BLUEPRINT AMERICA: BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY

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May 12, 2010, 04:53 ET

Sparking dialogue about the future of mass transit in America

NEW YORK, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- This month, acclaimed director Aaron Woolf (King Corn) of PBS's eye-opening film, BLUEPRINT AMERICA: BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY, will tour communities in America's manufacturing heartland to raise questions — and seek answers — about the future of transportation in America. Can we build the "infrastructure of tomorrow" today, as President Obama hopes? Can the cash-strapped and car-dependent cities of the so-called Rust Belt become new models for fast, clean, public transit?

City planners, urban growth experts, bike and transit advocates, and concerned citizens in Memphis (May 13), St. Louis (May 17), Detroit (May 18), Indianapolis (May 20), Minneapolis (June 8), Nashville (June 17) and beyond are part of the BLUEPRINT AMERICA SCREENING TOUR that aims to provoke public attention and energize debate on:

New hopes for accessible, clean, and modern mass transit in America
The role of cities, and consumers, in shaping the next generation of transportation systems
A roadmap for revitalizing the way we move through our cities and neighborhoods

BLUEPRINT AMERICA: BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY examines how Detroit, a grim symbol of America's diminishing status in the world, may come to represent the future of transportation and progress in America. Narrated by Miles O'Brien, the film explores Detroit's historic investments in infrastructure — from early 19th-century canals to the urban freeways that gave The Motor City its name and made America's transportation system the envy of the world.

But over the last 30 years, much of the world has left Detroit — and America — behind, choosing faster, cleaner, more modern transportation. In a journey that takes us into the neighborhoods of Detroit and then beyond to Spain, California, and our nation's capital, BLUEPRINT AMERICA: BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY urges us to ask how we might finally push America's transportation system into the 21st century.

For more information and to view BLUEPRINT AMERICA: BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY, please log on to: www.pbs.org/blueprintamerica/ontheroad. Filmmaker Aaron Wolf is available for interview.

BLUEPRINT AMERICA: BEYOND THE MOTOR CITY is part of Blueprint America, a national, multi-platform initiative examining the state of America's transportation infrastructure. Blueprint America was created and produced by Thirteen for WNET.ORG and supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Surdna Foundation.

SOURCE PBS