"My Tale of Two Cities" Screening on the Hill

Capitol Visitors Center

Submitted by Greg on September 18, 2009 - 3:23pm

Venue Address: 

East Capitol Street NE and First Street NE

Washington, DC 20002

United States

See map: Google Maps

www.visitthecapitol.gov

The new U.S. Capitol Visitor Center will feature a special screening of the movie, My Tale of Two Cities, a funny and heartfelt tale of one city’s inspiring comeback as told through a personal journey about coming home again and coming to terms with the past in order to redefine who we are. My Tale of Two Cities has received national attention in USA Today, The Washington Post, and the PBS News Hour.

Following the film, Congressman Mike Doyle (D-PA) will lead a prestigious panel of community and business leaders, including Washington D.C. Economic Development Partnership Executive Director Steve Moore, and philanthropist and former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris. The panel will discuss the revitalization of cities and similar challenges faced by communities across the nation.

The screening is preceded by a reception at 6pm.

The event is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

About My Tale of Two Cities:
Screenwriter (St. Elmo’s Fire) and TV writer/producer (Saved By The Bell) Carl Kurlander was living in Hollywood when he received an offer to go back to his hometown and teach at the University of Pittsburgh. In search for a more meaningful and balanced life for himself and his family, Carl decided to move back to Pittsburgh, the real life “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Shortly after, Fred Rogers died, and the city of Pittsburgh declared itself “financially distressed.” With both himself and his hometown in a mid-life crisis, Kurlander set out on a Don Quixote quest to make a film to help the place where he grew up. Armed with a cranky cameraman, funded by his dermatologist, and often battling his wife, who longed to return to the sunny West Coast, Carl asks his neighbors from the famous (Steeler Franco Harris, Teresa Heinz Kerry) to the not-so-famous (his old gym teacher, the girl who inspired St. Elmo’s Fire) how this once great industrial giant, which built America with its steel, conquered polio, and invented everything from aluminum to the Big Mac, can reinvent itself for a new age. Ultimately, the film explores what it means to come home again and how individuals can make a difference in re-energizing the communities in which they grew up. We are reminded of this by Pittsburgh’s late Mayor Bob O’ Connor who articulates in the movie that, even in dark times, if we work together and believe in ourselves, it can still be a “beautiful day in the neighborhood.”