About this episode

The episode explores the stories of Route 66 and its impact on American cities and towns through a documentary by Chris Elisara and John Paget.

The tale of Route 66 might seem like just a tale of freedom on the road, the great American desire for exploration, and our love affair with the car. And it is all that. But it’s also much more. It’s about the cities, towns and unique places all along the route and their stories. Chris Elisara and John Paget are sharing those stories, in a 100th anniversary documentary about Route 66. I happened to catch up with them in Springfield, Missouri, which is where Route 66 was in some part given birth. Chris and John own First and Main Films , and have their own love affair with telling stories of underdog cities and towns. We crossed paths originally with the New Urbanism Film Festival, which has now evolved into something much bigger called the Better Cities Film Festival , based in Detroit. Be sure to catch their work about Route 66 , something that has occupied them for something close to a lifetime, and which tells us so much about America’s history and our cities and towns. Find more content on The Messy City on Kevin’s Substack page . Music notes: all songs by low standards, ca. 2010. Videos here . If you’d like a CD for low standards, message me and you can have one for only $5…

People in this episode

Host: Kevin Klinkenberg

Guests: Chris Elisara, John Paget

Topics covered

• Route 66
• American history
• urban storytelling
• documentary filmmaking
• cities and towns

Keywords

• Route 66
• documentary
• urbanism
• American culture
• cities
• towns
• exploration

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: First and Main Films, New Urbanism Film Festival, Better Cities Film Festival

Places: Springfield, Missouri, America

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