25 Jan Philadelphia Organization Spotlight: People’s Media Record

BY ERICK BARRAGÁN RAMÍREZ

The cinéSPEAK Journal publishes a monthly Philadelphia Organization Spotlight highlighting a local film or moving image focused organization, business, or collective doing unique and impactful work.

Created by the Movement Alliance Project in 2017, People’s Media Record is an archive and repository for community-produced media from Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s art scene is made up of migrants from all over the world and people from all corners of the United States. Likewise, the city is home to talented people with different origins and ideologies. All of these voices need spaces where they can be heard without filtering what they have to say, and People’s Media Record is an ideal space for their voices to be heard on their own terms. 

People’s Media Record compiles audiovisual materials from different sources, with a focus on things that are often lost in traditional media, and stores them within its repository. This serves several purposes: to maintain diverse media materials that typically wouldn’t receive public attention, and to preserve the historical memory of events. Most of People’s Media Record’s resources are available for public use.

cinéSPEAK talked with Winter Rae Schneider, Director of People’s Media Record, to learn about their organization and the impact it has in the cultural landscape of Philadelphia.

cinéSPEAK: What is unique about your organization within the Philadelphia landscape?

People’s Media Record: We are committed to thinking about how the long-term care for community-produced media can facilitate reckoning and repair within our own communities and movements. We are a sponsored project of the Movement Alliance Project, and as such, we believe we carry a responsibility to hold space for accountability and reflection around how the information and impact of radical organizing gets saved and shared, so as to both protect people on the ground and inform what future generations know of our struggles. We are definitely not unique when it comes to our commitment to growing community power through the work we do, but as an archive, we are uniquely positioned to transmute some of the harm baked in to traditional approaches to archiving and preservation because of our embeddedness and commitment to movements for social change, justice, and liberation in Philly. 

cinéSPEAK: What is one thing the general public might not know about your organization?

People’s Media Record: The nucleus of People’s Media Record was created by the Media Mobilizing Project, and MMP’s audiovisual materials make up our core collection. 

cinéSPEAK: Tell us something exciting that is coming up for your organization.

People’s Media Record: We are so excited about two fellowships that we are launching in March 2024. The first is called “Preserving and Archiving Community Media,” funded by the Mellon Foundation, which is for grassroots community media practitioners to develop their skills and build community around the work of preserving and archiving their collections. The second is called “Philly Resistance Histories,” funded by the Independence Public Media Foundation, for younger people to learn skills in research and critical analysis in order to think about how power impacts the ways that resistance movements are documented, preserved, and archived, and how power shapes what we come to understand of their histories. We envisioned these fellowships as part of our goal to help develop a sustainable and collaborative infrastructure around the sharing, critical understanding, and long-term care of Philly’s community media. They also represent a commitment from us to creating spaces for learning and navigating the inherent tension between traditional archival practice and the need to shape, share, and honor our own community stories together. We are currently interviewing applicants, and we can’t wait to be learning, thinking and practicing in their company come March.

cinéSPEAK: What impact do you hope your organization has in the Philadelphia community?

People’s Media Record: We want our work to help build the power and technical capacity for Philly’s communities to save and share their stories on their own terms. 

cinéSPEAK: What are some of the programs or opportunities at your organization that folks can get involved in?

People’s Media Record: We welcome volunteers who want to learn (and teach us!) about archiving, especially digital archiving. Folks can also look out for upcoming announcements for public events associated with the fellowships, and for the Neighborhood Story Nights series. Additionally, if folks have collections of media documenting social movements in Philly and you want to talk about or potentially collaborate on preserving your collection, please reach out to us!

cinéSPEAK: Do you have any details of any upcoming events?

People’s Media Record: Stay tuned for our upcoming Neighborhood Story Nights (August and September), which will bring together archival media, discussion, and connection around histories of resistance in specific neighborhoods in the city. Stay in touch by subscribing to our mailing list! You can subscribe via our website.

*Featured Image: Image of a focus group for the Philadelphia Audiovisual Collections Evaluation (PACE). Image credit: Helyx Horwitz.

Would you like your organization to be featured in a future spotlight? Please fill out the  Philadelphia Organization Spotlight form. The cinéSPEAK Journal maintains sole discretion over  the publishing of any information provided via the form. Questions: journal@cinespeak.org.

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Erick Barragán Ramírez is an immigration specialist at Catholic Social Services of Philadelphia, PA.  In addition to being an avid cinephile he serves as a board member of the Association of Mexican Business Owners of Philadelphia. With a background in law studies in Mexico, he came to the US in 2017 and actively volunteers at various organizations supporting immigrants in Philadelphia, including the Welcoming Center, the Consulate of Mexico, and the online radio Philatinos.