The Trenton Project Documents 50 Years of History
Documentary filmmaking and history combine in The Trenton Project
In April 2018, the city of Trenton will mark the 50th anniversary of violence that followed the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. To examine the civil unrest through two disciplines, documentary film and history, Woodrow Wilson School Documentary Film Specialist Purcell Carson and History Professor Alison Isenberg are leading an initiative called The Trenton Project.
This public humanities collaboration includes their course, URB 202 / HIS 202 / HUM 202 / VIS 200: “Documentary Film and the City,” in which undergraduates make seven- to 10-minute films that together provide a kaleidoscopic perspective on 1960s Trenton, and which is supported by the Community-Based Learning Initiative and the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities. Carson and Isenberg are developing their own half-hour documentary to unveil next fall, and Isenberg is writing a book.
On Monday, April 9, 2018–the 50th anniversary of the shooting of Harlan Joseph–the public is invited to The Trenton Project Remembers April 9, 1968 to view clips from the documentary film, discuss research findings, and participate in this reframing of Trenton’s history. The event is one of a series of conversations, film screenings, and symposia related to the 50th anniversaries of the tumultuous events around the world in 1968 titled 1968/2018 Cities on the Edge, offered this spring by the Princeton-Mellon Initiative in Architecture, Urbanism and the Humanities and the Humanities Council.
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