True Films 3.0 - Kevin Kelly

Downside Up
Let’s say your regional industrial mill town is rusting away, bypassed.
Main street is boarded up, windows in the old brick factories broken
beyond repair, fine homes abandoned, and the last employer in the old
company town long gone. The stagnation is lethal. As mayor, you need
something to sell in the global economy. You need some new economy
commodity. You need..... modern art! This very personal, but very smart
documentary is the uplifting story of how the dying rustbelt ghetto of
North Adams, MA gambled on building a modern art museum to resurrect
itself. Crazy, but it worked. It proves the current adage that artists
and bohemians lead economic growth. The museum attracted starving
artists, who immediately found uses for the empty factory hulks, who
then demanded nice restaurants, which dragged in workers and so on.
Ten years later the local yahoos who would “not cross the street for funny
art” are discussing the merits of upside down trees on the promenade
– from whence comes the title of this very heartwarming film. It’s a
simple message: art works.
By Nancy Kelly
2002, 54 min.
Available from
newday.com
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