A Church, its School, and a Freeway (2023)
Synopsis
Simply put, this is a film about a church that was lost to a freeway, but it is truly much more than that. It is a story about the consequences of losing the spaces that anchor the social fabric of communities. A story about how we remember and make meaning out of our experiences when the physical space they occurred in no longer remains.
This is an ongoing project.
Directors Statement
As a child, I always felt as though the freeways crisscrossing through our cities have been there as long as long as time. A North American Stonehenge of sorts. Though less extreme, this assumption followed me into young adulthood.
In recent years people have become privier to the fact that many of the freeways our country built, cut through and displaced minority communities. What makes the 105 freeway particularly interesting is that it is supposed to be a break from that trend. It is supposedly a “Highway with a Heart” in part because of the concessions awarded to the residents in its path. I believe that the title clouds over another important aspect: the impact on the social fabric of the community.
I set out to weave the stories of those impacted by the freeway together with the historical trajectory of the freeway. By weaving together stories about a school in the path being closed with archival footage of the construction, the human side of the infrastructure project is shown. Hearing stories about this collective experience should allow audience members to attach their own interpretations to the outcomes of the 105 freeway.
It is my hope that this film highlights how even a freeway seen as the pinnacle of socially conscious engineering still tears through the communities in its path. The history and impact of the 105 freeway is a complex timeline to chart and assess. Though this film does not give space to explore the intricacies of the legal battles or even the planning that proceeded them, it at the very least forces audience to think critically about what came before the freeways we traverse daily.
Stills
