The Gateway District

When I first moved to Minneapolis I wondered, where is the really old parts of the city? Near the river there were all these 1960's towers, but I couldn't quite conceive at that time that there might have been something else there before those were built.
When I first saw photos of the Gateway District I couldn't believe it. How could all this be gone?
This was the city I wanted to live in. This was the place I wanted to be. But it was all gone. It had all been cleared, block after block, in the years before I was born.
I wish we could get it back. I wish I could walk again in the Gateway District, the birthplace of Minneapolis, but it is all gone, but it has all been torn down and carted off and dumped into a hole. The people and the places have vanished and are forgotten. There are very few traces that any of it ever existed.
So it has always been something in the back of my mind. Something about recreating it, somehow, getting some of it back. And that is what this movie is all about.

First post

I will attempt to recount, in these pages, the story of the creation of my animated feature film, Demolition Dreaming. I actually began this mission at least two years ago, and as of this date I have completed 21 minutes of animation. Please check here for updates and stills showing the progress of this project.
After spending much of 2013 working off and on on the first 15 minutes or so, I spent the month of November, national novel writing month, writing the story as a book. From this book I have a script, and from the script I have been drawing out a storyboard, and from the storyboard I have been animating all the individual shots.
Here is a still. Heavy Steve arrives in the Gateway District.