• Recent
  • Towns
  • Topics
    • Arts
      • Language
      • Museums & Galleries
      • Public Art
    • Civic Life
      • Citizen Engagement
      • Governance
      • Health & Well-Being
      • Refugees
    • Community Heart & Soul
    • Economic Development
      • Breweries & Distilleries
      • Entrepreneurs
      • Transportation
    • Education
      • K-12
      • Community Colleges & Technical Training
      • Colleges & Universities
    • Environment & Sustainability
      • Parks & Recreation
      • Trees
    • Local Institutions
      • Libraries
    • Local Journalism
    • Travel
      • Aviation
  • Homepage
  • About
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Recent
  • Towns
  • Topics
    • Arts
      • Language
      • Museums & Galleries
      • Public Art
    • Civic Life
      • Citizen Engagement
      • Governance
      • Health & Well-Being
      • Refugees
    • Community Heart & Soul
    • Economic Development
      • Breweries & Distilleries
      • Entrepreneurs
      • Transportation
    • Education
      • K-12
      • Community Colleges & Technical Training
      • Colleges & Universities
    • Environment & Sustainability
      • Parks & Recreation
      • Trees
    • Local Institutions
      • Libraries
    • Local Journalism
    • Travel
      • Aviation
  • Homepage
  • About
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Economic Development

Meet Erie: A rust belt region continues to navigate its renaissance through a pandemic

Local filmmakers take to their streets examines the economic, cultural, and social impacts of Covid-19 during the summer of 2020 through this short film series.

  • Ben Speggen
  • April 2, 2021

Share

Republish

Erie, Pennsylvania-based filmmakers Jessica Taylor and Nick Taylor, the wife-husband creative couple behind MenajErie Studio video production company, are no strangers to exploring how their hometown has been working to reidentify itself in 21st century. While the studio does commercial work throughout the region, from shoots for car dealerships to breweries and plenty in between, they’ve also examined Erie’s ethos with the award-winning “Rust Belt New Americans: A Film About the Refugee Experience” documentary, the “Our Erie” short film, and more.

From being the historical site where Oliver Hazard Perry’s fleet that defeated the British in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812 was constructed, to locomotives shipped worldwide after GE Transportation put a stake in the ground at the turn of the 20th century, to an industrial waterfront that featured a shingle factory, a papermill, and a coke plant, Erie has been known as a region that makes things. 

But the Bayfront has since been largely de-industrialized, as one-by-one the plants shuttered their facilities or uprooted from the community to set up shop elsewhere. GE, once the area’s largest employer, continued to shed jobs and relocated its headquarters to Chicago before eventually being bought out by Pittsburgh-based Wabtec.   

Despite these visible and often-publicized blows to Erie’s traditional industries, manufacturing still makes up more of Erie’s economy than it does in both national and Pennsylvania economies. And MenajErie Studio has been there capturing the change along the way, drawing national attention from public radio and The Atlantic.

“If you had asked us a year-ago where we’d be sitting right now, I never would have imagined it would be here in this chair telling this type of story through a pandemic,” says Jessica, as the filmmakers turn the cameras on themselves 3 minutes into their first installment of a four-part short-film series shot during the summer of 2020. “Now I’m afraid that some of these businesses that just started within these last couple of years are not going to be able to make it – and without those businesses that will absolutely change what Erie has been working towards these past few years.”

From the city’s mayor to his liaison to the New American community of immigrants, from restaurant owners to brewers, from leaders in the arts and culture sector, to the Erie’s think tank and its library, from impact investors to sociologists, Jessica and Nick set out to explore the economic, cultural, and social impacts of Covid-19 to Erie.

“I think what the pandemic has done has brought our attention to all these things that have been issues for a long time,” says Nick as the camera pans past a storefront displaying a Black Lives Matter sign. “Now we have the time to stop and really take a deep dive into some of the inequalities and inequities that exist, not just in Erie but in the world.”

In Part 1, they introduce Erie and dip the toe in the water before diving in deeper in the following installments. 

“Erie can be an example for the rest of America of how a community can work together and work through something like this and come out the other side stronger than they were before,” Jessica concludes here, setting up the features to come.

Tweet
Share
Share
Share
Tags
  • Pandemic

Newsletter

For more from Our Towns, please sign up for our newsletter here.


Latest

  • Image of children playing around a water tower, with bright paintings on it and the message "You Have Found Lost Hills" 1
    Finding the City of Lost Hills
    • June 4, 2025
  • Library building on a sunny day in San Diego. 2
    How Libraries Are Becoming ‘Sustainable’
    • August 6, 2024
  • Children doing nature drawings, in antique photo. 3
    Sustainability: Suddenly the action is local.
    • May 9, 2024

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Close window X

Republish this article

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Thank you for your interest in republishing this story. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Unless otherwise noted, Our Towns stories are free to republish our stories for free, online or in print. You may copy and print the article contents from the box below. Note: some images and interactive features may not be included here. Please review our complete Republishing Policy here.

Meet Erie: A rust belt region continues to navigate its renaissance through a pandemic

by Ben Speggen, Our Towns
April 2, 2021

1

Related Articles

A man and a woman in a rural setting
View Post
  • Civic Life

The Enduring Power of Place

  • James Fallows
  • March 21, 2024
View Post
  • Local Journalism

Florida Man!

  • Deborah Fallows
  • February 16, 2024
A group of people stand on a catwalk looking down at a first-floor level lab.
View Post
  • Economic Development

Paths to New Prosperity and a Better Politics in Our Democracies

  • John C. Austin
  • May 18, 2023

STAY CONNECTED

Receive the latest news and updates

SUBSCRIBE

© 2025 Our Towns Civic Foundation. All Rights Reserved.

  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Republishing Policy

Input your search keywords and press Enter.