For more information contact:
Ariel Kitch
Support for Neighborhood Video Project is provided by:
Search
User login
Neighborhood Video Project: West 7th
Neighborhood Video Project: Wrapping up in West 7th
Neighborhood Video Project has finished work on some amazing videos in Saint Paul's West 7th neighborhood. We completed three documentaries on CSPS Hall, West 7th Immigration, and the Mississippi River. Youth also finished creating video diaries about their lives, homes, families, and pets. So, to celebrate, we all boarded a steamboat and took a ride down the Mississippi River for our final class. As you can see from the photo on the left, it was a lot of fun.
Neighborhood Video Project Screening on May 12!
The Neighborhood Video Project will be screening its first films from the West 7th neighborhood at CSPS Hall on Wednesday, May 12, at 7 PM.
Come to see two original documentaries, one on the Mississippi River, and one on Immigration in West 7th. The documentaries are full of interviews with community members, historic photos, and lots of neighborhood memories. There will be a question and answer session with the youth filmmakers, and refreshments will be provided. This is also a great chance to visit CSPS Hall in Saint Paul, a historic building with a rich history in the West 7th neighborhood and a gathering place for Minnesota's Czech Slovak community.
Come watch! Wednesday, May 12, 7 PM, at CSPS Hall. CSPS Hall is located at 383 West Michigan St, right off West 7th street in Saint Paul. Click here for directions.
Neighborhood Video Project: Capturing Stories
We've been busy these last two weeks at the Neighborhood Video Project conducting interviews and starting our video diary projects.
The interviews, with long term and recent residents of the neighborhood, business owners, and other community members have yielded some really great stories.
It's been exciting to be invited into homes, gardens, and businesses to conduct these interviews and to get real life stories to complement the history we've learned through our work with our Historical Consultant, Joe Landsberger, and the staff of the Minnesota Historical Society Library. We were pleasantly surprised that almost everyone we talked to had their own archival material to share with us. Interviewees showed us family photographs, beautiful old maps of the neighborhood, and even Census records. At left is a photo of interviewee Joanna Craighead's mother and cousins standing in Little Italy on the Levee Flats where many Italian immigrants lived in the early part of the last century. If you look closely, you can see the High Bridge in the background. Below is a census record from 1920, which records the names, occupations and ages of residents of the flats including Joanna's grandparents. 
As of last Saturday, we've wrapped production on NVP: West 7th and will spend the next few weeks putting all of this amazing oral history footage, photographs, maps, etc into our pieces. Our premiere screening is only a month away!
Neighborhood Video Project: On Location
Hennok and Deangela filming St. Paul from the High Bridge.
This past week at the Neighborhood Video Project, we've headed out on location with our video cameras almost every class. We've filmed the Mississippi River, the West 7th neighborhood, Irvine Park, the High Bridge, and the Schmidt Brewery. We've interviewed neighborhood historian Gary Brueggerman, and talked to the amazing staff at the Mississippi National River & Recreation Area. The more footage we can film in the next few weeks, the more material we'll have to work with when we start editing.
C.S.P.S. Hall
Video Description:
This documentary, produced by middle school students as part of SPNN's Neighborhood Video Project (NVP), examines the history of CSPS Hall in Saint Paul's West 7th neighborhood. Through an interview with CSPS Hall President Joe Landsberger, original footage of the hall, and historic photos, the students created a documentary that explores the vibrant life of this Czech Slovak community center.