Where blacks and gays struggle over neighborhood

Classic residential housing in need of restoration and young home-buyers with the money, time and motivation to do the job are the engines of urban renewal in todays America. But the course of gentrification in the U.S. is rarely without a human cost compounded by the country ingrained racial and economic divisions. In the case of Columbus, Ohio Victorian "Olde Towne East" district, as revealed with riveting candor in the new documentary Flag Wars, the bitter ironies abound as two historically oppressed groups blacks and gays find themselves in unequal competition for the same real estate.

Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras Flag Wars, airing Tuesday, June 17, 2003 at 10:00 PM on PBS (check local listings), is the first film in P.O.V.16th season and the first of five films to receive support from the series new Diverse Voices Project, made possible through major funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The DVP films were selected from over 180 submissions to bring emerging and diverse voices to American television.

Shot over a four-year period, Flag Wars is a poignant account of competing economic interests between two historically marginalized groups, seen through the politics and pain of gentrification. The setting could be anywhere a city center with a formerly middle-class black community that is now economically depressed and being gentrified in this case by white gay home-buyers interested in restoring the magnificent old homes. This particular story takes place in Columbus, Ohio. The black residents, working-class or poor and often elderly, fight to hold on to their homes and heritage. Realtors and gay home-buyers see the enormous, often run-down homes as fixer-uppers. The inevitable clashes expose prejudice and self-interest on both sides, as well as the common dream to have a home to call your own. Both provocative and elegiac, Flag Wars is a candid, unvarnished portrait of privilege, poverty, and local politics taking place across America.

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About The Author:

Don French is a successful author and regular contributor to http://www.1st-in-flags.com. The flags of the world are symbols of recognition full of beauty and color for each country.