Hi all. Mr. Lee here. Following my last post about about potential changes for Merrick Blvd going forward, throughout the past few weeks students have been learning about how Laurelton has changed since the 1970’s. You readers may already know that the population of Laurelton in 1970 was somewhere between 65-85% people of European descent. The remaining 15-35% were largely Blacks/African Americans. The population today, due largely to nefarious practices by real estate brokers in the ’70s, is somewhere near 90% Black/African American. The demographic change is often recognized as the result of resegregation, the efforts to segregate already well integrated areas in periods after the civil rights movement. The photographic and digital media classes have been learning about this topic and documentary filmmaking by analyzing the film “Rosedale – The Way It Is”. The film is a vivid document of neighboring town Rosedale during the ’70s when the first black families moved into the area while facing racial discrimination. Parts of it are certainly problematic, but I highly recommend watching it if you are interested in the history of South Queens.

As an exercise, students were assigned clips from the interview to summarize. Students then adapted and recorded their own prepared interviews based on the clips. Some students played the role of interviewee and interviewer, while other students handled the camera. Through interactive assignments such as these, students will continue to learn about documentary filmmaking as well as the area that they live in.

Below is a link to the documentary as well as a sample of some of the students’ classwork.