Location:

Trenton Circus Squad Building
635 South Clinton Avenue
Trenton, NJ

Date and Time:

Tuesday, September 27, 2022
6:30pm

About:

The Trenton Project is pleased to showcase student documentary films about Trenton in the 1940s through the 1960s.

Part I: "What's In a Name?"

In the summer of 2022, six student filmmakers produced a film about Janet Wide Awake, a play produced by Passage Theatre at Hedgepeth-Williams Middle School. The play looks at the desegregation of the Trenton junior high schools in the 1940s and was co-written and performed by students at the school. The documentary goes behind the scenes to shows how students, historians, teachers, playwrights and performers came together to think about this moment in the history of the Trenton schools and, more broadly, about equal access to educational opportunity today. Graduate students Laura Nelson and Maia Silber were the historians in the classroom and on the stage set, working with Alison Isenberg (Princeton University), Rob McGreevy (College of New Jersey), and A. J. Boyd (Rutgers University).

Part II: Microdocumentaries from HIS 202: "The Sixties: Documentary, Youth, and the City"

In Spring 2022, students in the new history seminar (HIS 202) "The Sixties: Documentary, Youth and the City”, created microdocumentaries about young Trentonians in the 1960s—based on primary source research and interviews with community elders today—and their participation in a tumultuous era. The course was co-taught by history professor Alison Isenberg and SPIA professor and filmmaker Purcell Carson.

These films will be available online at The Trenton Project in late fall 2022. But first, you are cordially invited to join us for the live, in-person premiere and discussion to celebrate the excellent work produced by our students.

Free and open to the public.

The Trenton Project

Now in its ninth year, The Trenton Project is a collaborative documentary investigation. Working in partnership with city residents and community partners, we research and produce short films, offering a kaleidoscopic lens on the challenges Trenton faces, its ambitions for the future, and the many ways Trentonians are working together to weave and enhance the fabric of their city.