PBS affiliates in New York state will begin airing America’s Stairway, the locally produced documentary exploring the impacts of Lockport’s celebrated Flight of Five locks on the Erie Canal, on Monday night.
WNED/Buffalo will show the one-hour film at 9 p.m. Monday and again at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25.
The PBS affiliates based on Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton, Watertown and Plattsburgh will also air the film next week, followed by WNET/New York’s showing on Nov. 2.
America’s Stairway, written and produced by Paul Lamont of Lockport and Robert Borgatti of Lewiston for Lamont’s company Toward Castle Films, examines the Flight of Five locks as a driver of progress locally and nationally, following the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, and explores the not often discussed cost of progress.
The film, which was commissioned by the Lockport Locks Heritage District, debuted at Historic Palace Theatre on Sept. 26, during Erie Canal Bicentennial Week in the city of Lockport.
The film is to be distributed to PBS affiliates around the United States next spring, according to Lamont.