THE PLACE THAT MAKES US
Among the industrial ruins of America, a new generation is rebuilding home.
When the steel mills shut down in Youngstown Ohio, it shattered a way of life. Over half the population left. Thousands of empty blighted homes were left behind, eroding the social fabric of this once mighty industrial base. Like many post industrial towns, persistent joblessness, crime and poverty plague the city.
Filmed over the course of two years, this film documents the lives of a new generation of residents who have grown up in a world of post industrial decline. Unlike their parents generation, haunted and traumatized by watching their way of life crumble around them, this generation is able to envision a new future, and they are working to make a life for themselves in their hometown.
This film is a testimony to the modest but profound resilience and dedication it takes to transform a community. A crucial story to be heard at a time of extreme inequality, divisiveness, upheaval and uncertainty, The Place That Makes Us is a meditation on the meaning of home in America today.
Karla Murthy
Director and Producer
Karla is an Emmy Award-nominated producer. She began her career working for the veteran journalist Bill Moyers, was a producer and cameraperson for the PBS news magazines “NOW” and “Need to Know,” and is a special correspondent and producer for the "PBS NewsHour Weekend.” Her work was cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as “compelling, informative and compassionate.” Karla is of Filipino and South Asian descent. She graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio, is an alumni of the Third World Newsreel Workshop and the Documentary Institute at Antioch College in Ohio.
Alexandra Nikolchev
Producer and Director of Photography
Alexandra’s documentary credits include PBS, NBC, and HBO Documentary. She won a Peabody Award as a producer on "Don't Tell Anyone (No Le Digas a Nadie)," a feature-length documentary film that aired on P.O.V. In 2014 she received an Emmy Award as field producer for "Crossing the Line at the Border," a three-part PBS investigation into the U.S. Border Patrol. Alexandra studied journalism at New York University and received her undergraduate degree from University of California, Berkeley.
Kristen Nutile
Editor
Kristen’s work has shown around the world including the Sundance Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival, and she is a recipient of the Albert Maysles Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking. She recently edited the award winning film “Weed the People” by Abby Epstein and Ricky Lake, and “Warrior Women” for which she participated as a fellow in the Sundance Edit and Story Lab. She also edited the Netflix Original film, HEROIN(E) which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Julia Lewis
Archival Producer
Julia Lewis has worked on several documentary series' as a researcher, archival producer, and post production assistant. On shows for Discovery Channel, PBS, and Netflix, Julia has most recently worked to become a mini-expert on the mechanics of helicopter flight (Age of Aerospace), the world's deadliest viruses (Invisible Killers), and serial killer Ted Bundy (Conversations with a Killer: the Ted Bundy Tapes).
Andrew Fredericks
Supervising Editor
Andrew has been a documentary filmmaker for nearly thirty years. He has collaborated with journalist Bill Moyers on a host of documentaries. His work has appeared on ABC, NBC, PBS, National Geographic, and Bravo. He directed and edited Money Driven Medicine with producer Alex Gibney and edited the award-winning film, I Came to Testify in the highly-acclaimed PBS series Women, War & Peace, and Abigail Disney’s Emmy Award-winning feature documentary, The Armor of Light.
Bobak Lotfipour & Casey Trela
Composers
Most known for their work with composer Daniel Hart, Bobak and Casey have composed additional music for The Society, Forever, The Exorcist, SMILF, OverWater (Belgium 2019), along with Light of My Life, A Ghost Story, Heroin(e) and Recovery Boys. They also play in the band Dark Rooms.
Jad Abumrad
Executive Producer
Jad is the host and creator of WNYC Studios’ shows Radiolab, a recipient of two Peabody Awards, and More Perfect, hailed by The New York Times as “possibly the most mesmerizing podcast.” Both podcasts are downloaded 110 million times a year. In 2019, he founded OSM Audio with its inaugural project, Dolly Parton’s America in collaboration with WNYC Studios. In 2011, Jad was named a MacArthur Fellow.
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NEWS & REVIEWS
WOODS HOLE FILM FESTIVAL 2020
WINNER DIRECTOR’S CHOICE AWARD
Emerging Documentary Filmmaker
WBUR
Four Documentaries to Watch at the Woods Hole Film Festival
“with haunting footage… the film is a powerful and enlightening look at local activism and how change can happen — one house at a time.”
PHIL KIDD
Community organizer and founder of “Defend Youngstown”
“This the best documentary I've ever seen on Youngstown. This was a true piece of art that so importantly highlights and validates the efforts of those who fight to not only improve Youngstown but all the places like it. My only hope now is that as many people as possible see this film. Thanks to you and the team for the high-level of craft and obvious passion you put into making it. It shows from start to finish. From one 'defender' to another, thank you sincerely.”
JAY ALLISON
Radio producer of The Moth Radio Hour, founder of Transom.org, executive producer of Atlantic Public Media
“Stunning. Such beautifully intertwined stories, characters getting deeper all the time, the whole thing hopeful but honest about the desperation. I choked up an unexpected number of times, good lord.”
THE ENTERPRISE
Documentary Filmmakers Strive to Inform and Inspire
“Ms. Murthy said she hopes those who see the film will walk away thinking about ‘the beauty and poetry that exists in the small acts of struggle that make a place a home.’”
NEYDA MARTINEZ
Associate Professor, Media Studies/Media Management, THE NEW SCHOOL and producer of “Decade of Fire”
“…much needed healing at a time of great unrest and social upheaval. While the media portrayals of a divided nation along racial and political lines can conjure fear and mistrust, Karla shows us, through her subjects, that we, as a people, have the capacity to build bridges of trust between and among Black and White communities, for example. Unvarnished evidence of community working together in loving kindness, mutual aid and respect prove that we can do this work. We can reimagine what kind of community, nation, world we want to live in. ‘The Place That Makes Us’ gives me hope that this is attainable.”
JAMAL CYRUS
Artist and recipient of the 2020 David C. Driskell Prize for his contributions to the field of African American art
“I love the film. There are so many stories embedded within it. One of the things I have been thinking about and not necessarily seeing a lot of, is the thread in the film which shows the erosion of the black middle class. That period of the industrial collapse followed by the crack epidemic, is something many black communities are still struggling with.”
THE ENTERPRISE
In Defense of the Documentary
“‘Yeah, certain documentaries are boring,’ Karla Murthy, director of “The Place That Makes Us,” said. ‘Then again, so are certain Marvel movies. These days, documentary makers are doing some incredibly exciting boundary-pushing work, stuff that’ll take your breath away. If you like risk, watch more docs.’”
THE BOSTON GLOBE
In Focus: Woods Hole Film Festival Goes Virtual
