Downtown Dream
"It's the Economy, Stupid!"
•
44m
Directed by Aaron Matthews • Documentary • 2013 • 45 minutes
For decades, small town life in the United States has been quietly eroding. But there are overlooked stories amidst the talk of America's economic decline: the stories of individual men and women in the 'Rust Belt' community in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. Once one of the country's largest steel manufacturing centers, Lewistown lost its manufacturing base and industrial might a generation ago and has since become a 'ghost town.' DOWNTOWN DREAM follows the lives of five dynamic men and women living in Lewistown who refuse to be counted out and instead struggle to reinvent their lives and their dreams in America's chilly economic climate.
The situation in Lewistown mirrors the fate of the nation at this critical point in history. How do Americans make sense of economic and political forces beyond their control? Will they make a go of it and if so, how? In DOWNTOWN DREAM, Jon, Bernard, Pam, Barb and Katie reinvent their dreams in the face of devastation and decay.
"A thought-provoking look at urban struggles in a depressed global economy."—Video LIbrarian
Up Next in "It's the Economy, Stupid!"
-
Zona Franca
Directed by Georgi Lazarevski • Documentary • 2016 • 100 minutes
Zona Franca is a large outdated shopping district at the heart of Chile's Patagonia, located near the Strait of Magellan. Everywhere this area shows the scars of the upheaval which transformed the last wild place of the original Am...
-
Lobster War
Directed by David Abel • Documentary • 2019 • 74 minutes
LOBSTER WAR is an award-winning feature documentary about a conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War. The disputed 277 square miles of sea, known as t...
-
An Injury To One
Directed by Travis Wilkerson • Documentary • 2003 • 53 minutes
AN INJURY TO ONE provides a corrective-and absolutely compelling-glimpse of a particularly volatile moment in early 20th century American labor history: the rise and fall of Butte, Montana. Specifically, it chronicles the mysterious ...
