One of the biggest challenges in producing the film was locating visual materials to help tell the story. Many former residents had few photographs from their time in the Gas Plant. So the team did some research at the St. Petersburg Museum of History, which provided images from the Jim Crow era. Weeks before production wrapped, the team also received rare footage from the family of Katz Grocery, one of the displaced businesses.

The film’s title, “Razed,” reflects both destruction and elevation—a dual meaning that describes the thriving community that once existed and the socioeconomic costs of the site’s redevelopment. 

“We hope that viewers can gain a new perspective on the history of a neighborhood that many previously only saw from the outside looking in,” Lee said. “By revisiting the joy and the pain that these members of our community lived and experienced, we might gain a better understanding of the human aspect of what is lost for the sake of progress, and to imagine a better way forward.”