NY Post opinion piece for 100th Anniversary

Here is a piece I wrote for the New York Post that was published earlier today.

A Letter from Lancaster

Good Morning

The film Boy Scouts of Harlem demonstrates the incredible power of the Boy Scout program to build self-esteem and self reliance in boys. It is an incredibly powerful statement. It also shows the power that Scouting has to compensate for the absence of male role models and how Scouting can have a powerful presence especially in challenging circumstances.

As a Scout and Scouter over the last 56 years I have spent a fair amount of my life tramping around Boy Scout Camps across the United States. Justin and Jake have done an incredible job of communicating a powerful real-life image of the Boy Scout Camp experience. They make it come to life as it really is. They capture the fun, the camaraderie, the challenge and the achievement that are all essential elements of Scouting and the outdoors. This film demonstrates how the three elements of the Boy Scout program, skills, values and leadership, are effectively employed in the process of turning boys into productive and responsible Citizens.

This is must see film particularly in these challenging times. It communicates the power and the hope we need to get America back on track. As I write this Scouting has recently honored the two millionth Eagle Scout, there are 4.6 active Boy Scouts in America and 22.8 million worldwide. More than a million and a half of those Eagles are still alive today. Scouting has made a huge contribution to America and the world and is committed to doing so today and into the future.

Yours in Scouting and Service

Jim Bednarski
Assistant Scoutmaster Troop 99, Lancaster, PA
Author; Scouting for Boys, Centennial Edition

An update from the filmmakers…

If you subscribe to our e-mail list you may have already received this letter. If not you can subscribe here if you are interested. Meanwhile read on…!

On February 8th the Boy Scouts of America turns 100.  By pretty much any measure Scouting has been a big deal–112 million Americans have been members.  Alumni are as diverse as America itself– Steven Spielberg, Mike Bloomberg, Percy Sutton, David Lynch, Bob Gates, Donald Rumsfeld, Marion Barry, Michael Moore, and Gerald Ford are (were) all Eagle Scouts.  For me it was a place to learn how to light a fire, shoot a rifle, build a tower, sail a boat, capsize a canoe, cook up dinner and tie a tourniquet.  It also reinforced a set of ethics that I think are important but don’t get me started on that…

So what are we doing to celebrate?  Tico Perez, the National Scout Commissioner, will ring the bell to open the Stock Market but our party is further uptown.  We will have a special screening of the film at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem on February 8th.  The irrepressible Hellura Lyle, host of the successful Docwatchers series, has sponsored this screening.  The event is free (but a donation for Docwatchers is recommended) and it is first come first served.  Doors open at 7PM and the address is 343 Lenox between 127th and 128th.  We were pleased to learn that Congressman Charlie Rangel–Harlemite, Purple Heart recipient and Chairman of the Ways & Means Committee will join us and say a few words about the Boy Scouts, Harlem and the film.  If you are in New York and can make it to this special screening we’d love to see you.

Next, an item for you guys on our list more interested in filmmaking than the Scouts…

What is the worst part of the job for most filmmakers?  Raising money.  One of the benefits that Jake and I had when we were making “759: Boy Scouts of Harlem” is that, by design, we kept the production costs very low and did most of the work ourselves.  That meant that we didn’t have to raise any money to compete this film.  This brand of ultra-low-budget-do-it-yourself-yet-high-production-quality filmmaking is realtively new.  It has been made possible by dramatic, disruptive changes to filmmaking that have come down the line in the last decade.  Inexpensive, high-quality video cameras–like the Sony Z1U which was used to make our film–have allowed guys like us to pretty much shoot as much HD footage as we’d like.  Final Cut Pro–Apple’s editing software–has democratized professional editing.  Obviously, just because these tools are accessible doesn’t mean they are easy to use and there are loads of poorly shot, poorly edited independent films out there.  But what these changes do mean is that there has never been a time when you could make a film with so little money.  Sundance, this year, instituted a category for no-budget/low-budget films….I have no doubt more and more films will be made this way.  It will allow filmmakers more time to focus on their art because they will spend less time raising money.

Having said that, I am sad to report that I spent the last several months raising money.  Not for us but rather for Maryland Public Television which is the PBS affiliate that decided to pick up the film for broadcast.  Steven Schupak, our contact at MPT and a great guy, told me and Jake how the Public Television world works: “think of how commercial television works and simply turn everything around.”  That means instead of the TV station paying us to run our film, we need to pay the TV station to run our film.  Why is that?  Well, Public Television is a Byzantine Empire–with 354 local member stations each of which manage what is seen on their channel.  Some affiliates are bigger than others–WGBH in Boston, WNET in New York, WETA in DC are the “big three” and produce a lot of the shows you’ve heard of–Sesame Street, Newshour, Nova.  Other affiliates,  are tiny.  Maryland Public Television (MPT) is one of the bigger affiliates–in part because Maryland is such an irregular shape so its broadcast reaches a large geographic area packed with people.  MPT put the ball in our court to raise money to fund their efforts to present “759″ to public television stations.  In practice, what happens is MPT staff charged with “station relations” promotes our shows to the 353 PBS affiliates to get them to pick them up.  This takes time, phone calls and, sometimes, schwag.  The more money we raise for MPT the better job they can do with “station relations” — to make our film stand out in a crowded field–and reach a wider audience.  Sponsors who contribute money are recognized before and after the broadcast (brought to you in part by…etc.).

We tried hard, but raising money for the PBS broadcast didn’t go very well.  We contacted over 250 individuals, corporations and foundations and managed to find only a single, generous donor who will remain anonymous here.  We got through to some of the richest Americans, some of the largest corporations and some of the most famous Eagle Scouts and we were turned down by all of them.  It is too bad…but the good news is that with the modest amount of money we were able to raise MPT has committed to air the film anyway.  They promised to do the best job they can with “station relations” so we are excited.  We are happy to report that the film will be syndicated for broadcast on Public Television Stations in fall of 2010 and we hope your local affiliate decides to pick it up.  If you want to make a tax-deductible donation to this effort (and see your name in the credits on PBS) just drop us a line at justin@harelemscouts.com.

But enough about money–what’s going on with the Scouts from 759?

First, Keith Dozier has had his nose to the grindstone at the KIPP School in Harlem.  He is getting older but he looks as comfortable as ever in front of the camera on this Giro/NBC News report.

Next, Emmanuel Nortey received his first college acceptance letter and expects to receive a few others.  He will be heading off to college next fall.  Nice work!

Devon Howard earned his Eagle Scout.  In a moving ceremony in the basement of Church of the Master, Devon’s Eagle was pinned on his uniform and his parents stood by his side.  He is on scholarship at a boarding school in the wilds of Western Massachusetts and holding his own–despite being surrounded by Red Sox fans.

And finally, Colin “KC” Byers, who many of you know and love, was selected to join a small delegation of Scouts who will give the “Report to the Nation” in Washington in February.  Yep, KC is going to meet Barack Obama.  He will be the fist white Scout from Harlem to meet the first black President in the White House.  How about that?  We will be sure to circulate a photo when we get one…

In other news, we put together a “behind the scenes” video that shows how “Big Scout Grace” the film’s theme, was recorded.  You can see Patrick and Jennifer Byers and Nik Munson playing a wonderful piece of music together here.  You will also catch a glimpse of Roy Coopervasser our bald, talented sound engineer with his own brand of funky-uptown-hip.

Finally, Jake and I would like to thank all of you who have purchased a DVD or helped to spread the word about this film.  If you haven’t yet bought a DVD, so far the film doesn’t seem to be available free on BitTorrent so you might as well just get yourself a copy here.  Also, feel free to forward this message to a friend who might enjoy it or join our group on Facebook if you haven’t already.  We can’t do it without you guys and we appreciate your support.

Thanks & Be Prepared!

Justin Szlasa
producer/co-director/editor
justin@harlemscouts.com
917 355 9895

759 coverage on the web

Harlem+Bespoke

Harlem Condo-Life

Harlem Condo-Life Review

Harlem One Stop

Studio Recording-Big Scout Grace

Here’s a new behind the scenes video shot when the theme for our film was recorded at City College in Harlem.

Scouts & Johns Hopkins

Jake and I will be speaking today on a panel hosted by Johns Hopkins and Motion Picture Enterprises here in Manhattan.  We will be speaking to mostly undergrads and recent grads who are looking to get into the entertainment industry in one form or another.  There are many notable Hopkins alumni who are superstars in the business (and who would be much better suited for today’s panel discussion)–including Walter Murch, Jeffrey Blitz, Wes Craven and many others.  Neal R. Pilzer, who founded Motion Picture Enterprises and is the publisher of the ubiquitous yellow Motion Picture TV and Theatre Directory is also an alum.

But our film is about Boy Scouts and both Jake and I have been amazed at the number of connections between Boy Scouts and Hopkins.  These include:

• Mike Bloomberg, Distinguished Eagle Scout, alum, and Mayor of the greatest city on earth
• Dr. Peter Agre, Distinguished Eagle Scout, Nobel Laureate and head of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute
• As a graduate student at JHU in 1978, Carolyn Ditte Wagner wrote a thesis titled The Boy Scouts of America : a model and mirror of American society This thesis is one of the most often cited works by serious authors writing about the Boy Scouts.
• In February, 2008 Homewood campus hosted an academic event that drew scholars from around the world called Scouting: A Centennial History Symposium at Johns Hopkins. Ron Walters, a professor I studied with, gave the welcome address and the conference was organized in part by Nelson Block, an alumni and author of a biography of the founder of the Order of the Arrow called A Thing of the Spirit: The Life of E. Urner Goodman and Scouting Frontiers: Youth and Scout Movements First Century.

Obviously there are tons of other connections between Hopkins and Scouting but I find these particularly interesting.

Camp Pouch to be sold?

The Greater New York Councils are serviced by three Scout Camps–Camp Alpine, which is right across the Hudson river in New Jersey, Ten Mile River Scout Camps–which is where our film was shot and the home of Camp Keowa–and Camp Pouch which is located on Staten Island. Staten Island has a great Scouting history and, on a per-capita basis, is probably the NYC borough with the strongest traditional Scouting program.  The TMR Museum, by the way, does an excellent job of documenting NYC Scouting history.

The New York City Boy Scouts have been hit dramatically by the economic crisis over the last few years. One option on the table to deal with the Council’s financial problems is to extract some money from Camp Pouch–by selling the camp outright our selling rights related to development of the property. I think everyone–including Staten Islanders, volunteers and the NYC Scouting professionals–would be very sorry to see Camp Pouch close. A dynamic group of community activists have rallied to save the camp and set up a website here and a Facebook page here.  As of this morning the Facebook page had 6,246 members which I find remarkable.

In my view the best long-term solution to the problems faced by the NYC Councils is to recruit more Scouts and volunteers–to fill up the camps with kids from the city who wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to experience what Scout Camp has to offer.  I also recently heard an innovative idea to boost camp attendance from a long time Staten Island Scouter.  It is possible to get from Camp Pouch to Manhattan by public transport (the trip includes the Staten Island Ferry, of course).  Why not market the camp as a destination for Troops around the country to come and camp for a few days in a beautiful spot–and visit the greatest city in the world?

759 in Johns Hopkins Magazine

Jake and I both were lucky enough to attend Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.  I studied International Relations, Jake studied in the Writing Seminars department.  Hopkins is also the alma mater of some famous Eagle Scouts–including Mike Bloomberg the Mayor of our Fair City and Dr. Peter Agre a Nobel Prize winning scientist and the father of two Eagle Scouts.  It was a special honor to screen our film at Hopkins and also get this write up in the Winter edition of Johns Hopkins magazine.

Senator Jeff Sessions on the film

“We must work hard and do all we can to promote scouting and its continued growth amongst our young people.  I think that films like this one will go a long way in helping to achieve that goal.”  – Senator Jeff Sessions

759 goes to Capitol Hill

We would like to thank our Sponsors Sentator E. Benjamin Nelson and Senator Jeff Sessions for a fantastic celebration of Scouting on Capitol Hill last week with the screening of 759 in the Congressional Auditorium.  We also would like to thank Al Lambert and Dan Ross and everyone else at the National Capital Area Council for making the event a success.  Willie Iles Jr. from the National Office and Ron Timmons and Brian Gorman from the Greater New York Councils also played important roles and gave tremendous support.

We thought you would enjoy some photos of 759 on the Hill…