The magnetic power, creative potential and toughest challenges of American cities is illustrated in three half-hour films by dozens of filmmakers documenting 11 cities on the same day in “One Day in the American City.”
Two years in the works, “One Day in the American City” will premiere at 7 p.m. Sunday (with two back-to-back showings) on KBDI-Channel 12.
Colorado Public Television will be the first PBS station to broadcast “One Day in the American City,” before its national rollout. “They were early supporters,” Litman said.
Beauty and blight are on display, with Denver serving as one of the brighter spots on the map.
The project originated with the founders of “One Day on Earth,” Kyle Ruddick and Brandon Litman, the award-winning team behind the first documentary to film in every country in the world during the same 24-hour period. They collaborated on three previous global filming events (on 10/10/10, 11/11/11 and 12/12/12).
“We’re getting in our groove here,” Litman said by phone this week. “We started out wide-eyed producers, but with PBS on board, I think there’s going to be long life for this project.”
Think of it as a crowd-sourced photo essay or “democratized filmmaking” experiment, with Denver playing an upbeat role.
From a painter touching up the Daniels & Fisher clock tower while dangling high above the 16th Street Mall to Mayor Michael Hancock to the Denver Rescue Mission to Gary Steuer, president of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, the film captures the city’s challenges and solutions, with artful angles along the way.
While some of the featured cities have more obvious and profound problems — New Orleans is sinking, Detroit is burned and abandoned, Boston is recovering from the trauma of a terrorist bombing, Los Angeles has a freeway running through its center — Denver is illustrative of common national problems such as rising rent and worsening congestion and assets such as communities of immigrants.
The project takes fleeting note of homelessness, gentrification, new technology, urban agriculture, transportation and gun laws with input from academics, elected officials, activists and citizens.
“How do you find the middle ground?” says Steuer of the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation. “Development is good, but you don’t want that growth to displace communities.”
The series tackles on-the-ground perspectives across the country (the Parkour acrobats on the ground, in the air, over railings and off of buildings make for great urban subjects). The first segment considers what people love about their cities. The second segment moves on to the divisive issues and challenges, and the third weighs innovations and new technologies affecting cities’ futures.
The films will be available for free and will be pushed to classrooms and online.
The goal of One Day on Earth and the American City project ultimately is much more than creating a media event. Beyond building an archive, providing content and getting various non-profits involved, “it’s about civic engagement,” Litman said.
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
