If you’ve never been to Community Cinema, this will be a great introduction. On October 16, we screened director Brad Lichtenstein’s documentary As Goes Janesville at the downtown Nashville Public Library. The screening was followed by an engaging discussion with business representatives, sociologists, human resources professionals and more. The film is available for screening online until October 30, and luckily for you, we taped the entire discussion. So here’s everything you need — the film, followed by the panel discussion — to have your own Community Cinema experience. It doesn’t include the tasty free snacks before the screening, or the great people you get to socialize with before and after the film, or the beautiful confines of the downtown library, but you’ll just have to imagine that on your own.
About the film:
As goes Janesville, so goes America… a polarized nation losing its grasp on the American Dream. America’s debate over the future of its middle class has come to the forefront in a pitched battle over unions in Wisconsin. First, GM shuts down Janesville’s century-old auto plant in 2008, causing mass layoffs and residents exiled in search of work. Then newly elected governor Scott Walker ignites a firestorm by introducing a bill to end collective bargaining unleashing a fury of protest and sparking a recall election. Spend three years in the lives of laid-off workers trying to reinvent themselves; business leaders aligned with the governor to promote a pro-business agenda they believe will woo new companies to town; and a state senator caught in the middle, trying to bring peace to his warring state and protect workers’ rights. Learn the truth behind the headlines.
Watch As Goes Janesville on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.
About the Panel discussion:
The event, co-presented by ITVS and Nashville Public Television, was hosted by ITVS regional coordinator Allison Inman. The panel consisted of, from left, moderator Steve Cavendish, Nashville City Paper editor; Sachin Chheda, national engagement director for AS GOES JANESVILLE; Tom Negri, Loews Vanderbilt Hotel; Caroline Blackwell, executive director of the Metro Nashville Human Relations Commission; Richard Lloyd, Vanderbilt University professor of sociology and author of Neo-Bohemia: Art and Commerce in the Postindustrial City; and Dan Cornfield, Vanderbilt University professor of sociology and editor of “Work and Occupations” sociological journal.
