Mt. Airy filmmaker tells stunning story of runaway slave
Nadine Patterson (right) and writer/producer Martha R. Conley are currently working on “Reclaiming the Light: The Life and Times of Lewis Latimer,” the compelling but very little-known story of Lewis Latimer.
Photo courtesy of Nadine Patterson
Posted Thursday, October 9, 2025 12:00 am Chestnut Hill Local (click to go directly to article)
It would not surprise me in the least if I were watching the yearly Academy Awards next year or the year after and I heard, “And the award for best docudrama film goes to Nadine Patterson, of Philadelphia’s Harmony Image Productions, for “Reclaiming the Light: The Life and Times of Lewis Latimer.”
According to her resume, Patterson, a 25-year resident of Mt. Airy, is an award winning independent film producer and director. “Her training in theater,” it says, “immersion in documentary film and intense study of world cinema have enabled her to create works grounded in historical contexts, with a distinctive visual palette.”
Over the past 30 years, Patterson has taught video production at West Chester University, Temple University, Arcadia University, Drexel University, Robert Morris University, the University of Western Sydney (Australia), and Scribe Video Center.
For many years she has been motivated to create films that are entertaining but which also show aspects of African American life that are not usually seen in mass media. “My mom, Marlene, who majored at Temple University in psychology and sociology, always wanted to tell the stories about Blacks in North Philadelphia,” she told the Local last week. “The media generally picture North Philadelphia as a drug and crime-infested community, which is unfair and inaccurate because many wonderful, accomplished people have come from North Philly.”
Patterson has won numerous awards as an independent producer/writer/director who works at the crossroads of narrative and documentary cinema. She earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Franklin & Marshall College and a master’s degree in filmmaking at England’s London Film School. While in film school, she told us, she watched 17 films by Federico Fellini in one summer. She operates the production and consulting company, Harmony Image Productions (HipCinema), with her mother.
Patterson’s films have been shown on public television stations and in film festivals around the world. Some of her films include “I Used to Teach English,” winner of the Gold Apple Award at the 1994 National Educational Film/Video Festival in Oakland, CA; “Anna Russell Jones: Praisesong for a Pioneering Spirit,” named Best Documentary at the 1993 African American Women in the Arts Film/Video Competition in Chicago; “Moving with the Dreaming,” Prized Pieces Award from the National Black Programming Consortium in 1997; and “Black Ballerina” (outreach producer), which was screened on more than 200 PBS stations and on Amazon Prime, among others. Patterson was the only filmmaker selected for the Biennial 2000 at the Philadelphia African American Museum.
The docu-drama feature Patterson and writer/producer Martha R. Conley are currently working on, “Reclaiming the Light: The Life and Times of Lewis Latimer,” tells the compelling but very little-known story of Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), whose parents escaped from slavery in Virginia and wound up in Boston in 1842.
According to their Wikipedia biographies, George and wife Rebecca Latimer were arrested and charged with the “crime” of escaping from their “owners,” but they were defended in court by Frederick Douglass and abolitionist publisher William Lloyd Garrison. The Latimers were eventually able to purchase their freedom. Even though he only had a fifth grade education and was born into a pre-Civil War America that offered virtually no opportunities for African American children, Latimer became a brilliant self-taught inventor and patent draftsman while also working in his father’s barber shop.
“He enlisted at age 15 in the Navy and fought in the Civil War,” said Patterson. “My mom gave me a book, ‘Golden Journal,’ many years ago about great African Americans like Harriet Tubman, scientists, etc., and Lewis Latimer was on the cover.”
According to Wikipedia, his inventions included an evaporative air conditioner, an improved process for manufacturing carbon filaments for electric light bulbs and an improved toilet system for railroad cars. “He also worked with Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell,” said Patterson. “He drew a picture of the telephone and filed a patent for it.”
As a child, Patterson lived in Nicetown but since then has lived in Germantown and Mt. Airy except for two years in Pittsburgh (2016-2018) as artist-in-residence at Robert Morris University. Patterson and Conley, the first Black female graduate of the University of Pittsburgh Law School, co-founded the nonprofit collective, Sisters in Film and Television. Conley also served as assistant director of Patterson’s 2012 Shakespearean adaptation, “Tango Macbeth,” and co-produced “Lost in the Hype,” a 2010 documentary that Pittsburgh City Paper called “a fast-paced survey of how sports racism plays out in a town that’s long linked its identity to athletics.”
“Making a film is difficult under any circumstances,” said Patterson, “It’s even more time-consuming when you do not have a big budget and have to keep applying for grants. That is why we do not expect to finish the Latimer film until October of next year.”
For more information, visit hipcinema.net. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.
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