhones.
Harlem to Kilimanjaro: The Documentary Film
In the summer of 2018, the DMTP received a $10,000 grant to take five Harlem-based filmmakers to Arusha, Tanzania. The goal of the trip was to: 1. Immerse the group in the Maasai culture of East Africa; 2. Begin a collaboration with Tanzanian filmmakers; 3. Engage in a service project in Tanzania; 4. Record a song with local Maasai musicians in the City of Arusha; and 5. Produce a film about the experience. The resulting film, Harlem to Kilimanjaro, will be screened on Sunday, January 12th, 3 PM and 5 PM at the Roone Arledge Cinema in Alfred Lerner Hall at Columbia University located at Broadway and 116th Street. The event is free and open to the public. Reserve your ticket at Eventbrite.com (search Harlem to Kilimanjaro) or for more information contact melvinmccray@gmail.com or call (917) 748-4122. Here is the link to Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/harlem-to-kilimanjaro-documentary-screening-digital-media-training-program-tickets-86274155321. The project was funded, in part, by a grant from the West Harlem Development Corporation. This event is not affiliated with Columbia University.
Melvin McCray and Khadim Diop were guests of radio host Milton Allimadi on WBAI 99.5 FM on Friday, January 4, to talk about their trip to Tanzania, East Africa. McCray talked about his non-profit Digital Media Training Program and was joined by his student, Khadim Diop, a filmmaker, and musician. McCray spoke of his January 12th event celebrating the 6th year of his program, and the screening of a new documentary shot in Tanzania in May 2019 called Harlem to Kilimanjaro. It will take place at the Roone Arledge Theater in Lerner Hall at Columbia University (116th Street and Broadway). McCray also talked about his meeting with Julius Nyerere, the founding president of Tanzania, in 1986 and 1990.
Melvin McCray and Khadim Diop appeared on the Here and Now Show with Sandra Bookman on Sunday, December 15, 2019. They talked about their new film Harlem to Kilimanjaro that was filmed in Tanzania, East Africa in May of 2019 and the experience of interacting with the people of the Maasai tribe.
You may obtain free tickets on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/harlem-to-kilimanjaro-documentary-screening-digital-media-training-program-tickets-86274155321.
The Maasai women of Osinyay Village
Winners of the 2015 2nd Annual White House Student Film Festival
The Digital Media Training Program in Harlem trains students ages 11 to 22 in video, photography, animation, journalism, mathematics, engineering and 3D printing. The program also seeks to chronicle the rich history of Harlem through the creation of the Harlem Through My Eyes History Project, a video oral history archives and a series of multi-media projects including books, documentaries and exhibits.
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White House Student Film Festival 2016
Digital Media Training program students, 2016 Winners of the 3rd Annual White House Student Film Festival. Natalie Cabrera, Joann Mariani (Journalism Instructor), Faeyah Muhammad, Samia Uddin, Nicoles Rasoario, Melvin McCray (Program Director), (kneeling) Justin Rivera, and Matthew Smart.
Digital Media Training Program in Harlem
Harlem photographer John Pinderhughes talks to students about his life and work (photo courtesy of Digital Media Training Program).
Harlem Through My Eyes History Project
Actor Anna Maria Horsford being interviewed at MIST Harlem by students of the Digital Media Training Program at MIST Harlem (Photo courtesy of the Digital Media Training Program).
