Members of Street Sense’s film cooperative aim to raise $5,500 to become members of DCTV, the District’s public access television network. A partnership would allow the co-op members to air their work on TV and take classes like studio tech and editing.
Since the co-op got started two years ago, it has produced five films, held two screenings at E Street Cinema and filmed promotional pieces for other Street Sense projects, according to Bryan Bello, a filmmaker who helped found the co-op. Bello said a partnership with DCTV would provide the co-op with the tools they need to continue their work.
“We’ve got the heart, but camera equipment, editing software, and space are very expensive,” he said.
Morgan Jones is one of the co-op’s 14 members. The documentary he directed, “Late Night,” which chronicles his quest to become an intern on “CBS Late Night with David Letterman,” was the first film the co-op produced.
Jones thinks a partnership with DCTV could be an opportunity for co-op members like him to lift themselves out of housing instability.
“It could lead to bigger and better things for the people in the group,” he said.
Jones, who is already a member of DCTV and thought of the idea for the fundraiser, thinks co-op members who get their work televised on DCTV could have a shot at internships and jobs working in TV production.
Jones’s next goal is to produce and star in a Western, using a friend’s farm in New Mexico as a place to shoot.
DCTV currently has 650 members, like Jones, who have stories to tell. Their partners range from agencies like WMATA to small groups of community members.
“We want to be able to give access to media to anyone who has something to say,” Jo-Ann Enwezor, head of outreach at DCTV, said in an interview.
The film co-op is still a few thousand dollars away from their goal, but Bello and Jones are hopeful about the outcome of the fundraiser.
