Film blends historic footage, photos with interviews with those who once lived in neighborhood wiped out by urban renewal and I-81.
Carol Perry (center,) of Syracuse, who is featured in the new documentary, “Syracuse’s 15th Ward and Beyond”, greets people during the film’s premiere at Syracuse Stage’s Storch Theatre today.
Next showing
What: The “Syracuse’s 15th Ward and Beyond” documentary. Tickets to the free showing are limited.
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday
Where: ArtRage gallery, 505 Hawley St., Syracuse.
For more information: 218-5711.Richard Breland this afternoon walked a red carpet back 48 years to a time and place he says should never be forgotten in Syracuse’s collective history.
“In the 15th Ward, everybody knew everybody,” said Breland of the long-gone neighborhood of Syracuse that was once in danger of fading from memory. “It was a real village. We raised everyone’s children and we all got along.
“It was called the 15th Ward. It was called the ghetto. It was...a melting pot of all people. We got along very, very well.”
Breland is one of the stars of a new 90-minute documentary, “Syracuse’s 15th Ward and Beyond.” It debuted at an afternoon gala today at the Syracuse Stage’s Arthur Storch Theater near the Syracuse University campus.
The red carpet was rolled out for Breland and many of the stars of the film: People who lived in or grew up in the now-gone 15th Ward of Syracuse, a political district that cut a swath from Erie Boulevard south to Brighton Avenue.
“15th Ward” is a celebration of the downtown Syracuse neighborhood, once home to Syracuse’s black and Jewish populations. It was eventually wiped out 50 years ago by the construction of Interstate 81 through downtown Syracuse and the then-fashionable trend of urban renewal.
The documentary showcases the 15th Ward by blending historic Super 8 film footage, still photos and images, as well as live interviews with the people who lived in the district — some whose families came to Syracuse just after the Civil War.
Many of those people interviewed for the film were at the showing today. Two died earlier this year.
“That’s why this needed to be done,” said Courtney Rile, the 2004 Syracuse University graduate who was tapped to create the documentary, which she started in October. “This story is about the community and what used to be there.”
The used-to-be: Linton Betsey’s L.B. Grocery. Betsey is in the film, and attended the premiere and through a daughter, said capturing the bygone era is “very, very nice.”
Today’s event brought together people who were dislocated through the dissolving of the district. They hugged and held onto each other and said how it was nice that this event was not a funeral — when, these days, the old friends usually gather.
They murmured and laughed at the pictures on the screen, at their former neighbors, their friends.
The genesis for film goes back to the 2006 formation of the Syracuse University South Side Initiative, a bonding of Syracuse University with the neighborhood on Syracuse’s South Side, said Linda Littlejohn, a board member of SU’s South Side Initiative office.
“Many projects came out of those initial discussions,” she said. “But it didn’t start that easily. People in the community were concerned the young people didn’t have the rich history of Syracuse, including and especially the self-sufficiency in many respects of black people.”
In 2008, SU representatives held initial meetings on Syracuse’s South Side with community residents. Out of those meetings grew workshops and seminars on ways to preserve the visual and oral history of the community, said Littlejohn.
A goal is to create a virtual museum, starting with documentary, said Shirley Rowser, a multicultural specialist for the city of Syracuse, which is a participant in the Black History Preservation Project, along with SU’s South Side Initiative Office, the Onondaga Historical Association, the county library and others.
“Our goal is to have the virtual museum up by 2013,” Rowser said. “This is something the community asked for. Now, they’re getting it.”
Contact Bob Niedt at bniedt@syracuse.com or 470- 2264.