Shadowhood: A Hero’s Journey is an authentic and useful tool for teaching “at-risk” youth the skills and strategies needed to successfully enter and navigate the ever-changing world of work. Through the stories of two youth, viewers learn that there are stages to growth and that obstacles lead to breakthroughs and eventually to mastery. This film is accompanied by a Hero’s Journey curriculum that can be used to support and develop the ideas introduced by the story. Shadowhood: A Hero’s Journey was created in collaboration with the youth of Poughkeepsie through CMP, the Youth Resource Development Corporation (YRDC), and the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val Kill’s Community Partnership with Schools and Business.
2006 Official Entrant and Certificate of Merit in the category of Educational – Child Audience, 42nd Chicago International Film Festival’s INTERCOM competition
2006 Insight Award of Recognition, the National Association of Film and Digital Media Artists
2007 Bronze Telly Award
Website Curriculum: Shadowhood through the Hero’s Journey lens
He Said: She Said: Sexual Abuse and Violence PreventionIn 2005, with Vassar College’s student sexual assault peer counselors, Battered Women’s Services and the local police department, CMP created He Said, She Said: Sex and Consent at College, a multimedia DVD teaching tool for young adults, funded by the US Department of Justice.
Please Stand UP: Against School Violence In 2002, CMP produced a CD-Rom, Please Stand Up, for the NYS Center for School Safety. Commissioned in response to the Columbine shootings, this CD-Rom uses live action vignettes to stimulate conversation. It has been distributed to the 744 school districts in New York. Pleasestandup.org
L’Chaim Developed in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Dutchess County (NY), this project is a work-in-progress, middle school social studies curriculum and digital textbook. Middle School youth interviewed local Holocaust survivors giving perspectives from survivors who experienced the Holocaust as children. This segment includes segments of an interview with Dr. Michael Piccucci, author and therapist who specializes in trauma.
Talking Walls: Mentorship and the Media Arts Article: Closer Look National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, 2002
Youth Study Tour to South Africa Together with educators and community leaders, CMP created an international travel opportunity for inner city youth, ages 14-18, to study and travel to South Africa. This program was designed to expand social and global consciousness of American youth, to promote youth leadership and to teach the core values of cultural competence, generosity and a sense of belonging not only as Americans but as citizens of the world. Participating youth received 5 months of training prior to their travels with a focus on youth development models and values, historical and cultural understanding of the recent history of South Africa, media production skills, public speaking skills and the development of special social development projects performed at various locations in South Africa. Participants filmed and edited footage of their experiences and presented at follow-up projects to share their experiences, knowledge and skills with other youth back home in the US.
Smoke Screens From Tobacco Outrage to Media Activismis a textbook and resource manual which covers the health risks of cigarettes, the manipulation of cigarette advertising, and creative and empowering ways that youth can actively prevent smoking. The Smoke Screens curriculum and textbook is written for an 8th grade reading level, meeting NY State Standards in Health, Math, English, and Art. The full color textbook is 144 pages and the 128 page black and white Resource Manual includes many reproducible worksheets, tests, vocabulary lists and other handouts for students and teachers. This project was funded by County dollars through the Dutchess County Children’s Services Council Children’s Health Initiative.
Personal Film Work: In the Name of the Father Using and manipulating photographs, diaries, and sound recordings, In the Name of the Father is a 20 minute experimental documentary that explores the complex relationship between the powerful and the powerless where each is imprisoned in a system of relating that diminishes the humanity of both. Crafted from the point of view of the child, this film expresses a world populated by fairy tales with witches and devils, by a religion that celebrates martyrdom and suffering as the way to sainthood, and by childrearing practices that emphasize violence and fear. These images and stories are not personal but reflect the tools of socialization during a specific time in history. In the Name of the Father (1988) was screened at the American Film Institute, the Joseph Papp Public Theater, the Global Film Festival, The Museum of the Moving Image and recognized by a red ribbon in the 30 annual American Film and Video Festival’s Film As Art category.
Shadowhood: A Hero’s Journey is an authentic and useful tool for teaching “at-risk” youth the skills and strategies needed to successfully enter and navigate the ever-changing world of work. Through the stories of two youth, viewers learn that there are stages to growth and that obstacles lead to breakthroughs and eventually to mastery. This film is accompanied by a Hero’s Journey curriculum that can be used to support and develop the ideas introduced by the story. Shadowhood: A Hero’s Journey was created in collaboration with the youth of Poughkeepsie through CMP, the Youth Resource Development Corporation (YRDC), and the Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val Kill’s Community Partnership with Schools and Business.
Please Stand UP: Against School Violence In 2002, CMP produced a CD-Rom, Please Stand Up, for the NYS Center for School Safety. Commissioned in response to the Columbine shootings, this CD-Rom uses live action vignettes to stimulate conversation. It has been distributed to the 744 school districts in New York. Pleasestandup.org
Developed in collaboration with the Jewish Federation of Dutchess County (NY), this project is a work-in-progress, middle school social studies curriculum and digital textbook. Middle School youth interviewed local Holocaust survivors giving perspectives from survivors who experienced the Holocaust as children. This segment includes segments of an interview with Dr. Michael Piccucci, author and therapist who specializes in trauma.
Together with educators and community leaders, CMP created an international travel opportunity for inner city youth, ages 14-18, to study and travel to South Africa. This program was designed to expand social and global consciousness of American youth, to promote youth leadership and to teach the core values of cultural competence, generosity and a sense of belonging not only as Americans but as citizens of the world. Participating youth received 5 months of training prior to their travels with a focus on youth development models and values, historical and cultural understanding of the recent history of South Africa, media production skills, public speaking skills and the development of special social development projects performed at various locations in South Africa. Participants filmed and edited footage of their experiences and presented at follow-up projects to share their experiences, knowledge and skills with other youth back home in the US.
From Tobacco Outrage to Media Activismis a textbook and resource manual which covers the health risks of cigarettes, the manipulation of cigarette advertising, and creative and empowering ways that youth can actively prevent smoking. The Smoke Screens curriculum and textbook is written for an 8th grade reading level, meeting NY State Standards in Health, Math, English, and Art. The full color textbook is 144 pages and the 128 page black and white Resource Manual includes many reproducible worksheets, tests, vocabulary lists and other handouts for students and teachers. This project was funded by County dollars through the Dutchess County Children’s Services Council Children’s Health Initiative.
Personal Film Work: In the Name of the Father Using and manipulating photographs, diaries, and sound recordings, In the Name of the Father is a 20 minute experimental documentary that explores the complex relationship between the powerful and the powerless where each is imprisoned in a system of relating that diminishes the humanity of both. Crafted from the point of view of the child, this film expresses a world populated by fairy tales with witches and devils, by a religion that celebrates martyrdom and suffering as the way to sainthood, and by childrearing practices that emphasize violence and fear. These images and stories are not personal but reflect the tools of socialization during a specific time in history. In the Name of the Father (1988) was screened at the American Film Institute, the Joseph Papp Public Theater, the Global Film Festival, The Museum of the Moving Image and recognized by a red ribbon in the 30 annual American Film and Video Festival’s Film As Art category.