This fantasy-documentary film weaves together archived facts and public memory to emotionally reconstruct the image of a famous Pittsburgh public school closure: Schenley High School shut its doors in 2008 due to claims of asbestos and costly repairs for the school district. A real estate company bought and transformed it into a luxury apartment building where chalkboards still hang in what are now private living rooms. The voices of former students recall their memories of Schenley's final days alongside footage of the artist retrieving images and artifacts from the school building before its transformation. Fictional scenes and soundscapes are inserted into the gaps of what has been erased or contested from public recollection. While Schenley has been put to rest for almost twenty years, its legacy sheds light on the ongoing state of Pittsburgh's shrinking public education landscape and the architectural ghosts that linger in plain sight.
During this film's production, over a dozen public schools in Pittsburgh faced the threat of closures and consolidations in a 2024 proposal called the "Facilities Utilization Plan". This city-wide restructuring of school buildings is reported to disproportionately impact students who are Black, immigrants, low-income, or who have disabilities. At the time of writing this, organizers are still fighting to ensure a more transparent and equitable system of school governance and funding in the city.
