Take two!

Peabody Essex Museum recruited nine local students to produce the short video What's the Point? The Hope of a Growing Community. The video offers a poignant look at the Point neighborhood of Salem, an area that's home to a large Spanish-Caribbean population. Frequently misunderstood, the Point suffers from an unfounded reputation for crime and violence.

Through the camera lens, however, the students viewed their streets in a strikingly different light. Frame by frame, they lifted negative misconceptions, presenting instead a community with deep roots and a proud heart. Casting the neighborhood and its residents as stars of the video brought the community closer to PEM and its collections. It also brought the interns closer to their culture. "Every time we screened the documentary, the interns had huge smiles on their faces," says Omayra Feliz, a college intern who led the team. "They were proud to have made the video and learned so much about their culture. It made the audience want to know more about their own culture."

Creating the video got the students comfortable with cutting-edge audio-visual equipment and introduced them to exciting fi lmmaking and editing techniques. Students also sharpened their journalistic skills, practicing interviewing techniques on each other in an actual television studio. Funded by ECHO, initiatives like What's the Point? help young people from diverse backgrounds make connections between themselves and the world by fostering creative job and leadership skills. Students emerge prepared for exciting careers in New England's rapidly growing culture industry and beyond.