America Lost is a documentary triptych that explores life in three of America’s “forgotten cities”—Youngstown, Ohio, Memphis, Tennessee, and Stockton, California.

The film shows the dramatic decline of the American interior through a mosaic of stories including an exsteelworker scrapping abandoned homes to survive, a recently incarcerated father trying to rebuild his life, and a pair of sisters hoping to escape their blighted urban neighborhood.

I spent five years gathering these incredibly intimate portraits of Americans living on the edge. The film sheds light on how our crumbling social institutions have created a dangerous divide between the haves and have nots.

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