Cleveland Park Film

Cleveland Park has been many things and now it's motion picture, an enlightening half-hour tour through some 200 years of neighborhood history.
If you missed the world premiere at the Cleveland Park Historical Society's Annual Meeting, you may order a copy by sending $20 payment to:
CPHS, P.O. Box 4862, Washington, DC 20008

"I Am Cleveland Park," produced by filmmaker and neighbor Ruth Pollak and her team at Education Film Center (EFC), captures the spirit of our small town within the city.  It stars our homes, schools, green spaces, kids, parents, and merchants, along with a couple of cute pets.

The documentary traces the neighborhood from its beginnings as Uriah Forrest's Rosedale Farm in the 1790's through its days as a turn-of-the-century streetcar suburb to its present status as a D.C. Historic District.  There are moments of suspense:  Will the highway lobby succeed in putting an interstate through the heart of Cleveland Park?  Will the East Coast's first shopping center be replaced by an 11-story office tower?

We know the answers now, but the firm is both a visual experience and a guide to citizen action, revealing how neighbors banded together, organized, strategized, marched, lobbied, and testified to preserve what we have today.

Sponsored primarily by CPHS, it will be made available to other preservation and community groups.  PBS may be interested, too, reports Ruth, whose Newark Street residence houses EFC, www.EFCvideo.com.  Producer Bonnie Nelson Schwartz and Director/Editor Ira Klugerman also worked on the film.