Summer Scenes Programs for Youth
The days ARE getting warmer, the rain IS letting up a little, and the sun is definitely setting later in the evening. So we know summer’s here (even though it IS New England and you never know just what to expect). There is usually a shift that happens at MATV when summer rolls around. Some faces disappear – off to their summer adventures; and new faces appear – teachers and other folks who don’t have as much time to be active at MATV during the school year. The past few summers, an abundance of young people graced our facility during the day, producing their own shows, learning, and helping out. While some projects die down, different ones crop up; and there are always new things to learn, new people to meet, and new ways to get involved. And so, the staff at MATV welcomes you into our doors, for whatever reason brings you in here.
As usual, MATV will be closed for the summer for the last two weeks leading up to Labor Day. Many things will be happening inside the facility during that time. Expect some surprises, as we undergo some fairly major improvements to the facility. Cleaning, organizing, and minor facility repairs will take place throughout the summer and we can definitely use volunteers to help us with these tasks (see details in “Volunteer Corner’). Please let Volunteer Coordinator Dee Jaye Tobin know that you are interested in helping out and she will find you a job that matches your skills and time availability.
So, though it might be a quieter hum, MATV will still buzz with activity. Come on down, find a project, get involved. And, oh yes, have a great summer!
Mondays 10 am – 9 pm
Tuesdays 10 am – 9 pm
Wednesdays 10 am – 9 pm *
Thursdays 10 am – 9 pm *
Fridays 10 am – 6 pm
Saturdays 10 am – 2 pm
* On Wednesday, July 11th, our hours will be 12 – 9 pm and on Thursday, July 12th, our hours will be 2 – 9 pm.
MATV will be CLOSED to the public from Aug. 20 – Sept. 3.
MATV, in collaboration with the Community Schools Program, will be running a summer video camp for 16 young people entering 5th through 8th grade. Based at the Salemwood School during the month of July, Summer Scenes will be taught by John Hiett, with assistance from MATV members Siv Tang, Steven Lyon, and Dhara Manek. Children will learn how to operate video equipment, storyboard, direct, and act in their own video programs. Their works will be featured on MATV’s Channel 15. All slots for the program are currently filled. We look forward to this exciting summer adventure for youth!
The Girls in Action program from the YWCA will be taking part in a Basic Video Production class designed to give them the skills to produce one program and two public service announcements with an anti-smoking message. They will be trained, along with their supervisor Bernadette Smith at the MATV studio during the month of July. Alberto Roblest will be providing the instruction. His creative background as a video artist will be sure to inspire and influence these teens as they learn to use the medium of television to communicate healthy and positive messages.
If you are a young person wishing to get involved with television production at MATV, please contact Susan Lawrence at MATV or by e-mailing her at susan@matv.org. She will find you a place and a way to get trained!
Now that the summer months are here, it’s a great time to pick up an MATV T-shirt or tank top, for you or to give as a gift. The shirts come in various sizes and colors. T-shirts are $12 and tanks are $10. Samples are on display in the lobby. See a staff person if you would like to buy a shirt. (MATV buttons are also on sale at 25 cents each).
Our newest full-time staff member at MATV is Liri Qirici. Liri comes to us through the AmeriCorps Vista program. He is a Malden resident and a 2000 graduate from Boston University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Film and Television. Liri directed theater in 1988 in his native Albania, then again in 1995 at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. At UMass, Liri wrote, directed, and produced his own short videos, including A Tale of a Shrinking Scale, For Efigjeni, and Living with Spinal Cord Injury. A Tale of a Shrinking Scale appeared on local channels in Somerville and Cambridge, MA. At Boston University, Liri worked on a number of film projects including Frustration, Hansi’s Dream, Fear, Jealousy, and Slices, the latter of which is currently showing on-line at www.studentfilms.com.
Liri and his family emigrated here in 1992 after he suffered a spinal cord injury that left him wheelchair bound. Despite his physical limitations, Liri is a highly productive and motivated person with a great sense of humor and ability to connect with people of all backgrounds. His role at MATV as Community Production Coordinator involves matching community producers with various projects and crew needs, as well as assisting them with those projects. He will be teaching a screenwriting class this summer and spends one afternoon a week at the Cyber Café, helping people use computer technology. MATV staff has been working with the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Center to provide Liri with the assistive technology he needs to work independently at his job here. We are delighted to have Liri join the staff at MATV. If you haven’t already met him, please be sure to introduce yourself the next time you stop by.
Attention all certified producers! Liri Qirici (see article, above) will be teaching Introduction to Screenwriting this summer, every Tuesday night beginning July 10th. This will be a combined class of lecture, film screening, writing, and hands-on production work. Please see the enclosed workshop schedule for more information. All those interested in taking the course should sign up in person or contact Anne at anne@matv.org. (If you sign up by e-mail, you will have to mail us the $10 fee.) Don’t miss this unique workshop opportunity!
Our new and improved web page is still not QUITE ready for public viewing. Though it was advertised in the last newsletter as being on-line already, there have been some delays in the design and development. It will be going on-line sometime this summer and is sure to be filled with all kinds of up-to-date information, links, photos, and more. www.matv.org is designed to be a dynamic site that MATV and Malden community members can use on a regular basis and other folks can visit to find out all about us.
The Grand Opening of the Cyber Café @ Malden Square was held on Wednesday, May 16th. Already heavily used, the non-profit community computing center is open Monday-Friday from 9am - 5 pm. Thirteen workstations are available to the public at no charge. Private tutoring and assistance is available, and courses will be offered soon. The Cyber Café is a joint venture of several local organizations and people: State Representative Chris Fallon, Tri-CAP, MATV, the AARP, The Career Place, Youth Tech Entrepreneurs, and Murray Learning Associates. Liri Qirici is working with two of our interns this summer, Jessica Krywosa and Rana Reavis, to produce a 15-minute informational piece about the Cyber Café as well as a one-minute promo. Thanks to Siv Tang and Tatiana Xenelis who helped shoot the footage at the Grand Opening.
The Alliance for Community Media
is a national organization that promotes and supports community access
television. The Alliance lobbies for policy
initiatives on the national and state level to develop and protect the
existence of community access channels.
The organization networks individual access centers with each other,
provides legal assistance, and promotes a vision and mission for community
access facilities. Each year the
Alliance holds an international conference where staff, Board members, and
volunteers from access stations across the country gather together to learn,
share resources, and get a sense of the “bigger picture” of the access
movement. This year, four staff people from MATV will be attending the ACM
International Conference & Trade Show in Washington, D.C. - Jeff
Hansell, Lee Ann Small, Tina Jayroe, and Terlonzo Amos. The
conference is being held July 11 – 14.
These MATV participants plan to bring us back information, resources,
and renewed energy for the work that they do.
Please note: because we will be short-staffed during that time, MATV
will be open from noon – 9 pm on Wednesday, July 11th and
2 pm – 9 pm on Thursday, July 12.
The Northeast Region of the Alliance for Community Media holds two regional conferences each year. This fall, MATV will be hosting the conference right here in Malden! Scheduled for Saturday, October 13th, the Northeast Region Fall 2001 Conference will feature speakers, workshops, demonstrations and the screening of winners from the Northeast Region Video Festival (see related article). The emphasis will be on Educational Access and will showcase the new digital studio at the Salemwood School. Telecom City will also be highlighted, as well as the new Cyber Café @ Malden Square. A Youth Media workshop track is planned so many young people will be in attendance. At least 150 participants from all over New England are expected to participate in the conference. Please try to keep that date free and plan to attend. It is rare that such an opportunity will meet our members right at their doorstep, so we encourage you to take advantage of it. More information will be sent out to members in September, or check the website at www.acm-ne.org in late summer. We will also be looking for volunteers to help with the many details involved in hosting a conference. Please let volunteer coordinator Dee Jaye Tobin know if you are available to help.
The Northeast Region of the Alliance for Community Media invites you to participate in their Fourth Annual Video Festival. The competition is open to all videomakers in the Northeast Region. (Producers have a better chance of winning than with the Hometown Festival!) Winners will be chosen from 24 entry categories and will be honored at the festival to be held on October 13, 2001 in Malden (see previous article). For more information or to obtain an entry form, go to www.acm-ne.org. Or stop by MATV. The brochure is posted on the hallway bulletin board.
Mark your calendars! MATV’s Annual Meeting & Potluck Supper will be held this year on Tuesday, September 18th at 7:00 pm. All members are invited to attend. This is a great opportunity to meet all of our Board members, hear about the year’s accomplishments and the organization’s future goals, honor outgoing Board members, and elect/appoint new members to the Board. Active members of MATV should consider running for the open membership seat on the Board of Directors. There are a total of three membership seats on the nine-member Board. Each elected member serves a three-year term and terms are staggered so that one seat becomes available each year. The MATV Board of Directors sets policies, goals, and objectives and members work on committees to carry out the mission of MATV. To become a candidate for the membership seat, sign your name on the Candidate List located on the hallway bulletin board.
This Italian festival in the Edgeworth neighborhood of Malden has been held annually for 72 years. It features something for the whole family including live music, kids’ rides, delicious foods, the procession of St. Rocco, and of course the enormously popular CLIMBING OF THE GREASE POLE! It is a fun event to capture on video and the organizers of the event are deeply appreciative of MATV’s documentation of the St. Rocco’s Feast. As she has done the past two years, Dee Jaye Tobin will oversee the video production of the event. She is looking for crewpeople to work in shifts of 3-4 hours. The festival begins on Saturday night, August 11th and continues throughout the day and evening on Sunday, August 12th. Videotaping will only take place on Sunday. Two portable-camera people and one interviewer are needed for the following shifts: 10am - 1pm; 1pm - 5pm; and 5pm - 8pm. An editor is also needed to put the footage together into an hour long finished program to air sometime in September or October. The editor and production crew people must be current MATV members and must be certified in these production areas. Anyone interested in crewing or editing can contact Dee Jaye at deejaye@matv.org or can sign up on the crew sheet on the hallway bulletin board.
A warm welcome is extended to our newest volunteers: Mike Mullen (photographer); James McMorrow (MATV front desk); Barbara Tolstrup, Andy Reyes and Nancy McInnis (talking Bulletin Board announcers); Vicky Lirman (news archives); Yoko Hara and Debbie O’Neill (Cyber Café front desk); and Bierne Desilets (Cyber Café computer assistance). Thank you all for your time and dedication.
Here are some current volunteer openings around the station.
Receptionist for the Cyber
Café @ Malden Square
· 1-5
pm any weekday
· Prior
experience preferred
· Location
is at the corner of Pleasant & Main St.
Facility Maintenance
· One
hour every two weeks
· Dusting of monitors, counters, and shelves
Artist
· for
our monthly program schedule, & quarterly newsletter
· cartoons,
freehand sketches, holiday drawings, etc.
· a sample of your drawings should be included with your volunteer form
To be considered for any of these openings, please stop by MATV and fill out a Task Volunteer Form. Forms can be mailed to MATV, ATTN: Dee Jaye Tobin. All forms will be promptly reviewed. Dee Jaye’s hours are Monday & Tuesdays, 11 am—4 pm. Messages by e-mail can be sent to deejaye@matv.org.
Helping with our summer
facelift
As many of you know, summer is the time when we do minor and major repairs and improvements to the facility. Some specific needs we have will be:
· building
shelves
· lifting
heavy furniture
· cleaning
· oiling
the exterior sign (on a high ladder)
· helping
with videotape inventory
If you can help with any of these tasks, please contact Dee Jaye Tobin. She will match you to a job that fits your skills and time availability.
One more event to note on your calendars! Businesses, city institutions, and community organizations in Malden are sponsoring a festival celebrating Malden’s cultural diversity on Saturday, September 22, 2001 from 10 am - 3 pm. The Celebrate Malden! festival will feature multi-cultural music and entertainment, diverse cuisine, storytelling and other youth activities, a fashion show, art exhibit, meditation workshops and more. MATV volunteer producer Olga Lattarulo will be coordinating volunteers to document this event on video. Please let her know if you are interested in helping out. She can be reached at olgayanayaco@hotmail.com.
A special thanks is extended to all the staff and volunteers that helped with the LIVE video coverage of the Malden High School Graduation 2001. This three-camera remote studio shoot involves a great deal of cooperative effort to pull off successfully. The following people helped make this year’s shoot a success: Terlonzo Amos, Benjamin Bacon, Bill Davidson, Marcelo de Castro, Barry Greenspan, Glenn Higgins, Sonny Kelly, Hal Koltin, Olga Lattarulo, Susan Lawrence, Anthony Lewin, Matt Lewin, Steven Lyon, Dhara Manek, Patricia Pajares, Rana Reavis, Daniel Richardson, Schnider Simeon, Kenny Situ, Kyle Stadelhofer, Jerry Story, Donna Spinelli, and Dee Jaye Tobin.