Our Philadelphia
- Nora Gross
- Graduate School of Education, School of Arts & Sciences
- Student Arts Innovation Grant
Nora Gross and the students she’s been collaborating with on this project have about 15 hours of footage related to the way gun violence has impacted one school community. Last year, one of these students joined Gross in filming a lengthy interview with the three mothers of the boys who had been killed. On her own, Gross also filmed two memorial events dedicated to these losses. This image is a still from the footage captured.
Nora Gross completed a collaborative film titled, “Our Philadelphia,” a documentary short about grief and the aftermath of gun violence from the perspective of teenagers. “Our Philadelphia” opens with a classroom full of boys in navy blazers, khaki pants and burgundy ties, rocking side to side, singing happy birthday to Tyhir, one of their fallen friends. The filmexamines the experiences of Black adolescent boys who have lost friends to gun violence: broadly examining the way students cope with these losses and how the school context supports, and in some cases constrains, students’ experiences of grieving and healing. Gross hired three Alumni of Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia Charter High School, to work with her on storyboarding the film, shooting any remaining footage, gathering archival footage, and directing the editor in completing the final product. This film features original music by young Philadelphia artists and was edited in collaboration with DRAULHAUS, an independent, minority owned company. Gross believes that this collaboration will bring DRAULHAUS into the CAMRA community. “I am very gratified by the appreciation that the mothers of the victims had for the project and that they felt seen in the work,” Nora Gross. “Our Philadelphia,” premiered virtually on July 11, 2020 on YouTube. The premiere was followed by a brief Q&A with two of the directors and other special guests, which is available online at CAMRA. FirstGlance Film Festival will feature a limited in person screening as well as a virtual screening in November 2020.
Nora Gross and her collaborators premiered the film online, on July 11, 2020:
The film was followed by a Q&A over Zoom: