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With humor and heart, the film tells the tale of the inspiring recent resurgence of the city of Pittsburgh, which built America with its steel, conquered polio, and invented everything aluminum and the Big Mac, but after years of struggle after the decline of the steel industry, has now comeback and reinvented itself. It is told through the personal journey of St. Elmo's Fire screenwriter Kurlander, who moved back from Hollywood to teach at the University of Pittsburgh, only to find both himself and his hometown in mid-life crisis. "My Tale of Two Cities" proves not only that you can go home again, but that each of us can make a difference in the place where we live.
There are obvious parallels between Pittsburgh and Detroit, which have been often written about in pieces in Newsweek, Detroit 2020, and Michigan NPR, and because "My Tale of Two Cities" uses the metaphor of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" with Pittsburgh being Fred Rogers' hometown where he showed us all factories which made things - many of which are no longer there - it has been called not a "Roger & Me", but a "Mr. Rogers & Me", as occurs in this funny scene between Kurlander and comedian Louie Anderson.
To see the trailer for the movie, clips of Steeler Franco Harris, and folks from Times Square to Beverly Hills singing "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," visit www.mytaleoftwocities.com.
When St. Elmo's Fire screenwriter and Saved By The Bell producer Carl Kurlander left Los Angeles for what he thought would be a one year Hollywood sabbatical to teach at the University of Pittsburgh, little did he think the journey would land him as a guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show on a program about people who had changed their lives, much less inspire a feature documentary. But shortly after Kurlander told Oprah how happy he and his wife were raising their daughter in Pittsburgh - the real-life "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" where Mister Rogers had produced his TV show for 40 years, Pittsburgh and America's favorite neighbor Fred Rogers passed away and the City of Pittsburgh went bankrupt. With both himself and his hometown in a mid-life crisis, Kurlander set out on a Don Quixote quest to make a film to help the city he had grown up in.
Armed with a cranky cameraman, funded by his dermatologist, and often battling his wife, who longs to return to the sunny West Coast, Carl asks his neighbors from the famous (Steeler Franco Harris, Teresa Heinz Kerry) to the not-so-famous (his old gym teacher, the girl who inspired St. Elmo's Fire) how this once great industrial giant, which built America with its steel, conquered polio, and invented everything from aluminum to the Big Mac, can reinvent itself for a new age.
Kurlander goes cheese shopping with Teresa Heinz Kerry where they discuss her late husband John Heinz's belief that sometimes your worst problems can become your greatest opportunities; tosses a football with legendary Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris; visits with Andy Warhol's nephew at a local scrapyard, and goes fishing in Pittsburgh's once polluted rivers with his brother actor Tom Kurlander and, after eating a catfish, consults with famed coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht to find out if they will live. Along the way, the film documents one of the most inspiring urban comebacks in recent history as, during the course of filming, Pittsburgh went from the brink of bankruptcy to being the home of "Google Pittsburgh," hosting the G-20 Economic Summit where it was called "model for the future" and named in 2010 "America's Most Livable City."
Producer Stephanie Dangel has often described this film not as a "Roger & Me", but a "Mister Rogers & Me" - a feel-good movie which explores whether you can go home again and how all of us can make a difference in the communities where we live.
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