TheTandD.com | Emmy is latest honor for Claflin graduate's film

Emmy is latest honor for Claflin graduate's film

By RODNEY BROWN,T&D Correspondent Monday, April 13, 2009

Former Claflin University student Daniel Howard has won a New York Emmy Award for Excellence in Teen Programming for the documentary "Bullets In The Hood."

The film investigates and chronicles the 2004 death of neighborhood friend Timothy Stansbury.

Timothy, 18 years old at the time of his death, was unarmed when shot and killed by a New York City police officer on the rooftop of a Bedford Stuyvesant housing project in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The documentary was designed to give a "voice" to the family, friends and supporters of Timothy through in-depth reporting and emotionally charged interviews that are filmed in the homes, streets and courtrooms of Brooklyn, Howard said.

"When my friend Timothy got killed, I wanted to give people who society has forgotten a voice," Howard said. "I felt I had no voice growing up in the housing projects. Now I was in a position to change that."

Bullets in the Hood was the only nominee of the five finalists in the "teen programming" category directed by youth filmmakers, winning over entries by MSG, News 12 and WABC. Howard produced the 22-minute film in conjunction with Terrence Fisher.

The filmmakers accepted the award March 29 at a gala awards ceremony in Midtown Manhattan.

Bullets in the Hood has won previous honors, including being featured at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize in Short Filmmaking.

It is not Howard's only successful work.

His first documentary was about his experience growing up in Bedford Stuyvesant. He won a Student Emmy (National Student Television Award of Excellence) for the biographical film, "State of Mind: Living in the Projects." Also, he earned an honorable mention in the Student Emmys for "Jai-Yen: Cool Heart," a film on his experiences during an international reporting assignment in Laos.

"My experiences growing up were a lot like most young blacks who live in Orangeburg today," Howard said. "My environment consisted of crime, drugs, gangs and governmental neglect."

Howard credits his mother for being a good role model.

"My mom encouraged me almost every day to stay focused in school," he said, "so when opportunities are available, I would be able to take advantage of them."

Howard's adherence to his mother's advice served him well when she came home from work and told him about PRO-TV, the Downtown Community Television Center that gives professional training in film and television production to inner-city youth.

"I was lucky to find PRO-TV and also be in a position to take advantage of it," he said. "A lot of teenagers in my neighborhood fall victim to the streets, where they start peddling drugs or join a gang only to soon find their end in prison or a funeral home."

In 2004, Howard was accepted at Claflin, where he majored in TV and sound production before graduating in 2008. At Claflin, he earned the Emma Bowen Foundation four-year scholarship.

Howard is exploring future projects, including a documentary about "Greek Life" among college fraternities and sororities and a short film investigating the lives of youths growing up in Orangeburg.

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T&D Correspondent Rodney Brown is a student in the Mass Communications Department at Claflin University. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com.

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14 comment(s)

The following comments are reader submitted. They do not represent the views of The T&D or Lee Enterprises.

real talk wrote on Apr 21, 2009 7:22 AM:

" CAN'T WE "ALL" GET ALONG, the only point I want to make and been trying to make is somebody has to make sure these kids are educated, and that means everyone together- black, white, red, and the government has a job to do and that job "is" as responsible adults---- to do what "we" can and the best "we" can as a "collective whole." It's not only the right thing to do but if "we" profess to follow the religion of Christianity is the godly thing to do, "

ANNUAL wrote on Apr 20, 2009 9:04 AM:

" real talk your the kind of person that spills milk in the kitchen and runs around in a panic trying to figure out who is going to clean it up. You blame the govt because they should have made a spill proof cup, blame the milk bottle because there should have been warning lables, call it racist because the paper towels that you refused to use were made from cotton. Its 2009 its time to stop the blame game. Since your saying that the school system is racist then how do we have a black president. Is it that maybe he and hundreds of thousands of others applied themselves and wanted to learn or had parents, grandparnets or whomever at home to put a foot in there butts if they did not. "

crusty wrote on Apr 17, 2009 11:47 PM:

" Fair enough, "real talk". Just a few questions. Would your grandfather, whom you propose was educated in "an old shack in the woods", approve of the facilities in Orangeburg? Would he say they are adequate to do the job? Your grandfather's generation understood the value of an education. How do the young people today honor it? "

sic&tyrd wrote on Apr 17, 2009 9:19 PM:

" real talk, do you believe black children are the only ones the government has not treated equally? It certainly sounds that way. You seem to search for excuses for why things are the way they are in so many instances. Your color or social status does not have to affect your education. In 2009 you make choices that put you into certain situations. I'm tyrd of people grumbling and complaining instead of getting off their behinds and working. If people worked as hard as work as they worked to get out of work, the world would be a different place... for EVERYBODY. "

real talk wrote on Apr 17, 2009 9:06 AM:

" Annual and traveler both of you sound like people still living in the 30's by Gosh the world has changed and so do the people too, at least I thought. We have a Black President, what a different world, right? If you love to think in the past Annual about your dad's education and how he walked to school and so on--- well even then education was insufficient and full of governmntal neglect. The government didn't allow blacks to read, when they allowed them, they couldn't go pass primary school. The books were seconded-handed and raggerd and in result of being a country that denied a segment of its population an decent education based on skin color, when it did decide to fund public education for all its citizens the government still for many years and continues to underfund and place unqualified teachers in the schools mostly attended by minorities. If you failed to properly educate the child family from previous generations what do you expect? Especially, being reared in world totally more EXPOSED world, where the entainment mediums are totally different from you, or your parents or your grandparents. Now teachers and people who are stuck back in the 30's want to blame the parents and the kids. traveler those kids situation had a lot of help and if you can't see the big picture you need to find another profession. This social crisis is a reality that the nation created from decades of unlawful policies and its not going away. We are a connected, so "we" all must "realize" "we" must "recognize" -it is what it is- and get to work and find ways to correct this wrong for the "NATION" sake. The government educated the mothers and fathers of this generation through bad, ineffective racist policies now they should at least take part and clean up their mess, and Annual your dad probably walk to a good school, my grandad school he walk to probably was an old shack in the woods, where opened illegally according to the government? especially in the South, can you say Mark Sanford, -apples don't fall too far from the tree on both sides of the coin, "

ANNUAL wrote on Apr 16, 2009 9:03 AM:

" real talk

you said better schools equal better education. So how do you explain prior generations of Americans that built this country that did not have the type of schools we have today. My grandfather is in his late 90's walked to school to a building where no heat/air. A outside toliet and it did'nt seem to hamper his or any of the other thousands of Americans ability to learn. If they misbehaved at school it wasnt the govt that would discipline that would happen at home or the teachers would take care of that right on the spot. If you brought home a bad grade your butt would do your homework and study. But now in todays liberal world its wrong to spank your child, its wrong to place blame on your own child, blame the teacher, blame the gov't just like your doing. "

traveler wrote on Apr 15, 2009 11:54 PM:

" Real Talk......you can pump millions into a school system and it won't make a difference without other change occuring first. You would be better off flushing the money down the loo. Do you think really think that money is the real issue in the schools and will help the education in Oburg, Dillon or Charleston ??? I have taught in all three of those districts and seen the day to day struggle of the teachers who are trying to make a difference. Give those of us who are in the trenches, day after day, with kids that don't give a darn , parents whose attitudes are worse, and spineless administrators and School Boards who fear "truth in grading and true high expectations", a BREAK ! Until everyone decides to stop trying to be politically correct and starts holding the other stakeholders in our children's education responsible, the schools will never improve.Money won't help, Nationally Board Certified teachers won't help and the State Dept.Of Education taking over the schools won't help. It is not a case of teachers not caring to educate children whose parents have chosen to do a sorry job of instilling in them a value for education.Maybe we teachers are just getting tired of trying to undo that value of a sense of entitlement that these parents seem to have made a priority in their parenting lessons.
Crusty...you are right on the mark! "

sic&tyrd wrote on Apr 15, 2009 12:53 PM:

" Possibly this should be called socio-economic discrimination. "

crusty wrote on Apr 14, 2009 10:42 PM:

" Seems like you've confused school with daycare. No amount of money, government or otherwise, will help kids learn if our culture does not value education. It REALLY DOES start at home. Glad you said mother OR father as most kids today don't have both at home to guide them. I guess that's why you feel it's the government's job to step in and raise them. "

sic&tyrd wrote on Apr 14, 2009 6:12 AM:

" I just asked a question. Get over it, real *. "

real talk wrote on Apr 14, 2009 6:05 AM:

" NO CRUSTY, your so on your "Talking POINT" that's the same arguement given for years as an scapegoat for not educating all of America's children equally and sufficiently. How about fund schools in high income areas with the same insufficient funding public schools get today and you will have a lot of insufficent educated kids with erractic behavior. BETTER SCHOOL=BETTER CHILD, Remember a Child is a Child no matter how erractic he or she acts are responsible adults suppose to say, Hey since your mother or father hasn't done a good job, I shouldn't care either? "

crusty wrote on Apr 13, 2009 9:53 PM:

" Do tax dollars = discipline in the classroom?
No. Do tax dollars = higher S.A.T. scores? No. Why don't you try asking a public school teacher what happens when they assign a child homework! Success starts at home, not Washington D.C. "

real talk wrote on Apr 13, 2009 1:52 PM:

" Question: What is governmental neglect? The public schools in places such as, Orangeburg, Dillion (esp.),Charleston, and a plethora of locations predominately populated by minorities whose incomes are two times in most cases below the poverty level. Every child by LAW is guaranteed a sufficient education. Does the gov't provides?, NO-- We are last in education in the NATION, a NECESSITY of life and MARK SANFORD DOESN'T WANT TO ACCEPT MONEY TO IMPROVE S.C. last place ranking, Sic& tired, '"THIS MY FRIEND IS GOVERNMENTAL NEGLECT, COMPRENDE, "

sic&tyrd wrote on Apr 13, 2009 7:18 AM:

" What is "governmental neglect"? "

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Emmy is latest honor for Claflin graduate's film

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