Kids' movie documents East Atlanta

By JILL YOUNG MILLER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/17/04

In East Atlanta, a black barber puts a sign in his window showing pictures of white men's heads with various haircuts, hoping to attract new customers.

Nearby, a businessman has converted his grocery store into an antiques shop, vexing those who liked the convenience of buying milk and bread close to home.

Meanwhile, residents black and white worry about rising housing prices and property taxes as gentrification continues in their intown neighborhood.

To tell the story of their changing community, more than 20 East Atlanta children banded together to make a documentary, "East Atlanta: Goin' Through Some Changes."

The film recently was chosen as a finalist in the International Youth Media Festival in San Francisco.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, "East Atlanta" will have its Atlanta premiere at the Earl, 488 Flat Shoals Ave. Ticket price is a $10 donation.

The event is a fund-raiser for the East Atlanta Kids Club, which produced the 30-minute film exploring the neighborhood's history and ongoing changes. The club is a nonprofit mentoring and enrichment program for at-risk children.

The idea for "East Atlanta" grew out of an earlier Kids Club project in which each child got an instant camera and walked around the neighborhood taking pictures.

"They came back with some really cool images," said Jill Sieder, executive director of the Kids Club.

Many of those images were published in a calendar, and many of the conversations the children had with the people they photographed stuck in their minds.

The club received a $5,000 grant from the Salesforce.com Foundation to make the film.

In it, the children interview residents, business owners and community leaders, including Atlanta City Councilwoman Natalyn Mosby Archibong.

Darryl Davis, 15, interviewed his grandmother, Ella Mae Sullivan, on her porch.

"My grandmother, she had a neighbor that had to move out because people got new houses built across the street, so that made the taxes go high, so they had to move," Darryl said last week at the recreation center in Brownwood Park, where the Kids Club meets Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Darryl and four other members of the club who worked especially hard on the project were flown to San Francisco in September for the youth media festival, sponsored by the Salesforce.com Foundation. Sieder and Kevin Banks, the Kids Club's program director, accompanied them.

It was the first time any of the children had flown on an airplane.

"We were screaming!" said Keionna Williams, 11.

They spent six days in San Francisco, at the festival and on field trips. They met other child filmmakers from throughout the world, including Japan, Germany, Ireland, England and Israel. They walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. They went to Chinatown. They rode in a limousine.

"They were treated like little queens and kings," Sieder said.

Ultimately, there is no place like home, though, and the children are excited about their upcoming big night at the Earl, when many of their family members will see the film for the first time. The children also have invited "all different people from the community," Sieder said. "Black, white, old, young, old-timers, newcomers. I think they're really going to be impressed."