Metro

Social worker’s starring NY role

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When it comes to preparing teens in the South Bronx and Harlem to break into movie-making and other creative fields, Joe Hall’s a real action hero.

The social worker founded the nonprofit Ghetto Film School in 2000 and it has won fans in Hollywood — director David O. Russell is on its board, and Ed Burns, Spike Jonze and Amy Adams have taught classes.

“They want to get in front of young people who are hungry and want to make it happen now,’’ said Hall, who in 1999 took movie courses in California, but found “I was terrible at filmmaking.’’

He felt “the film industry and universities were not representative of the smart, talented kids I knew in the South Bronx and Harlem.’’

He came home and began the not-for-credit, after-school and summer program that accepts 20 teens from around the city each year.

Hall, who was nominated for a New York Post Liberty Medal for Lifetime Achievement by colleague Stosh Mintek, chose the name Ghetto Film School “to co-opt a negative word and redefine it as a positive.’’

The 15-month program introduces teens to “cinematic storytelling,’’ including writing scripts, directing, editing, filming and advertising, and helps them land scholarships and jobs.

In 2009, the nonprofit became the founder and partner organization of The Cinema School, a selective admissions city public-high school.