Buried Stones, Buried Dreams

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"Buried Stones, Buried Dreams" is a short (10:22) documentary created by Judy Bretzger, Joe Durrance, John Ellingsworth, Beth Palubinsky and Kathy Smith as part of Scribe Video Center's Precious Places Project.

The documentary explores the architecture of Mount Moriah (its gravestones range from humble markers to grand mausoleums), the thousands of military veteran interments representing every American war, its prominence as one of the Philadelphia region's premiere burial grounds, and its decline into disrepair. Today, the cemetery is being used as a dumping ground and hundreds of gravestones lay hidden beneath the expansive undergrowth. The documentary raises important questions about our responsibilities to the dead.

"Cemeteries just can't work without the living," says local historian and author Thomas Keels.

"When you study how people are buried," says Keels, "you're looking at a social history, an economic history, and racial and religious history of the city of Philadelphia."