Revitalization on the big screen at South Side Film Festival

The annual South Side Film Festival is returning to Bethlehem this year starting in a few weeks. Every year, the festival celebrates independent films. One movie that we have on our radar here at Renew Lehigh Valley is Red, White, and Blueprints:  A Rust Belt Documentary.

Directed by: Jack Storey
2013 | USA| 69m 00s | http://savingcities.com
Red, White, & Blueprints is a documentary film that highlights several of the most innovative initiatives, individuals, and emerging ideas in the Rust Belt, and makes the case for why we still matter as a region. From St. Louis to Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, & beyond; the sole intention of this film is to inform and inspire a new generation of leaders to take the vital actions necessary to revitalize our great region.
Screening Times:  Broughal: 5:20pm Thursday, June 13 | Victory Firehouse: 5:20pm Friday, June 14

Broughal: 114 W Morton St, Bethlehem, PA 18015

Victory Fire House: 205 Webster St., Bethlehem, PA, 18015

Even though the documentary examines the Midwest Slate Belt, we think that it will resonate with viewers in the Lehigh Valley who are seeing revitalization happening right in their backyards. As the film will be screened in South Side Bethlehem, it will be hard not to think about the all of the redevelopment happening nearby where Bethlehem Steel used to use the hulking blast furnaces daily and now they remain silent. And that is just one example of brownfield redevelopment that is happening in the Lehigh Valley. In Whitehall, the township planners are revitalizing MacArthur Road on the former site of Lehigh Valley Dairy. Allentown is in the process of redeveloping the old Schoen’s Building along routes 102 and 104 turning the old department store into office space, an art gallery and a ground floor restaurant and pub. Where Toyota Bennett used to reside in Allentown, there’s going to be a 9-acre retail site available for lease.

We hope this documentary will teach us new information about redeveloping industrial sites and maybe inspire us with projects that we hadn’t yet considered for our region.