First Person Arts

Kids say the darndest things; but more often than not, those things are decidedly perceptive. Just ask Zoe Greenberg, a 16-year-old student at Philadelphia’s Springside School, whose 11-minute documentary “Enough” features real students discussing and describing real social issues, like wealth, poverty, and class. Conceived and created as part of Greenberg’s bat mitzvah project, the documentary asks scores of students—black and white, rich and poor, male and female—questions like “What is poverty?” and “Why are people poor?” For her efforts, the high school junior was awarded the second-annual Princeton Prize for Race Relations. While the doc was screened this weekend during the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival’s Annual New Filmmakers Weekend, you can order a copy by visiting the film’s website.

Elsewhere: Philadelphia native Joe Barber will premiere his documentary, Electile Dysfunction, at the 17th annual Philadelphia Film Festival (which begins April 3 and runs through April 15). The film—which features interviews with senators Barack Obama and Arlen Specter as well as former vice-president Al Gore—focuses on how political candidates are commoditized and “sold” to voters. The doc screens on Wednesday, April 9, at the Prince Music Theatre.

Also at the Philly Film Festival: Temple University faculty member Eugene Martin trains his lens on two students from inner-city Philadelphia schools in the Bloodlines Video Diary Project. Following each student through a entire academic year at their respective high school, Martin—who also provided his two student-subjects with cameras to document the moments when the professor’s own film crew couldn’t be with them—weaves a “moving record”—albeit with a surprisingly “poetic aspect”—of twenty-first century life in Philadelphia’s urban core. The film debuts at the International House on April 5 with an additional screening on April 12 at the Black Box at the Prince.