Film Explores City’s Challenges, Including Wallingford Crime

A new film, Seattle: 21st Century City, available on youtube and embedded below, explores Seattle’s struggles since the start of the new millennium, including the impact of crime on neighborhoods such as our own. Packed with archival photos and videos, the film is a step back in time to a Seattle that seems like another place somewhere else in the country. Narration is provided by residents who witnessed the radical changes that reshaped the city over the past two decades, and includes interviews with once-prominent voices from our past e.g. Nancy Guppy, Greg Nickels.

Seattle: 21st Century City is directed and produced by David Gardner (who, by his own choice, goes unrecognized in the film’s credits). A Seattle native now living in Fremont, Gardner is not alone in feeling a special connection to our city. He says, “Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, Seattle often resembled more of a small-mid size town than the larger metropolitan area it can feel like today. To me Seattle always seemed like it had this unique character and charm; everything from its PNW culture to its independently owned businesses had this special Seattle aura.” As a child, Gardner enjoyed making films with friends as they biked and bused around the city with camcorders in hand. As an adult though, the practical benefits of the 9-5 job held sway.

But some dreams die hard. When I asked Gardner what inspired him to create this film, he responded:

I thought back to my dreams of being a filmmaker as a young child and one day became enamored with the idea that it would be so cool to make a film that motivates people to become more involved in their community. A film that has a positive message, but doesn’t ignore the hardships so many are struggling with right now. I finally found the courage to start later in 2021 and it took me all the way until early 2024 to finish.

One thing I’m most proud of is the soundtrack. All the music featured, with permission, is sourced from local artists and I even partnered with a local Seattle-based musician to make a theme song specifically for the film. This was such a rewarding experience.

For newcomers to the city, Gardner’s film may elicit surprise that Seattle was such a different place just 20 years ago. And for those who have been here a while, the film will evoke memories (possibly even fond ones) of things now firmly and permanently in the rear view mirror: the Green Tortoise, the Alaska Way Viaduct, and many others. (Note: For those without 50 minutes to watch the film in its entirety, the segment about crime at the edge of our neighborhood along Aurora Avenue begins about 16 minutes in, and there is a drive-by of the demolished Guild at 43:52.)