“Did you know that Cincinnati has an abandoned subway system?”
That question kickstarts Cincinnati’s Abandoned Subway, a documented journey into the city’s mythic past that runs directly into our congested present highway loops and teasingly branches off onto alternative visions for Cincinnati’s future, a paradoxical place that could, based on Mark Twain’s famous quote, still be years behind everywhere else.
When director Leland Schuler first moved to Cincinnati from Fort Myers, Fla., seven years ago, the subway was kind of this urban legend. He decided to tackle it head-on a year ago with producer Paige Malott, who was raised in Williamsburg and currently resides in Northern Kentucky.
“We really wanted to tell the history behind the subway and get the facts out there for people to know because there are a lot of misconceptions,” Malott says.
[Malott and Schuler are pictured above in one of downtown's abandoned subway tunnels.]
The documentary is divided into two parts. The first half is more about the history and the facts, while the second half, Malott says, “covers part of the modern conflicts with mass transit, the 2002 election on the light rail that was supposed to be built and we talk about the planning that went into a survey that was done on the current situation with rapid transit tunnels and whether or not it would be viable.”
The film has its premiere screening at 7:30 p.m. June 9 in Reakirt Auditorium at Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. Tickets are $10 for museum members and $12 for the general public.
Read tt stern-enzi's full interview with Malott and Schuler here.
