Why Local Stories Matter with Filmmaker Brittany Dobish

So you and I are Ohioans, okay? And we're Northeast Ohioans.

For someone who doesn't know what Canal Fulton is, what is the town like? Paint a picture for them so they can see themselves sitting right next to you where you're at.

So in Canal Fulton, we are alongside the Ohio and Erie Canal, which is a very amazing place.

Most people associated here in Ohio is like, you know, the towpath and Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

But here in Canal Fulton, we're like actually sitting in a 19th century town that was built alongside the canal for commerce because, you know, back in the early 1800s before the canal was built, Ohio was like more of a wilderness state, you know, so a lot of people were living in poverty at the time and it was not very populous.

So, you know, farmers had to figure out some way to, you know, get their crops around places, but it would have spoiled before it got to trade.

And then so when people looked at Ohio, it's like, OK, well, what do we do with this? George Washington in particular and Thomas Jefferson were looking at this state and saying, hey, a canal would be ideal here because of all the water sources that were amongst the state canal Fulton in particular is like the only city in the state with the name canal in front of it because it used it was just such a vital part to the city's commerce so before the canals came you really didn't have that people were settling alongside this amazing trade route that would go all the way to try to get reach the Mississippi and down to New Orleans for trade and So when you come to Canal Fulton, it's really like a little slice of a 19th century, what it would be back in time, but yet still modern enough for people to really enjoy coming.

So we've had a lot of new businesses that have occupied some old buildings in downtown Canal Fulton to try and raise awareness of just how wonderful this small town is.

And our heritage society, which has been operating since the late 60s, has been just a vital part of trying to keep some of these historic buildings alive.

Coming from at least where I do, which is in Medina, Ohio, and they call it historic Medina because our historical society and our preservation efforts here have been fantastic in terms of keeping the square preserved in the way that it was in the 1800s.

I love Medina.

Medina is a great example of another great historic preservation committee that is committed to that time era, but also just the feel of a small town.

So I went to the Medina Farmer's Market recently and I was just like, gosh, what a great job they're doing.

In America, we are always fast moving.

We are always trying to progress.

It's hard.

It's like even people who are, we're business oriented.

The question of the founding of America has always been Well, can it exist? How long will it exist? It lives in all of like every infrastructure in every city because some ones you could see that are going very well.

Some you can see they're going very poorly.

And I think America is like the balancing of the two in some capacity, if that makes sense.