Part of the Scribe Video Center, the Documentary History Project creates videos that focus on historical topics that have both a local focus and contemporary relevance.

Many of the youth participants in the Scribe Video Center's programs are high school students who use their experiences for both personal enrichment, community change, and academic study.  With their academics, Scribe video work is often used in various ways for completion of a senior year, multi-disciplinary service-learning project, as well as for college application portfolios.

In each project year, a group of eight to twelve student video makers work closely with filmmakers and humanities consultants afterschool and Saturdays during the school year and during the summer. Student filmmakers are paid a modest stipend for their efforts.

The student filmmakers work closely with two to three experienced film and video makers each cycle as well as historians, librarians, archivists, musicians, community leaders and activists who facilitate the processes of research, story development, and production.

Student filmmakers have completed many documentaries, several of which have been broadcast locally on public the television stations WHYY and WYBE (after their premier at a local theater). These include Struggles in the Shadows, an exploration of the lives of free African youth in Philadelphia prior to 1860; Todo El Mundo – Dance!, a look at Latino and African social dance; Something to Wear which examines the interplay among youth culture, fashion, and political movements; and The Broad Street History Project , ten short videos examining the history of Philadelphia’s longest and oldest thoroughfare. The Broad Street History Project was selected as one of twelve films selected by the Council on Foundations’ 38th Annual Film and Video Festival.

Likewise, the 2005 Documentary History Project for Youth, From a Seed to This: A History of Fairmont Park, a look at the oldest and largest city park in the nation was honored by the Council on Foundations’ 39th Annual Film and Video Festival. The 2006 Documentary History for Youth Project was an examination of young people and the military from the Civil War to the present with an emphasis on local area history.

The 2007 project, The Movement: A History of Philadelphia's Settlement Houses, is a history of the Settlement House movement in Philadelphia.