Welcome to this Blog. Recently The Wolfson Archives, In conjunction with a private donor, restored "the Seed of Hope", a WTVJ Original Film. This film was shot in June of 1972, was produced by Francis Stone and "starred" Ralph Renick and of course, Art Barker and The Seed, a drug Rehab for mostly juveniles that was formed in 1970, in Ft. Lauderdale Florida.
The video was first shown on WTVJ, and then was released to TV channels across Florida. Copies of the film, in can, were made and shown as a recruiting tool at Various civic associations, often by groups called "seed advisory boards", which consisted mostly of parents of Kids that had been admitted to the seed by either the courts or by their parents.
The seed was highly controversial and in a 1974 report by the 'Committe on the Judiciary United States Senate, ninety-third Congress', The Seed was accused of ""similar to the highly refined "brainwashing" techniques employed by the North Koreans in the early nineteen fifties, the method is used in the treatment of drug abusers"". The seed and its founder, Art Barker, were also heralded as a possible solution to the growing drug crises. One estimate is that roughly 10,000 Florida and Ohio juveniles were admitted to The Seed in the early 1970s. As the Seed's popularity wained, other drug rehabs founded by parents of Seed Graduates formed and copied the modalities, and these techniques were passed on to other juvenile rehab copycat programs, some still in existence today.
This video sat 'in the can' for over 30 years, and the Wolfson archive carefully and lovingly restored them. Since they were sitting so long, in film format, there are spots where the audio and/or video do not work. In addition, Most of the material restored were cuts and drafts: things that did not make the final production and/or were pieced together and used in the final production. This blog exists to bring these videos back alive and to bring them back into the public arena for viewing.
The Archive has licensed their publication here, and if you are interested in ordering these videos, without timestamp, for your video project, you can contact the archive directly:
Lynn & Louis Wolfson
Florida Moving Image Archives
101 West Flagler Street
Miami, Florida 33130
(305) 37501505
These videos are copyrighted and the property of the archive and are used by permission soley on this website. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited.
We will also be adding other content that is pertinent to this story, such as newspaper articles and documents.
Comments on this blog are moderated for content and subject to approval. As the purpose of this blog is historical, no profanity, swearing, or otherwise offense comments will be approved. The purpose of the blog is not to debate, but to present historical information. Further, some people may have been shot in these videos while they were children. Please respect the fact that they may not wish to be identified by name.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy.
