A new video celebrating the virtues of downtown Billings received its premiere Friday night and was posted to YouTube on Saturday.
“Believe in Downtown Billings” was produced by Jonathan Allison of Visual Lens Productions for the Downtown Billings Alliance. It was premiered Friday night at the Pub Station during the annual meeting of the alliance.
Lisa Harmon, director of the organization, said the video “is about people falling in love with their city, or their downtown, again.” She said Allison was given free rein to find people he thought would be interesting and to let them say whatever they wanted to about the downtown.
The testimonials—from downtown residents, workers and business owners—touch on the art scene, food and drink, live music, the downtown’s sense of community, friendliness and authenticity.
In the words of Matt Blakeslee, owner of the soon-to-open Art House Cinema, “Downtown is the place where you find the kind of people that have their heads up, and they’re curious what’s going on in the world, what’s going on in their city.”
Harmon said the staff of the downtown alliance came up with the idea of the video as a way of reassuring people after what she described as “a tough 2014,” in the downtown and the city at large. There were some high-profile violent crimes, lots of negative publicity and growing concerns about the number of transients in the downtown.
“We really wanted 2015 to be the year we celebrate our community,” Harmon said.
She said the video was everything the alliance had hoped for.
“When I watch it, I still get chills because I really believe there’s something happening here,” she said.
