Short Films, Worthy Subjects
Short Films, Worthy Subjects
The most important connections in our lives are the ones closest to home. This summer, the Youth Apprentices on our Multimedia Team created five short films about nonprofits and other organizations that work to improve the quality of life in our city. The subjects include pianos in public places, a grass-roots effort to make improvements to a local city park, an ambitious plan to create murals in Upper Manhattan of 314 North American birds threatened by climate change, and a program that brings soccer and poetry to young NYC residents. Of course, there is also a documentary about Creative Art Works' summer Public Art Youth Employment program.
We invite you to watch all five of these gems. Click on the button below to go directly to our Vimeo page or select the films that interest you from the brief synopsis below.
A joyful documentary about the Sing for Hope Pianos. Each summer, Sing for Hope places artist-designed pianos throughout NYC’s parks and public spaces for anyone and everyone to play. (After their time on the streets, the instruments go to NYC public schools where they enrich the lives of students for years to come). Keeping a piano safe despite bad weather and would-be thieves and vandals requires 24/7 vigilance by an unsung group of heroes known as the Piano Buddies.
“Will make you wish your mother had forced you take piano lessons!”
The Jacob H. Schiff Playground Neighborhood Association is rallying residents of Hamilton Heights and lobbying the New York City Council to make improvements to Jacob Schiff Park, an urban oasis that must serve the needs of a diverse and rapidly changing population. Features interviews with civic boosters, urban historians, and City Council Member Mark D. Levine.
“A thoughtful look at the vastly under-appreciated
role parks play as the ‘common backyards’ for city residents.”
What’s it like to spend six weeks pouring your heart and soul into a work of art, and then giving that work away to the community? Through candid interviews with Creative Art Works Youth Apprentices, this film captures the joys, humor and heartbreak of making something beautiful, loving it, and letting it go.
“Candid and touching. A love note to the creative process”
The Audubon Mural Project is a quixotic quest to create murals of 314 climate-threatened birds throughout John James Audubon’s old neighborhood in Washington Heights. Featuring interviews with muralists and Avi Gitler, the local gallery owner who conceived of the project, this story examines the surprising intersection of the urban and natural environment and the power of art to save our planet.
“Thought-provoking and uplifting!”
Run more like a family than an organization, America Scores is a nonprofit that uses soccer and poetry(!) to engage the minds and bodies of young people in under-served urban neighborhoods. This short film deals with the difficulties inherent in running any nonprofit, including funding, outreach, and the challenges of finding green space in the concrete jungle.
“Invokes the pure joy of physicality and the optimism of youth.”
*We made up these reviews. But if any actual film critic had seen our movies, we're sure they would have said something nice.