THIRD WARD TX at SXSW and AFI/Dallas
agarr
ALSO!! Join us for an after-party, after the movie on Friday night at
Texas Folklife, 1317 S. Congress next door to the back door of the
Continental Club.
********MEDIA ALERT********
SXSW WORLD PREMIERE OF DOCUMENTARY
THIRD WARD, TX
"The Nation's most impressive public art project is also a bold
experiment in how to build communities." Michael Kimmelman, The New
York Times
"...and this old lady... told us 'If you want to do something for real...
you'll clean up this place and get these junkies outta here. That's
what you'll do if you want to do something for real.'" Jesse Lott,
Sculptor
The left-for-dead Third Ward neighborhood in Houston's inner-city
stirs to new life when a group of African-American artists founded
Project Row Houses. First, they clean up around a row of condemned
shotgun houses and hold a "Drive By" exhibition of paintings on the
fronts of the abandoned homes. The artists show up every day, and soon
others join in. Eventually, they purchase 22 houses on two blocks with
a down payment from an NEA grant. Then they do something really
unusual. They ask the community what it needs-and listen to the
answers.
Third Ward TX explores how this tidy little row of born-again houses,
glowing in the Texas sun, has become home to cutting-edge public art
and a home-grown challenge to traditional notions of community
development. In fact this neighborhood becomes such a stimulating
place...it begins to attract deep-pocket real estate developers. Now
big development threatens to destroy the very qualities that make the
neighborhood so vital. The bold and creative response of Project Row
Houses is a gambit that just might work.
Told in their own words, this moving story introduces you to
unforgettable people from the Third Ward: artists, young mothers,
children and long-time residents. They talk of their fears and their
hopes, and we see what this place means to them.
Third Ward TX is funded in part by HoustonPBS, the Independent
Television Service (ITVS), the National Endowment for the Arts, the
Houston Endowment, Humanities TX, the Houston Endowment, The City of
Austin Cultural Arts Division and other public and private sources.
Third Ward TX is a competition selection for the AFI Dallas
International Film Festival.
SXSW Screenings: March 9, 9:30 pm @ Dobie Theater
March 15, 12 pm @ Dobie Theater
Contact information and trailer:
Andrew Garrison, 512-475-6297, agar...@mail.utexas.edu
www.thirdwardtx.com