By Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 23, 2007

Tourists and tall ships at the Baltimore Inner Harbor filled the lens of student videographer Robert Hopkins as he lined up the perfect camera angle.

A fellow student noted that the tall ships that once plied the Anacostia River brought slaves across the ocean.

"Some slaves jumped off the ships because they would rather be dead," Rinita Hutchinson, 14, said knowingly. "And they would throw the bodies of slaves who died in the water. The sharks ate them."

The past year has been filled with revelations for Rinita and a handful of other District youths who have produced a video about the Anacostia River and the neighborhood that shares its name. The budding filmmakers speak confidently about the river's past, its present-day pollution and the cleaner future that many envision.

Their documentary, "Lessons From the Waterfront: The Anacostia," will have its first showing today during a $100-a-ticket river cruise. The cruise will raise money for the Multi-Media Training Institute, a private organization that has been teaching young people the intricacies of making videos for 25 years. It is expected to draw local dignitaries, including Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8).

The documentary is the fruit of script-writing classes at the institute, which also offers courses in sound production, entrepreneurship and Web design. Some of the students on this shoot are veteran filmmakers; last year, they produced a documentary about fighting and gunplay among young girls.

That video, like the one about the Anacostia, was written and directed by the students, tapping into a priority for environmental groups.

"The goal is that since it's produced by kids, maybe it will resonate more with a younger audience," said Jim Connolly, executive director of the Anacostia Watershed Society, a sponsor of the project. The society also holds pontoon and canoe tours on the Anacostia, which meanders from near Bladensburg through Southeast Washington to the Potomac River.

For the documentary, the students interviewed conservationists, old-timers who swam in the river as children and young people unaware of its history. They shot their film at numerous locations, including the Frederick Douglass house in Anacostia, the waterfront near Bladensburg and Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

"We did shoots on boats to get a glimpse of how sewage companies dump into the river," said Hopkins, 20, of Congress Heights. "We talked to residents that have lived near the river all their lives and want to return it to its glory."

And glory it had. Bladensburg was the busiest port town in Maryland during the 18th century. Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the designer of Washington, wrote in the 1700s that Anacostia's harbor was "in every respect to be preferred to that of the Potomac." Ships sailed up the Anacostia to load tobacco for voyages across the ocean to Europe.

No longer. That's why the students ventured to Baltimore recently -- to photograph the kind of traffic the Anacostia once supported.

"Can you believe these tall ships once traveled up the Anacostia?" Rinita asked, amazement in her voice as she peered into a camera.

In the District, the effort to restore the waterfront has gotten a boost from the Anacostia Waterfront Corp., which has a 25-year plan to rejuvenate areas along the river. Among the major projects is the new Washington Nationals baseball stadium rising in Southeast. At Poplar Point, there are plans to erect a soccer stadium, shops and housing -- development that some students said could lead to longtime residents being displaced.

"Some people said they don't need to put up new housing because most black people won't be able to afford it, and they are going to be kicking people out of their homes," said Joniqua Hutchinson, 13, Rinita's sister and a student at Jefferson Junior High School in Southwest. "I kind of feel the same."

Hopkins, a 2005 graduate of Friendship-Edison Collegiate Academy, decided the new baseball stadium is a waste. "I think that's preposterous," he said of the city's $611 million investment in the site.

Hopkins is looking forward to the film's debut.

"It's my time to shine," he said, "to let people know I helped to clean up the community."

A preview of the documentary can be seen athttp://www.mmtidc.org/watch.