• Princeton University
• Reading Is Fundamental
• Refugees International

Learn more about our training options here.

Artifact’s participation was also featured in Innovation Philadelphia’s newsletter about the event.

About the Panel : Beyond urban planning theories and speculation about what happens to the manufacturing class when factories close, or to the artists who pioneer our post-industrial communities, the film is a real-world, real-time example of an ongoing creative economy transformation, documented on film, and presented with a live discussion by the film’s participants. The View From Amber Street provides a unique perspective on this history in the making, made by, with and about the people who it affects directly, and focusing on the intricate relationship between industrial and creative production.

Visit the film’s website to learn more.

Producer Julie Goldstein frames I Am Adopted with her own personal experience – a reunion with her birthmother – which evolved while she attended the Adoptee Rights Demonstration in Philadelphia in 2009. Adoption has been a subject of social interest for years – national debates about non-traditional families, and reproductive rights have all touched on this difficult issue. In all the discussion, however, the experience of the adult adoptee is rarely heard or acknowledged. Aside from the emotional and psychological dimensions of the adoptee’s experience, there is also a legal aspect, as adult adoptees are, in most states, including Pennsylvania, being kept from accessing their own birth records. The laws that prevent them from doing so are a legacy of a social climate that stigmatized infertility, out-of-wedlock birth, and adoption. This documentary brings to light the experiences of adoptees whose life experiences, as part of the adoption triad (adoptee, birthmother, adoptive parents), are not always socially recognized.

Mothers In Charge is a community advocacy and support organization for families affected by violence. Something In Common is a documentary that profiles the women that make up the organization, most of whom have lost a child or other close family member to violence.  This group of strong, inspired women labors every day to reach out and make a difference in our community, transforming their personal tragedy into lasting social change.  Urban violence will have a ripple effect on families and throughout our communities for years to come, and Mothers In Charge is a leading grassroots community response to this violence.  This film brings to life the very often untold, very human stories that shape this ongoing social tragedy, where violent crimes are more than statistics.

Unschooling is a thoughtful, intriguing conversation with Bob Kay, Philadelphia psychiatrist and education advocate, about the human capacity and desire to learn, the history and limitations of the school system, and how we might better educate and inspire the next generation.

Say It Out Loud

A film by Artifact Pictures
2004 · 7 minutes

At the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, people gather for the third annual Senior Poetry Slam.

The film  was produced at Artifact by Lisa Fisher, Julie Goldstein, and Erika Mijlin.

The View from Amber Street

The continuation of our documentary from 2006 on the life and times of a pair of industrial buildings in Philadelphia – their history, the neighborhood they inhabit, and the unique balance of manufacturers and artists who are its tenants, past and present. During the course of making the first film, the buildings were sold, raising questions about the building’s future as an integrated center for art and industry. Now two years after the transfer of ownership, some of the oldest manufacturing tenants have closed, but new tenants have arrived, primarily belonging to the ‘creative economy’. At the crossroads of both gentrification and globalization, the Amber Street buildings are representative of a neighborhood, a city, and a national economy in transition

Virtual Memory

As we approach the end of analog television in 2009, and enter a new era in the evolution of digital media, our experience of images and information becomes increasingly intangible. One part history and one part poetry, Virtual Memory is a meditation on the essence of mechanical image-making and its impact on human consciousness, from the physical process of photography and film, to the alternate universe created by computers and virtual reality. Using a compilation of found material, the film bids a kind of fond farewell to the 20th century.

Artifact had a very dynamic, eventful year in 2008 – here are a few highlights…

In 2008, Artifact :

• COMPLETED two new documentaries

[The View From Amber Street and Virtual Memory]

• INITIATED a curated film program

[The Virtual Memory Project]

• PRODUCED AND DIRECTED an original play

[Feldman and the Infinite]

• RECEIVED A GRANT for our original animation project, When I Was 10

[Art & Change Grant, Leeway Foundation]

In addition, we are currently developing projects with a variety of different producers, including documentary work with Mothers In Charge, and animation and documentary projects for ‘Music Is Our Oil’.

Also on the horizon :

• a new division for personal event videos [Profiles of Great Lives], AND
• a newly invigorated set of training offerings, including one-on-one training and small group workshops on a variety of production and animation topics – learn more here.

Stay tuned !

Hope you have a creative, productive new year !