Beyond the Motor City

Beyond the Motor City, a new documentary directed by acclaimed filmmaker Aaron Woolf (King Corn), 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, Beyond the Motor City urges us to ask how we might finally push America’s transportation system into the 21st century.

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.

Screening followed by a Q&A with Executive Producer, Kathleen Hughes; Field Producer, Justine Simonson; and Director of America 2050, Petra Todorovich.

Kathleen Hughes is a two-time Emmy Award–winning producer, director, writer, and executive whose documentaries and magazine pieces have appeared on Now With Bill Moyers, Frontline, Wide Angle, and ABC News’ Turning Point. In 2007, her 90-minute documentary with Bill Moyers, Buying the War, won an Emmy Award for Best Report in a News Magazine, and was dubbed “one of the most gripping and important pieces of broadcast journalism so far this year” by The Washington Post. Hughes began her television career as an associate producer for Channel Thirteen in New York and for CBS News’ Sixty Minutes. She is Executive Producer of the Blueprint America series.

Justine Simonson is a documentary producer in New York City. Her work has covered a wide range of topics including history, transportation, social justice, health care issues, government spending and national security. Her PBS credits include Frontline, Exposé: America’s Investigative Reports, Bill Moyers Journal and Need To Know. Her work has also appeared on The History Channel, The National Geographic Channel and TLC, as well as several independent films. Ms. Simonson was the field producer on Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. She is a graduate of Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Petra Todorovich is Director of America 2050, a national urban planning initiative to develop an infrastructure and growth strategy for the United States. She oversees America 2050's research, advocacy, and planning, with partners such as Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Rockefeller Foundation. She has published articles on transportation and infrastructure policy, and is a frequent speaker on the topics of transportation policy, megaregions, and national planning.

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