The Other Side of the Track 28 min.
What did segregation mean from an urbanistic point of view? What did it mean in Texas? Is segregation still an issue? My hypothesis is that Commerce, TX, as many towns in the South of the United States, keeps in its urbanization the signs of a recent past of discrimination. Through this documentary – as a filmmaker with the attitude of an ethnographer - I let Commerce speak about itself. The slow rhythm of a small town was filmed along with the stories of its citizens who made its (hi)story. The urbanization of Commerce is reconstructed through the stories and the places of the African Americans who live in the Norris community, a neighborhood separated from the rest of the city by a railroad. The importance of this work lies in its pioneer aspect. This is the first documentary that recounts the segregation in this area of Northeast Texas.