For the past 23 years, West Philadelphia’s Scribe Video Center has been bringing free outdoor performances and film screenings to Philly and Camden neighborhoods through its Street Movies! initiative.

To find outdoor locations for the screenings, Scribe partners with a community organization in each neighborhood.

2020 may be the year of cancellations and postponements thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, but it’s not stopping Street Movies! from going forward with its programming, following CDC and city health guidelines of course.

The first neighborhood in Philly to get a performance and film screening this year will be West Kensington on Aug. 1 at Taller Puertorriqueño.

Opening night this year is in partnership with the Philadelphia Latino Film Festival and will feature a performance at 8:30 by the Instituto Puertorriqueño de Música (Puerto Rican Music Institute) followed by the films.

Highlights from this year’s movie selection are a trio of national and international flicks that tackle the timely topic of police brutality, and the beauty of nature and importance of protecting it.

Whose Streets? is a 2017 documentary surrounding the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and the uprisings that rocked the community afterwards.

The Cubic Bird, is another film in the 2020 collection and a vibrant animation hailing from Colombia.

The final film rounding out the highlights is Standing Above the Clouds, a documentary about the Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii that follows the sisterhood of intergenerational activists that protect it.

Street Movies! also provides an opportunity for attendees to discuss the movies immediately after their showing in a moderated conversation. The presentation in North Philly on Aug. 4 at the Life Do Grow Farm in partnership with the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation and The Urban Creators will feature the director of Whose Streets?, Sabaah Folayan for a question and answer session.

Beyond West Kensington on Aug. 1 and North Philly on Aug. 4, Street Movies! is set to also take place in West Philly, Germantown, East Camden, West Oak Lane. The film presentations will also be available online, with South Philly and Hawthorne’s presentations going all virtual.

Attendees will be required to wear face masks and there are no indoor inclement weather plans for any location.