Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, is shown in a scene from the documentary, “The Place That Makes Us,” which airs Tuesday. Submitted photo / WORLD Channel

WORLD Channel may need to change the name of its documentary series “America ReFramed” to “Mahoning Valley ReFramed.”

Last week, the series featured a documentary on the closing of the General Motors Lordstown plant and the impact on its workers and their families. This Tuesday at 8 p.m. the program takes a look at the younger generation of Youngstown residents working to revitalize their hometown with “The Place That Makes Us.”

It is the documentary feature debut of Karla Murthy, who has worked as a producer, camera operator and correspondent for various PBS news magazines over the last 15 years.

It was a PBS assignment that first brought the Brooklyn, N.Y., resident to the area, and what she found didn’t fit the narrative that normally accompanies national media coverage of the area. One of the places she was taken by Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation, was the waterfall by Lanterman’s Mill in Mill Creek MetroParks.

“This is incredible. You can live near this beauty of Mill Creek Park? That was the first thing that really shocked me,” Murthy said.

She also was impressed by people like Beniston and Tiffany Sokol, YNDC’s housing director.

“Ian and Tiffany had a chance to leave, they could go anywhere they wanted, and they were choosing to stay,” she said. “I don’t think this is a story people know about or have heard about. I really wanted to show the heart of the people of the Mahoning Valley and their resilience.”

Murthy started working on the film that became “The Place That Makes Us” in January 2017 with the idea of focusing on YNDC’s work and following one house from acquisition and clean up through its renovation and purchase.

“Who doesn’t love a great home renovation reveal?” Murthy asked. “On a symbolic level, when you first walk in (to one of the abandoned homes), it’s so tragic. It’s really emblematic of what’s happened around a lot of the post-industrial Midwest.”

To imagine what life might have been like in some of the abandoned homes seen in the documentary, Murthy cuts between the decay and home movies provide by some of the people she interviewed, which allows the viewer to imagine the parties and happier times that once took place in these structures now teetering on collapse.

The project grew behind that initial idea, telling the personal stories of Beniston, Sokol, Youngstown 1st Ward Councilman Julius Oliver and other residents. There are scenes with Beniston’s parents wondering whether they made the right choice to stay in the area when the steel mills began to close in the late ’70s as well as Beniston and his wife, Krista, discussing their own family plans. Sokol is shown singing in church serving as a mentor / adult role model for three young boys.

Beniston is used to getting interviewed due to his job, but he said having a camera follow him around for hours at a time was a different experience, as was watching his parents and his wife talk about their lives.

“It’s nothing I hadn’t heard before, but it was still moving for me,” Beniston said. “I’m generally not an emotional guy, but watching the film strikes a nerve.”

Sokol said, “I think they did a wonderful job on the film, but to me this is just our lives. It’s kind of awesome to see that people think what we’re doing is extremely important … One of the reasons we agreed to this time-intensive process is that people will see what we’re doing and see the value in it.”

Murthy admitted she never expected the film to take four years when shooting commenced in 2017. But as someone who normally gets to spend three or four days at most in a city to prepare something for PBS, she enjoyed the luxury of chronicling the story over several years.

“It was a very organic process,” she said. “We just kept filming until we felt we could weave everyone’s lives together.”

Like Carl Kriss’ GM Lordstown documentary “Bring It Home,” “The Place That Makes Us” will be available for streaming at worldchannel.org after its premiere. Both films also will be a part of the 45th Cleveland International Film Festival, which is taking place online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Murthy added there has been talk about having a screening of “The Place That Makes Us” this summer at the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheatre when it’s safe to schedule.

agray@tribtoday.com

To watch

“The Place That Makes Us” will be shown at 8 p.m. Tuesday on WORLD Channel (digital channel WVIZ-TV 25.3) and available for streaming after Tuesday at worldchannel.org. It also will be available online as part of the 45th Cleveland International Film Festival between April 8 and 20 at www.clevelandfilm.org/films/2021/the-place-that-makes-us.