Contact Us:
scrubbrush@scrubbrushproductions.com
The Reconnect NOLA National Night Out Party on October 6th was a huge success. The event won the Large Audience contest & featured great events & speakers, including DJ Wild Wayne, Kevin Griffen of 2 Cent TV, & Mayor Landrieu. We showed 20 minutes of selected scenes from the film, & got a huge response. Thanks to everyone who came out & participated. The food was great, the music was awesome, & a great time was had by all.
Thanks to everyone who came out to Mayor Landrieu's Save Our Sons Crime Summit on September 17. The Event was the kickoff to the city's repsonse to the violence in New Orleans being perpetuated by our youth every day. The summit featured an extended 7 minute trailer for Shell Shocked, which you can see HERE. We would also like to thank Mayor Landrieu for his Letter Of Support for our documentary.
Our Kickstarter Campagin has come to a close & we reached our goal of $20,000! Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts to all those who gave generously to support this project. The money will be put to use immediately, by helping with the editing, music, sound-mixing, & more. Again, we truly thank all those who helped us reach our goal. We hope that they will feel rewarded by the finished project, & the knowledge that their support is going to help break the cycle of violence that ends so many young lives needlessly.
Thank you to Alexandyr Kent & Red River Radio for having director John Richie on his program "The Big Picture" to discuss the documentary. Click the Play button below to listen to the interview.
The Huffington Post has published an article about our documentary, written by James Perry, Exectutive Director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. Click HERE to read the article.
We've launched our new KICKSTARTER campaign to help secure funding to finish the documentary. We're currently in the post-production stage, & we need your help to finish this film. Click HERE to visit kickstarter, where you can learn more about the campaign & make a much needed & much appreciated donation!
Bravo Girl!, the number one teen magazine in Germany, has done a 2 page cover story on our documentary. Click HERE to download a copy of the article.
"Murder Through The Eyes of a Child" has always been a working title for the documentary, & after two years we've finally thought of a title that better conveys the meaning & message of the film. Our new title came from one of the teenagers in our program, Josh Studyviant. So... without further ado.. the new title is: "Shell Shocked: The New Orleans Youth Story." The title conveys the feelings of post-traumatic stress, gun violence, numbness & apathy, & the war zone that these kids live in every day. So let us know what you think. Questions, comments, suggestions: email us HERE.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the fundraiser last night at The Building Block on St. Phillip. We all had a great time. The outreach and amount of donations we received are a huge step in reaching our goal. We would like to give a special thanks to Linda Novak of The Building Block for your help coordinating the event, the space, and also for providing beverages from Pals. Thank you to Camelot Club, Whole Foods, and Zea's for providing such a delicious spread.
Also, thank you Dr. Osiris and Pamela Marquis for vocalizing the importance of this project, we are honored to have your support. Thanks to Kristin Diable and Casey Mcallister, your performance was a great addition to the night. Nobody likes a quiet party. Thanks to all of the photographers who lent their behind-the-scenes photographs for display. And finally, Thank you Judge Calvin Johnson and the members of The Kiwanis Club for coming out.
The new trailer is on the website. Please spread the word about this site. With enough enthusiasm and awareness, we can get this important message to everyone.
Come out this Saturday, September 11, to the Antenna Gallery at 3161 Burgundy for a Photo Exhibit inspired by the documentary. The exhibit will feature photos by local photographers Deborah Luster, Amanda Clifford, Jarrid Clinkenbeard, Michelle Kowalski, & Jason Prowell. A portion of the proceeds will go to funding the completion of the film. Please come out & check out some amazing photographs by local artists & help support the documentary! Check it out at Press-Street.com
We've added a new short clip conncerning the cycle of violence. Click here to check it out.
We've been locked away for weeks in an editing suite pouring over hundreds of hours of footage. Look for some select scenes coming soon.
Thanks to everyone who generously pledged their support during our Kickstarter Pledge Drive! Every little bit helps & it's never to late to support our cause. You can make a donation to our Paypal account at any time if you're interested in making a difference!
We've got some new items up for bid on Ebay. We're auctioning off gift certificates to several local restaurants, among other things. Check it out & make a bid before its too late
check out our recent article in New Orleans Magazine by Ian McNulty
Our students have completed their next round of projects & they all came out great! Click here to check out a few of them...
click here to read the March edition of our monthly newsletter to find out what we've been up to lately...
click here to read our newsleter to see what's new with our doc...
We've been getting a lot of ink in the press lately regarding the documentary. In addition to some upcoming articles in The Gambit & New Orleans Magazine, check out some of the news about us in The Trumpet (page 27: Power Your Passion), Humid Beings, & Film Industry Network
We are in the middle of a 90 day pledge drive to raise $7000 to keep this project alive. All pledges will receive a gift, ranging from DVD copies of the film up to a producer's credit in the documentary itself. Please help us & help the community!
Thanks to everyone who came out to both our fundraisers! A good time was had by all & we really appreciate everyone who came out & generously donated to the cause.
Happy New Year! We'll be ringing in 2010 with our second fundraiser. If you missed the first one, or made the first one & want to come back for more fun, meet us at the Mother-in-Law Lounge on Saturday, Jan 9 at 8pm. We'll have a raffle, food, & the world premiere screening of "The Letter" starring Rodney Beals. Donations at the door.
Our first fundraiser will be held at One Eyed Jacks on Dec 13, 9pm-2am, $15 at the door. Come out & enjoy some good food, music, & booze... all while helping us make our project a reality. See you there...
Our group of teenagers has just completed the first round of their documentary assignments. The project was "Who Am I?" All our kids did fantastic jobs with their first attempt at developing an idea, shooting footage, conducting interviews, & editing the piece. Click here to watch a brief compilation of their projects.
Scrub Brush Productions will soon be hosting not one, but two fundraisers to raise money for our cause. The first will be on December 13th at One Eyed Jacks. The second will be on January 9th at the Mother-in-Law Lounge. More details coming soon! Come on out & help us in any way you can!
The Times-Picayune ran an article about Scrub Brush Productions partnering with former New Orleans' FBI Director James Bernazzani & his non-profit group, The Youth Rescue Initiative. Click here to read the article.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana is the murder capital of the United States. For the last decade, statistics have shown murder rates four to six times higher than the national average. Eighty percent of the victims are black males, mostly in their teenage years. This is the city’s greatest neglected crisis with profound implications for the issues of violence and crime most American cities face. New Orleans government, law enforcement, community leaders, and well-intentioned citizens cannot agree on a prognosis or a solution to this situation. Wherever a disagreement is escalating into violence, an execution is being planned, or a victim is taking his last breath, it is more than likely a youth is witnessing or carrying out these actions.
SHELL SHOCKED: THE NEW ORLEANS YOUTH STORY attempts to bridge the gap of this disconnect by hearing the ideas, opinions, and testimonies from activists, community leaders, police, city officials, youth program directors, family and friends of victims, and the children who live in these violent circumstances. We are looking for positive solutions to an extremely negative situation.
CLICK ON any of the links below to read some articles in the press about the film:
THE FILMMAKERS chose seven teenagers from at-risk neighborhoods all across New Orleans to take part in a year-long documentary program. They were taught camera techniques, lighting, sound, editing, and story telling. Throughout the year, the group completed three individual assignments by writing, shooting, and editing their own short films. The student's films will be included with the release of the full-length documentary Shell Shocked: The New Orleans Youth Story. In addition, the teens in the program were interviewed about their lives, families, neighborhoods, and the hardships of growing up in high-crime areas of New Orleans.
In addition to distributing the film through standard channels such as theaters, television, and film festivals, the film will be used as part of an ongoing process designed to raise money and awareness for existing, established, and effective anti-crime and violence youth programs.
JOHN RICHIE (Executive Producer, Writer, Director) began his film career after graduating with a degree in Drama/Communications in 2003 from the University of New Orleans. Over the past eight years he has worked his way up through the camera department on dozens of large-budget films, commercials, and television shows. In 2007 he began his own production company, Scrub Brush Productions, producing many music videos and short narrative and documentary films. Over the following four years, the focus of John’s production company has increasingly turned to social issues & the youth of New Orleans. He has devoted himself to educating impoverished young adults in the art of filmmaking. He has volunteered his time at high schools & youth centers, helping give these teens a creative outlet & viable skill set for their futures. John began work on Shell Shocked: The New Orleans Youth Story in 2008 when, while volunteering at a local high school, he heard firsthand accounts of these young children living with violence & murder on a day-to-day basis. His devotion & dedication to helping this situation has led him to self-finance the documentary for the past three years.
JONATHAN JAHNKE (Producer) After studying film at the University of New Orleans, Jonathan spent a year in Japan teaching English as a Second Language. Upon his return in 2005, he began working a variety of crew positions for film and television. Mainly focusing on art department positions & behind-the-scenes documentation, he then branched out with Director John Richie to form Scrub Brush Productions, an independent company focusing mainly on music videos & commercials. Along with John, Jonathan has spent most of the last four years leaning increasingly towards educating young adults in filmmaking techniques. He has taught filmmaking and claymation classes to kids ranging from ages 5 to 19. Since 2008 Jonathan has devoted his time & energy to all aspects of production of Shell Shocked: The New Orleans Youth Story, trying to ensure that the children growing up in poor, violent neighborhoods can have a better future.
REBECCA SNEDEKER (Consulting Producer) is an Emmy Award-Winning independent documentary filmmaker whose work supports human rights, creative expression and her native city, New Orleans. She is currently working with writer Rebecca Solnit on a collaborative atlas project, Infinite City: A New Orleans Atlas. In film, her directorial debut, By Invitation Only (2006), premiered at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and screened at festivals, conferences and PBS stations nationwide. More recently, she won an Emmy for Siskel/Jacobs Productions' Witness: Katrina (National Geographic Channel, 2010). She has also served as producer for Land of Opportunity (ARTE France, 2010), and Choices, featuring Terence Blanchard and Dr. Cornel West (Six webisodes for Concord Records, 2009). As Archival Researcher and/or Associate Producer, she has contributed to numerous documentaries, including A Village Called Versailles (Independent Lens, 2010), Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans (National PBS Broadcast, 2007), and Desire: The Teenage Girls Documentary Project (Free Speech TV, 2007). Snedeker serves on the board of Video Veracity, a fiscal agent for independent media projects, and is an active member of New Day Films, the 40-year-old filmmaker-owned distribution company. Formerly, she served on the boards of the New Orleans Film Society and Patois: the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival.
JERALD L. WHITE (Associate Producer) Before joining the world of filmmaking, Jerald worked as a grassroots activist, attorney and environmental policymaker in New Orleans and Washington D.C. He earned a BA and JD from Indiana University, and a MA in Media Ecology, Communications & Film from New York University. Jerald is the owner of Bottletree Productions, a small New Orleans based video production company and the founder of the Charitable Film Network, a collaborative of media-makers dedicated to public service.
BRENT JOSEPH (Editor) New Orleans native Brent Joseph has worked on both documentaries and fictional films for over ten years. He co-edited MTV's True Life: I'm Living in Iraq, which won the 2005 Edward R. Murrow award for Best TV Network News Documentary, and served as main editor on the film Five Time Champion, which premiered at SXSWin 2011. As an assistant editor, Joseph worked on Larry Clark's Bully and David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Brent has also been at the helm of many short films. He directed two short documentaries about Hurricane Katrina which screened and won awards at over two dozen film festivals from Los Angeles to Paris. A Loud Color was featured on NPR and streamed on IFC's website. It is distributed on a short film compilation DVD by Media That Matters. Holdout was included on the Best of Slamdance 2008 DVD and is distributed on another short film compilation DVD by IndiePix Films.
RALPH MADISON (Camera/Steadycam Operator) a 25 year veteran of the entertainment industry, Ralph is an Emmy Award-Winning Documentarian, Editor, Camera/Steadycam Operator, Director, & Producer. He has worked with CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, BBC, CMT, TLC, Comedy Central, & National Geographic among others, as well as on many music videos & feature films. In 2000 Ralph won an Emmy for "A Grave Injustice" a documentary he produced, directed, shot, & edited. He has also won the New Orleans Press Club Documentary award that year, as well as for "50 Golden Years" in 1999.
JOSHUA STUDYVIANT is a sixteen year old student at Gentilly High School who was born and raised in New Orleans. Friendly, yet analytical, he enjoys conversing with new people and learning from every new experience and person that he comes across. He aspires to study engineering after graduating high school, while keeping his passions of painting and filmmaking alive. Naturally intelligent, he describes himself as respectful, humble, and goofy. His interests include football, always pulling for the Chargers, and hip hop music. Jamaica, France, Italy, and Japan are the places he most wants to visit after college, and hopes to someday live in Paris with a wife and children.
CC DAVIS is a sixteen year old president of the student body at George Washington Carver High School in New Orleans. The baby of three brothers and three sisters, she has been born and raised in the Gentilly neighborhood. She has been volunteering throughout her life and loves any chance to learn or experience new things. Empathetic and altruistic by nature, comforting and helping people is ingrained in her personality, and her self confidence helps her achieve all of the goals she lays out for herself. In her spare time she plays softball, takes pictures, writes, draws, and sings in her church choir.
MATTHEW GRAY is a senior at Joseph Clark High School, who ives in the Mid City area of New Orleans. An active member of his high school, he is a starter on the varsity basketball team, a member of the first place debate team, and has achieved the rank of second lieutenant of the R.O.T.C. His interest in social and political issues led him to co-found the Young Democrats of America chapter at his high school. Funny, confident and always ready with a smile, Matt has been making short vignettes, many of them comedic, about his neighborhood for the last year. With this project he will get the chance to take his skills to the next level. After high school he plans to study law and politics, and wants someday to enact change on the national level as a United States Congressman.
DAYLIN BOLDING is a junior in high school who hails from the Mid-City area. He aspires to attend college after high school, and hopes someday to produce music. His passion for music includes hip hop performance and playing the drums. Naturally observant and analytical he is sometimes mistaken for being overly shy. However his intelligence and keen nature make him always ready with an insightful opinion or reflection on a topic. He has an instinctive understanding of camera work and photography, and knowing when to roll the camera to capture the moment. He has been interested in filmmaking from a young age, and jumped at the chance to take part in this project.
IMANI SIMS is a freshmen at Thurgood Marshall Early College High School who lives in the St. Roch area of New Orleans. Naturally eloquent, creative, and intelligent, writing poetry and hip hop lyrics are two of her primary interests. She also sings in the choir at her church, and she performs her own music. She is outspoken and opinionated and always ready with a smirk and a laugh in any situation. In three words she would describe herself as confident, silly, and talkative. She’s already looking forward to attending college and then moving on to graduate school.
Having trouble watching the videos? Try watching them on YOUTUBE or VIMEO
AFTER NEARLY three years of production, the film is finally entering the editing stages, but we still need your support to raise funding for editing, sound mixing, music, distribution, and more. If you'd like to make a much-needed and much-appreciated Tax Deductible Donation, contact us at: scrubbrush@scrubbrushproductions.com or simply click on the PayPal Donate Button below.
IF YOU'D like to know more about the programs highlighted in the film and how you can help them continue to truly make a difference in the community and in the lives of children who need it most, please contact us. Click on the links below to view some of the film's Letters of Support from various Community Leaders.
THANKS to all our sponsors & to the individuals who have graceously donated their time and financial support to our cause. To see the full list of our sponsors, click HERE (if your name is mispelled or not on the list, please let us know)
