moving places

Defining the Community Cinema Experience

The Moving Places film series is pioneering a new approach to cinema. Contrary to the multi-plexus or proliferation of home entertainment, Moving Places works to build community through the collective experience of cinema.

Each film provides an immersion into the “deep history” of Cleveland. The urban landscapes that surround us have been shaped by countless decisions made over decades. From the dense, mixed-use, and walkable districts shaped by streetcars to freeways segregating neighborhoods by race and economic status, the world we live in today was shaped by decisions long-before we may have been born.

We like to present films in settings that encourage conversation, community networking, and a deeper understanding of history. But we do not present history as a fixed point in some distant past. Rather we see history as living, dynamic, and subject to our own influences. Understanding the past can open up the way to a future that respects the Earth and the communities of life that share it.

For example, we premiered the film Freeway City as a series of walks between east-side destinations that would have been destroyed had freeways been built in the 1960’s. We screened portions of Streetcar City on the lower deck of the Detroit-Superior Bridge- once the corridor for jettisoning electric rails from the west side into the heart of downtown Cleveland.

Do you have an idea for an event or setting to screen one of our films? Contact us here.