Imagining Home is a documentary film produced in Portland Oregon by Hare in the Gate Productions.

Columbia Villa, a troubled and dilapidated Portland public housing neighborhood originally built to house WWII shipyard workers and later ravaged by gangs and drugs, is demolished, displacing 1,300 residents. In its place, New Columbia, a federal HOPE VI urban redevelopment project, emerges as a model for progressive community building. This socio-economically mixed neighborhood provides new homes, a school, retail and work opportunities, and other amenities for about 3,000 residents. Many original Columbia Villa occupants have returned, but will they succeed in fighting stereotypes of race and class and making this new neighborhood truly ‘home’?

Imagining Home follows several Columbia Villa families from displacement to relocation back into New Columbia over four years. Through their stories, we learn how resident involvement is crucial to a growing national movement in community building. But will the voices of low-income families continue to be heard, as renewed friction arises in New Columbia?

Community Screening: Imagining Home
7 PM – Tuesday, May 11 at Portland Playhouse, 602 NE Prescott