Reimagining Our Cities
Spring 2012
Population loss and industrial collapse scar cities around the globe. People in post-industrial, blighted neighborhoods are taking action to make their communities a better place to live. While transitioning their cities from polluted wastelands to environmentally sustainable communities, these urban heroes tell an international story we all share.
Production began on this project in September 2011 and thirty interviews were shot in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Youngstown, Ohio.
Co-producer John Gallagher has visited Leipzig, Germany and Manchester, England where he conducted off-camera interviews with city leaders and explored the areas while researching this topic. He has met and interviewed the mayor of Turin, Italy who helped that city reinvent itself, and portions of that interview is included in John’s book, Reimagining Detroit. Cleveland, Ohio has also been identified as a city to include and a pre-interview visit is planned.
A work-in-progress screening is being planned for late March 2012 to fulfill a public viewing requirement for the Michigan Humanities Council, one of the funders of this project.