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Check out Urban Roots

You're invited to a sneak preview from the 2012 World Community Film Festival.

You're invited to a sneak preview from the 2012 World Community Film Festival.

Urban Roots, a remarkable story of a new kind of urban renewal, will be screened at the theatre of North Island College's Courtenay campus Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m.

Urban Roots will be an inspiration to anyone who is feeling challenged by the convergence of various social, economic and environmental crises that we are witnessing all around us.

Detroit has experienced a massive drop in population, falling from a peak of 2.1 million people to under 800,000, leaving much of the city a virtual ghost town of abandoned houses, factories, shops and business.

Here, against all odds in the empty lots, in the old factory yards, and in-between the sad, sagging blocks of company housing, seeds of change are taking root as this abandoned land is being transformed into viable urban farms.

A small group of dedicated citizens, allied with environmental and academic groups, have started an urban agriculture movement with the potential to transform not just a city after its collapse, but also a country after the end of its industrial age.

Urban Roots follows the inspiring stories of several agricultural programs, each one designed to address a specific issue. Not only are the organizations amazingly productive and emotionally driven, but the people tilling the soil and picking the harvest have fantastic stories to tell.

Urban Roots is a timely, moving and inspiring film that speaks to a nation grappling with collapsed industrial towns and the need to forge a sustainable future.

— World Community Film Festival