“Crossroads Charlotte: The Movie,” set in 2015, shows results of 4 paths residents could take.

By Tim Funk
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Posted: Monday, Feb. 02, 2009

The year is 2015 and Charlotte is:

A) A city gripped by racial division and fear, where residents aren't interested in solving problems.

B) A place that hasn't changed; still growing, but missing opportunities to deal with simmering tensions.

C) A world-class city with good schools, jobs and transit – but also with the same people making decisions.

D) A model of diversity and shared power, where involved residents reach across racial and cultural lines.

The correct answer?

That will depend on what Charlotteans start doing now, in 2009, say the local leaders behind Crossroads Charlotte, a 4-year-old project designed to build community and interracial trust.

On Tuesday night, at six different locations, the public can watch “Crossroads Charlotte: The Movie” – a quartet of short films dramatizing those four possible futures for the city.

The 8-to-10-minute films range from the grim (“Fortress Charlotte”) to the inspirational (“Eye to Eye”).

Those who don't come to the free screenings can still watch the films on the Web or request a DVD to show at their house of worship, book club, neighborhood group, workplace – wherever.

The films are “a call to collective action,” says Michael Marsicano, president and CEO of Foundation For the Carolinas, which launched Crossroads Charlotte along with Community Building Initiative.

“The hope is that, if we agree those four futures are plausible, we have the choice of charting the city toward the positive future,” said Marsicano. “If everybody did something to help in their sphere of influence, there's a much greater chance of coming to those positive places (in 2015).”

Tuesday night, Crossroads of Charlotte will launch a social networking Web site – www.crossroadscharlotte.org. It's designed to help people connect with others and sign up for opportunities such as Mecklenburg Ministries' Friday Friends, where Charlotteans of different races and backgrounds share a series of Friday lunches.

Since its 2005 founding, Crossroads of Charlotte has written the detailed scenarios for Charlotte's four possible futures, then shared them with organizations – from corporations to nonprofits to the Observer – in live readings, complete with performances by “slam poets” and “spoken word artists.”

Going the next step, with a cinematic experience, is an attempt “to reach thousands, instead of hundreds,” says Tracy Russ, who co-wrote the films. “We wanted these (possible futures) to come to life.”

Filmed in Charlotte, with local actors and local crews, the films tell stories about the kind of city Charlotte could become. The characters are fictional – police officers, students, gang members, homeless people, ministers, TV news crews, even an elected official complaining about wasted tax dollars.

Some of the characters can even be seen reading the Observer, with made-up front page headlines such as “Charlotte voted top 10 city.”

Marsicano would not reveal how much the films cost, but did say that in-kind contributions made it possible to make them at 20 percent of what the cost would have been commercially.

Overall, he said, the cost represented “a small, small portion of” the $3.3 million grant made by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for the overall Crossroads Charlotte project.

Recent news events involving the economy have already turned some of the films' scarier prospects into reality. “Fortress Charlotte,” one view of 2015, opens with foreclosure signs and a TV report on record joblessness.

“That shows,” says Russ, “that now more than ever, it's important that people come together.”
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* The four films

In “Fortress Charlotte,” the worst of the scenarios, homeless shelters are overcrowded. Ethnic gangs engage in gun battles on the streets. And a protest at the GovernmentCenter is canceled for lack of interest.

“The Beat Goes On” opens with traffic and a TV report saying Charlotte has lost another business. A TV station crew member says Charlotte

never changes: “The people who have the money get more of it. And the ones who are making the decisions are making them now.”

In “Class Act,” the TV news is more upbeat: Charlotte is again a top job market for banking, and there's a jump in school test scores. But an elected leader says he hopes more electronic town meetings will bring Charlotte more of what it's lacking: a sense of community.

“Eye to Eye,” the most optimistic scenario, ends with a TV news report that Charlotte has been short-listed to host the 2024 Olympics. Police officers help a Hispanic man open a youth center. “Charlotte likes nice, to be polite, to not rock the boat,” the man says. “But now we're finally having an open dialogue, eye to eye, with people that are different.”