LINCOLN PARK — Gentrification might be considered a done deal in Lincoln Park, but DePaul University revisits the turbulent social process as it played out in the '70s with a film program Thursday.
As part of the Lincoln Park Community Research Initiative, studying the shared history between the university and its surrounding neighborhood, DePaul looks at "Filmmaking in Lincoln Park" at 7 p.m. Thursday in Room 314 of the Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave.
Featured will be the 1974 documentary "Now We Live on Clifton," concerning gentrification in Lincoln Park, as part of a celebration of the locally based Kartemquin Films, marking its 50th anniversary this year.
"This film is critical of DePaul's role in the gentrification of Lincoln Park in the 1970s," said Miles Harvey, an English professor at the university, and the program won't shy away from that.
"It looks like an entirely different world," Harvey added. "It's both a prescient film, in that gentrification has played a huge role in the transformation of Lincoln Park, and there's also like a nostalgia to it."
Harvey said he had taken a class studying the 24-minute documentary out into the neighborhood with some still photos from the movie, and sometimes had difficulty placing where exactly scenes had been shot. "There are buildings at DePaul that don't exist," he added, and the same can be said for much of the surrounding neighborhood.
Kartemquin Films began in Lincoln Park. "They're still making really great films," Harvey said, most notably "Hoop Dreams" and more recently "The Interrupters." Peter Kuttner, a Kartemquin producer who worked on "Now We Live on Clifton," will be part of the program.
Harvey said Kartemquin's documentaries have tended to focus on "people in all kinds of flux," and communities in flux as well.
"The film chronicles the gentrification of Lincoln Park in the '70s through the eyes of a 10- and 12-year-old, which is a fascinating perspective,” said Fran Casey, DePaul's director of community affairs. "Kartemquin Films speaks to a variety of community issues." She called the movie production company "a hidden gem in the city."
The documentary views gentrification's effects on people living in the neighborhood at the time, one of whom was Roxy Roth, who is now a teacher at Oscar Mayer Magnet School, 2250 N. Clifton St. She too will be part of Thursday's program.
"Her life has changed a great deal since she was 18 and in this film," Harvey said. "It's her family that's featured in this film, and they lived in a place that's now a McMansion."
The Lincoln Park Community Research Initiative is a partnership between DePaul, local community organizations and businesses to "collect, document and preserve the shared history of DePaul University and the Lincoln Park community."
The event is free and open to the public, starting with a reception at 6:30 p.m., but those interested should make reservations through an online RSVP site. "It's close to a sellout, I understand," Harvey said.
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