Great Expectations Film Competition

"Hopes and Fears" film competition

Great Expectations challenged area filmmakers to tell us their hopes and fears for Philadelphia. They responded with more than two-dozen films that spoke creatively about their aspirations, their concerns, their prayers for the city. Watch the films, and vote for you favorite.

Grand-prize Winner

Film: Prayer for Philadelphia

Richard Hoffmann, 33, of Media
Biography: Upon graduating from New York University in 1996, Richard Power Hoffmann returned to his native Philadelphia and began creating a variety of personal and work-for-hire film and videos through his company, Coyopa Productions. The script for his feature film debut, "Invisible Mountains", was awarded a 2002 screenwriting fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. The completed film, which went on the win Best Feature at the 2003 DV Film Festival and a 2005 PCA media arts fellowship, is now available on Netflix. His most recent film, "Fridays at the Farm", won Best Short at the 2007 Green Film Festival in Seoul and Sapporo Shortfest in Japan, and aired nationally in 2007 on The Sundance Channel. Rich served as an active board member of the Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association (PIFVA) from 2001-2006, and was president for his last three years.

Second-prize Winner

Film: What is Violence?

Hamid Floyd, 18, North Philadephia
Biography: A freshman at Temple University majoring in Broadcast Telecommunications, Hamid Floyd looks for a future in video editing or directing for television. He has been a filmmaker for four years, with work in categories ranging from drama to comedy to nature. He writes: "In my neighborhood of North Philadelphia, there are no words to describe how hard it is to find a young person interested something serious, not to mention video, and if I do find someone, it’s only for in front of the screen. So when I make a film, I am the editor, director, producer, advertiser, camera man, and usually the script writer. This feat is never easy. My humble and goofy personality has paid off by attracting friends and benefactors along the way, especially friends from my high school, Cardinal Dougherty, who were willing to help me bring the stories alive by acting. Now at Temple, I hope to make new friends with the same lust for video as myself and become an even better filmmaker. "What Is Violence?" is a film/documentary that I wrote and created in the summer of 2007. I was tired of seeing so much violence in Philadelphia, especially my neighborhood, and I wanted to document a part of my life that I’ve tried to forget because I wanted people to know what's happening in our city from an ordinary teen like myself. I filmed it in five days with two longs days and nights to edit it. I hope when people see this video, their eyes will be opened even further, and it will be an important stepping stone in the hindering of violence.

Film: Hopes and Fears

Philip Bradshaw, Bella Vista neighborhood of Philadelphia
Biographies: Through the powers of artistic vision and everyday life, Phil Bradshaw, Sean Maher, and Wayne Forchic have strengthened their already tight bond with the city of Philadelphia. They planned, shot, and produced their Hopes and Fears project with the desire to highlight the city as a place that is in dire need of change, but at the same time, thriving with culture and beauty. Working on their days off, the three colleagues hit the streets to gather shots of locations, people, and eye-catching slices of life in the City of Brotherly Love. They aspire to use their film to draw attention to the needs that exist in Philadelphia, while also highlighting the beautiful people and neighborhoods that are deeply-rooted in the city that they call home.

Phil Bradshaw is a director of photography and lighting design artist who is inspired by the little things that often go unnoticed. A graduate of Rowan University and resident of the Bella Vista section of the city, Phil has spent the past several years finding his way in the world of production. He has worked on an array of projects, including short and feature films, commercials, music videos, and documentaries. It is Phil’s belief that artistic beauty exists all around us – especially in the most unexpected places. He is passionate about displaying this beauty and helping the world become a better place through the magic of film.

Wayne Forchic is a South Philly resident who enjoys music, a good story and great food. He works as a freelance production manager and coordinator on commercials, documentaries, television shows, and short films. A graduate of the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Wayne was drawn to the world of film at a young age. It is his belief that the use of lighting, camera movement, sound, and little things, such as an actor’s pause in dialogue, all have integral roles in helping to tell a story. Wayne enjoys the challenges that come with working in the Philadelphia production community and he is inspired by the contagious creativity that he finds in the people around him.

Sean Maher has been making his way through the production world from his humble abode on the corner of Broad and Kater Streets for the past six years. A graduate of Penn State University, Sean is a proud Philadelphian and is passionate about working in the film industry, where he has found a forum to express himself creatively and meaningfully. Sean has worked on all ends of a wide variety of productions, serving as a camera operator, director, producer, and editor. His goal is to continue to take part in the process of creating visual imagery that illuminates his community and the world. It is his hope that, together with fellow collaborators and their audiences, he will be all that he was created to be. To see some of Sean's work please click http://www.youtube.com/freshflythreads.

Film: Mayor for a Day

Alison Crouse, with Tracy Periera and Mee-Lin Youk; all of Philadelphia
Biographies: After completing her BA in art at the University of Vermont, Alison Crouse pulled up roots and planted herself on the peninsula of Halifax, Nova Scotia where she received her BFA in photography from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2002. Since moving to Philadelphia, Alison has co-created "Seeing Our Voices," an independent, grassroots project dedicated to articulating the voices of inner city youth through their video, photography and spoken word. An MFA candidate in Temple University’s Film and Media Arts Program, Alison’s most recent film "Farewell, Silk City," was a regional finalist for the Student Academy Awards.

Tracy Pereira is currently an MFA (Film & Media Arts) student at Temple University, having moved here from India in 2004. Her time at Temple as a student and a teacher has spawned and fuelled an interest in Media Education. She is an advocate for the empowerment of children and youth, and in teaching them to find their voice, particularly those with learning disabilities, emotional disorders and the socially disenfranchised. With the recent support of the Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship, she is currently working on a series of projects that involve children recording personal video diaries that illustrate the ways they navigate their lives, with a vision to translate these into new media forms.

Mee-Lin Youk is a biracial, Philadelphia based, urban spoken word artist whose works have been performed and presented throughout Philadelphia and New York. She is co-founder of the grass-roots project "Seeing Our Voices," an exploratory project that encourages neighborhood children to see their voices through spoken word, photography and ecological interactions. Part of the community in which she works, her spoken word addresses the social and political issues of her urban environment.

Film: Northern Liberties

Steve Janas, 40, Delanco
Biography: Steve Janas, a Philadelphia-area native, returned to Philly in 2003 following a 10-year stint living in Los Angeles. He brought with him his friend and business partner Jesper Olsson, a former professional soccer player from Sweden, and together, the two of them make up the film and video production company Reel Stuff Entertainment (www.reelstuff-entertainment.com). The filmmakers specialize in the "preditor" mode of video production, geared primarily to New Media audiences. This "run-and-gun" approach requires them to travel light and edit on the road. For a series of European travel videos they did for the InterContinental chain of five-star hotels and resorts, the pair would shoot in one European city, edit on their laptops on the train to the next city, and upload a completed video once they arrived. Most recently, they delivered a 15-episode series of videos called "Living Tomorrow," about future technology, to the Discovery Channel. Steve is also writing, producing and directing a short, narrative feature, partially animated, called "The Tolltaker." A two-minute video about the animation process used in the Tolltaker can be seen on Philadelphia’s Uwishunu.Com (http://www.uwishunu.com/2007/10/17/the-tolltaker-comes-alive-in-philadelphia/)

Film: Philadelphia Child

Nadine Patterson, 42, grew up in Nicetown-Tioga and now lives in the Mount Airy neighborhood of Philadephia
Biography: Nadine Patterson is an award winning independent producer/director with the following credits: "I Used to Teach English", Winner Gold Apple Award 1994 National Educational Film/Video Festival, Oakland, CA; "Anna Russell Jones: Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit", Best Documentary 1993 African American Women in the Arts Film/Video Competition, Chicago, IL; "Moving with the Dreaming", Prized Pieces award from the National Black Programming Consortium in 1997; "Todo El Mundo Dance!" selected for the 2001-2002 Council on Foundations Film and Video Festival. Other notable works include: "Shizue", screened at the Museum of Modern Art in 1991, New York and "LoqueeshaAshleyFranklinJoséBrown" screened at the 24th Mill Valley Film Festival in 2001. Most recently she worked as a video news editor for CBS3 in Philadelphia. She continues to teach classes in video production at Scribe Video Center. She explores issues of culture and history in her narrative films. Touching Bass, her next film project is currently in development at Harmony Image Productions.

Film: Yesterday's Today

Falena Hand
Biography: Falena Hand, writer and director of "Yesterday’s Today," is a recent graduate of Temple University’s Film and Media Arts program and a proud native of North Philadelphia. She was chosen out of many senior film students to complete a short film as her senior thesis. "Yesterday’s Today" was Falena’s first major directorial debut, and its success amongst community and non-profit organizations has compelled Falena to seek out graduate school to obtain her masters degree in film. Presently Falena is seeking out filmmaking opportunities in order to further her knowledge in the field, and writing her second screenplay "Illa DELPH," which is her first feature. Her ultimate goal is to direct mainstream films of all genres, especially those that tell compelling stories.

The competition was held as part of the Great Expectations Project, as a joint venture of The Inquirer, the University of Pennsylvania and the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, funded with grants from the Lenfest and Knight Foundations.