Category: Timeline Stories

“I just want to make it to Christmas,” Austin Crawford says, as he fights a battle he can’t win with never-ending courage, drive, and of course flair. “Driven to Help” is a 55-minute documentary featuring the story of Milford resident Austin Crawford and his ongoing battle with Multiple System Atrophy. Join Austin in his 1970…

Neighborhood Bible Fellowship is a glimpse into the lives of several founding members of Neighborhood Bible Fellowship, a small church in Carbondale, IL. Neighborhood Bible Fellowship was a digital documentary project produced by Phil Gioja in 2003 while attending Southern Illinois University. It was shot on the school’s Canon XL1, recording to mini-DV tape and…

This 15 minute documentary, Piper City: Where Are We?, was produced in Piper City, IL in 2006. The film is a series of interviews with residents about the history of Piper City as well as a conversation about current events. Piper City at one time was populous, home of one of the first concrete elevators…

This short documentary tells the story of the remarkable success of the Building Block program at the Danville Correctional Center in Danville, IL. The Building Block is a housing wing-based, peer mentoring program that is transforming the lives of incarcerated men and changing the culture of the prison. Additionally, this film tells how the Global…

Austin Crawford has Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a rare and terminal neurological disorder. Despite the diagnosis Austin maintains a positive attitude as he works to build awareness and raise money for the MSA Coalition. Fighting MSA: Austin Crawford’s Story was primarily shot by Phil Gioja from Center Street Productions with a Canon C100 cinema camera…

 While much of the world stayed home, staff at two homeless outreaches navigate the challenges of 2020 while seeking to help the most vulnerable. During the COVID pandemic, Phil Gioja of Center Street Productions shot this feature length documentary with a Canon C200, as well as drone footage using a DJI Phantom 4 drone.…

Facing demolition of their facility, zoning challenges, and a lack of volunteers, a scrappy ministry startup is changing how the community interacts with the homeless. This film began in a cardboard box on a cold night, in the streets of Champaign. Phil Gioja of Center Street Productions attended a fundraising event called One Winter Night…

Six former inmates of the Washington State prison system share how they came to Christ, and how their lives are completely different now. Produced by Phil Gioja, cinematography by Ben Lynn on a Canon 5D Mark II, and editing by Phil Gioja.

In celebration of the Iroquois County Historical Society, the Old Courthouse Museum documentary was created to capture the history of the Society as well as the Old Iroquois County Courthouse that they fought hard to save and convert to a museum. This time capsule, dubbed ‘The Best Kept Secret of Iroquois County’ is situated in…

In 2004, Phil Gioja was completing his BA at Southern Illinois University in the Cinema and Photography department, and this was his final film as a part of that program. This thirty minute documentary is a snapshot of Phil’s grandfather, who was a teenager in occupied Netherlands during WWII, and immigrated to the United States…