Heartland Passage: The Erie Canal in American History

FAIN: TP-50067-07

City Lore: NY Center for Urban Folk Culture (New York, NY 10003-9345)
Steve Zeitlin (Project Director: November 2006 to December 2008)

Planning for a television documentary on the Erie Canal from 1825 to 1995

City Lore, in collaboration with the Cultural Resources Council in Syracuse and the Gotham Center for New York City History at the CUNY Graduate Center request a planning grant for a documentary film entitled "Heartland Passage: the Erie Canal in American History." The documentary, directed by Academy Award and Emmy Award-winner Paul Wagner ("Miles of Smiles," "Out of Ireland," "Windhorse"), portrays a swath of the American experience by juxtaposing two key eras in the Canal?s history ? first, the era from the opening of the Canal in 1825 through 1875, a time of industrialization when the pioneering waterway made New York City the nation?s center of commerce, and created cities along its route including Buffalo, Syracuse, and Rochester; second, the era from 1945-1995, marking the deindustrialization of many of those same cities and towns, a time in which tugboat captains, lift bridge operators, and many other New Yorkers tell of tough times and bitter experiences.