Farewell to Factory Towns? (2012)

What can residents of communities that have been devastated by deindustrialization do to improve their condition during a time of austerity, war and anti-labor attacks? The film focuses on the introduction of a massive museum of contemporary art in the same buildings that housed Sprague Electric Company in a typical New England mill town. Billed as an engine of economic development, the museum hasn't produced the jobs it promised and the city's downtown is semi-deserted. The film argues that national policy must change and that vibrant unions and social movements are needed to bring about a new 'New Deal' to deal with the social and economic crisis facing U.S. cities today.