Project Summary
Reveal the Real is a three-year project that engages young people’s imagination as they combine media production and in-depth research techniques to create a documentary that captures their compelling exploration of Brooklyn’s history.
Brooklyn is unique to America. Its rich historic threads are tied to major national events that helped shape our country. Every day Brooklynites walk on streets that, unbeknownst to them, reflect extraordinary movements and meaningful occurrences; a secondary glance at a familiar store front or mundane parking lot and asking, “What was there before?” might unveil more than meets the eye!
Reveal the Real exposes these underlying histories through a series of “mystery” challenges that lead students to Brooklyn’s cultural institutions, interviews with historic scholars, and hands-on exploration of artifacts and resources that reflect the stories of our early ancestors.
Simultaneously, the students learn the technical aspects of documentary production, including interview methodology, the effectiveness of camera angles and story composition, from the Brooklyn Center for Media Education and professional producers. Using these skills, they document the progress made as they uncover clues that will ultimately solve their history mystery.
The result of their efforts is a half-hour documentary special that is distributed to local schools and broadcast to our Brooklyn audience—encouraging all to become history sleuths and uncover the hidden mysteries of their neighborhoods.