By Kate Stockrahm
Mott Community College (MCC) will host a screening of the new PBS documentary “St. John Street: Story of a Neighborhood” on February 26, 2025.
The documentary features first-person interviews “chronicling families in Flint who built a vibrant community” on the city’s north side before urban renewal and Interstate-475 displaced the more than 7,000, mostly Black residents that called the St. John neighborhood home.
Filmmaker Justin Brown, who produced the film alongside fellow MCC faculty member Rodney Brown, said although he’d spent most of his life living and working in Flint, the film’s subject actually came about by way of one of Rodney’s students.
“It started off first when Rodney had someone in class tell him that his grandmother had seen Miles Davis perform somewhere in Flint,” Brown recalled to EVM on Feb. 22, “and he found out about the St. John neighborhood, which he didn’t know about.”
Brown said the story grew from there as his co-producer realized “this is a much bigger thing” than he originally thought. Brown estimated the two started filming interviews for the documentary in summer 2021, conducting them at Berston Field House before expanding statewide and out-of-state as the story developed.
Brown said he’d been part of films requiring many interviews before, but “this one was interesting because you’re finding out all this information about these people and their lives and what it used to be like in a community where everyone looked out for each other, and everyone was so connected.” He added, “Nowadays we don’t really have that same level of connection.”
The documentary, which first aired on WKAR earlier this month, will be shown from noon to 1 p.m. in the auditorium of MCC’s Regional Technology Center. Both filmmakers are set to make remarks during the event, and a light lunch and beverages will be provided.
On what he hopes audiences will take away from watching “St. John Street,” Brown said: “I hope they get that this is something that happened in their community. This is something that they may not have known about … And I think it’s important because we’re in a time where it’s like people are trying to keep real history from being taught.”
Brown added that he felt the story of St. John is “a prime example” of history that is hard to just “look up” and requires talking with people about their experiences to learn about.
“The real takeaway,” Brown said, “is to take the time to, you know, sit with it, learn what happened, how it is part of the history of Flint … and then think of like ‘what can I do to make sure that these stories are remembered – that these stories are … not just constantly erased from the history books?’”
According to a Feb. 20 MCC press release, the screening of “St. John Street: Story of a Neighborhood” is being presented as part of the college’s celebration of Black History Month.
