The genesis of this film was born out of a desire to take some sort of action after watching the impact of the death of George Floyd and the events that followed in communities across our country.  As the son of a history teacher, I have always perceived life through a historic lens, and viewed how 19th century American history was still impacting us today and the area of social justice. Part of my desire was to help in changing how we tell that history and who we as a society raise up our heroes or American ideals to be.  The initial perspective was to give greater significance to the Underground Railroad and its participants as a way of filling a space created by the debunking of the Lost Cause and that there was anything noble about the traitorous members of the Confederacy. 

  

As a former TV News journalist with one documentary under my belt, I set out with a camera in hand and no budget, to simply and authentically begin visiting Underground Railroad sites associated with the Kansas-Missouri Border War and learn their stories.  My only partner was a friend who I shared a common perspective with, and who had no experience in filmmaking.  We began learning and visiting these sites together, and when we stumbled across Quindaro, while we knew it had great historical significance, we felt it perhaps had even more relevance in regards to social issues of the day.  

 

Quindaro, which is a predominantly African-American neighborhood, has been disinvested and disenfranchised for decades by the overall community of Kansas City, and the site of the Ruins is an embodiment of those acts.  The community is severely impacted by planning blight, highway routing through its center, urban decay, the War on Drugs and Redlining; all too familiar in urban areas that have a high proportion of black residents.  We were acutely aware as two white filmmakers we needed to ensure we spent our time with community leaders, residents, activists, business owners and politicians throughout the city so that the story was told by the community rather than through our eyes.  

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Mark Meisenheimer

Filmmaker