Christopher Harris’s love of cinema shines through this stylish, thought-provoking and melancholic film where, using grainy 16mm, he picks over fragments from the remnants of urban decay in his hometown of St Louis.

The film explores the empty streets of the north side - an area populated almost exclusively by working class African Americans. Fixing on details of crumbling facades and collapsed buildings, we rarely see a human being - but their presence haunts the sporadic soundtrack, full of unanswered phones, eerie footsteps, closing doors, chat show phone-ins and dripping taps. People may have left but the abandoned assets of a neighbourhood remain, evoking a haunting sense of life and community. We are left to imagine the life that once animated these once elegant homes and empty movie theatres. The abandoned buildings and discarded items of civic pride convey a palpable sense of lost dreams.

• With an introduction from writer/curator Karen Alexander

Presented on a 16mm print from the BFI. This event is presented by Autograph ABP as part of the Black Atlantic Cinema Club, a season of rarely seen contemporary films and archive classics inviting you to explore rich and different possibilities through which to view the African Diaspora experience of transatlantic culture. With thanks to writer/curator Karen Alexander. Supported by the BFI's Programme Development Funds from the National Lottery.

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