https://www.pittsburghg20.org/Articles/092109.aspx
September 21, 2009
The Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership and Point Park University have produced a series of videos to help welcome the world to the region in advance of the Sept. 24-26 Pittsburgh Summit.
Check out the the Partnership's YouTube page featuring a 40-second clip of Pittsburgh residents welcoming the world in their native languages. It also includes 24 other videos with more extended greetings in the 12 official G-20 languages, plus a few others.
The videos were shot at dawn on the southern tip of Washington's Landing in the Allegheny River, and at dusk atop Mount Washington at the Duquesne Incline. Doctors, engineers, students and merchants were among those who offered welcomes in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.
Jesse Colaizzi, a television production and editing instructor at Point Park University, shot the videos over three days in August with the help of assistant videographer Andrew Brugnone and assistant editor Michael Quigley, both Point Park students.
"My grandfather, God rest his soul, spoke the most beautiful mixture of Pittsburghese and Italian," said Colaizzi, a Ben Avon native. "Making these videos introduced me to more than 50 people who are transplants, just like my grandparents were. It's great to see how Pittsburgh is constantly being refreshed with new people wanting to make their homes here."
The clips are also being shown on video monitors in the Regional Welcome & Media Center in the lobby of the Regional Enterprise Tower, Downtown, on the outdoor screen at Theater Square in the Cultural District, on monitors at the Pittsburgh International Airport and on Flickr.
The Partnership and Point Park University extend sincere thanks to John Wargo and his family for graciously opening their Washington's Landing home for filming, the staff and management at The Duquesne Incline who shared their patio with our cameras, and Perk-Me-Up Coffee House in Lawrenceville for breakfast.
By Bonnie Pfister for the Pittsburgh G-20 Partnership
