About the filmmaker
Kevin Williamson (no, not the creator of Dawson's Creek) graduated from Wesleyan University in 1986 with classmates Michael Bay and Joss Whedon and moved to Los Angeles. For the next 30 years, he worked in movie advertising, cutting all or parts of the trailers for movies such as White Men Can't Jump, Reservoir Dogs, Monsters Inc and The Grinch with Jim Carrey. In 2013 he formed FourK Productions with Dean Blagg and Martin Geuelette, two fellow former movie advertisers. FourK was formed right when 4K was taking off and committed to shooting all projects in the news ultra high def format. A series on Direct TV, Mix, about the craft cocktail scene in LA lasted five seasons until COVID closed every bar in the country.
About the project
After seeing piece after piece on these neighborhoods shot through the fences, Kevin wanted to get inside, walk the streets, take in the views and get a true feel for these lost areas. No one else has gotten the permits to film a documentary inside these fenced off areas. Every piece consists of someone standing outside the perimeter, shooting through the chain link.
The progression of time is no one's fault. Many people fault the airport for displacing all these people from their beautiful seaside homes. But as our city has grown, plans made have had to be changed. Before the car was ubiquitous, who could have imagined the interstate highways? It's the same with the airport. Over 100 years ago, I doubt many people could have imagined jet airplanes, let alone the noise associated with them.
Los Angeles is a city that has been photographed since its infancy. And in a lot of cases that's all that's left, the photographs. So many buildings and neighborhoods in town have been erased with nothing to even mark their one time existence. The film is filled with photographs and video documenting the creation, heyday and destruction of these areas.