The Better Cities Films Festival is an annual festival that takes place in Detroit, MI, screening the best documentary short films about urban stories around the world. We will be screening a 90-min “best of the festival” selected by a/perture curator Lawren Desai with stories from Boston to Oklahoma City to Melbourne, Australia and themes that include urban design, placemaking, architecture, housing and transportation.

A panel discussion featuring local experts hosted by the Downtown Winston-Salem Partnership will follow the screening of shorts. Panelists include Rence Callahan (Architect), Lawren Desai (a/perture curator of film program), Dara Folan (Planning Committee Chair, DWSP), and Michael Suggs (President, Goler Community Development Corp.)

Better Cities Film Festival was founded by festival director Josh Paget and First+Main Films. They collect, curate and present the very best films on the theme of making better cities, towns, and neighborhoods. The festival honors the top films and filmmakers with awards, and screens those films to a vast audience around the world through their annual flagship event in Detroit, and through locally-organized screening events at cities and towns across America and around the world.

This event is sponsored by