By VINAYA SAKSENA

PAWTUCKET— On a few recent occasions, Pawtucket has been used as the setting of movies currently being produced, but now a movie has been produced about the city.

The movie, titled “Pawtucket Rising,” documents the city’s emergence as the home of a vibrant new arts scene, according to filmmaker Jason Caminiti.
Born and raised in Newport, Caminiti is now based in Fall River, Mass., where he has been producing material for local public access television.
“Pawtucket Rising,” which he calls his first “wide audience feature length documentary film,” was actually created partly with his current home city in mind.
Caminiti said the seeds of the film’s creation were first planted when he became involved in a mayoral campaign in the city, at which point he met Jeff Carpenter of Arts United, a group devoted to promoting the arts in Fall River. Caminiti had been looking for places to visit to find material for a documentary on the arts, and had been thinking of filming in places like Fall River and Lowell when Carpenter suggested he give Pawtucket a try. At first, he said, the suggestion surprised him, in part because he did not know much about the city beforehand.
“I didn’t know it was called ‘the Bucket,’” Caminiti said, though what he knew about the city pointed to a city that had been in decline. “So when I heard about the Arts Festival, I thought, ‘that’s a perfect story.’”
And what Caminiti saw once he came to the city convinced him that he was onto something. In November of last year, he spoke to Economic and Cultural Affairs Officer Herb Weiss, and the city’s arts czar wasted little time in introducing him to various local artists and public officials who had been involved in the revitalization of vacant mill buildings in the form of artist studios and living spaces.
“By the time I was done in there, I realized there was a (major) story there. So I kept going back.”
In addition to promoting city officials’ efforts to recast Pawtucket as a home for a rising arts scene, the film serves another purpose for Caminiti. He pointed out that Fall River recently decided to go ahead with the creation of an arts overlay district in their city, an effort he had hoped to see take off. And though he began conceiving “Pawtucket Rising” before this effort received the go-ahead from Fall River residents, he said he still feels it will be relevant to the people of Fall River, showing them what has happened in Pawtucket as an example of what can be done in their city.
Since his work on the film began after last year’s Pawtucket Arts Festival, Caminiti said he did not have footage from that event, and would be seeking to get some at this year’s festival
The official debut, including Arts Festival footage, will take place at the Pawtucket Visitor’s Center as part of the Mirror Image Film Festival, on Sept. 21. The event, starting with a reception at 4:30 p.m., will also feature the premiere of “Solitaire,” which, despite the lead role of adult film actress Marilyn Chambers, Weiss calls a G-rated film. Admission to the “double feature” includes food and even a Sam Adams beer, all for $10. Caminiti will offer a talk after the show. “You can make something of a city that (will be) looked at in the most positive light,” he said. I’d like people to see that they can do something in their city. They can revitalize it.”
More information on “Pawtucket Rising” can be found online at: www.pawtucketrising.info.