About Lost Rondout

Urban renewal left lasting scars, but many Americans are unaware of how their city came to be pocked and fragmented by parking lots, expressways, Brutalist buildings, and crime-plagued high-rise public housing projects. Lost Rondout: A Story of Urban Removal chronicles how a federally funded 1960s urban renewal project devastated the waterfront district of Kingston, New York, a microcosm of the urban disruption that occurred all over America. Nearly 500 buildings were destroyed and thousands of people were displaced, many of them African Americans who had difficulty finding new housing.

As a young man delivering flowers for his father's floral business, Gene Dauner took nearly 1,000 slides of the area just prior and during the destruction, vividly capturing the vanished streetscape of historic 19th century buildings, then defined as "blight." Utilizing Dauner's slides as well as images by other photographers, archival footage, and family photographs, producers and directors Stephen Blauweiss and Lynn Woods re-create the lost city in this 69-minute documentary, which was completed in October 2016.

Interviews with former residents bring the destroyed neighborhood back to life — its bars, clothing stores, and bakeries — and describe the difficulties of being relocated; some African Americans were unable to find housing outside the area. Commentary by historians, urban planners, and city officials reveal the federal policies that encouraged suburbanization and worked against people of color in urban areas.

The film chronicles the area's decades-long recovery from total abandonment to the flourishing waterfront neighborhood of restaurants, antique shops, and cultural attractions it is today, even as the city still struggles with urban renewal's problematic legacy. Today, as people strive to re-create the walkable, retail-rich communities that once characterized the nation's downtowns, the story of Lost Rondout is instructive, showing how a neighborhood survived despite the misguided top-down planning efforts that nearly destroyed it and the on-going challenges posed by gentrification.

Produced and directed by Stephen Blauweiss and Lynn Woods

Original score by Kingston-based composer and musician Peter Wetzler, featuring trombonist Roswell Rudd, the late electronic music composer and musician Pauline Oliveros, and other distinguished musicians

Narrated by Gilles Malkine

Running time: 69 minutes

To purchase the DVD, click on the link on the home page. Also available in area gift and craft shops, museum stores, and bookstores.