By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — A local filmmaker is hoping that his documentary, “Pawtucket Rising,” can help lift Fall River out of its post-industrial doldrums by luring artists and developers.

Jason Caminiti’s film will air tonight at 10 p.m. on Rhode Island’s PBS stations, Channel 36 (WSBE) and Cox Cable 8. It will also be broadcast on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The hour-long documentary examines Pawtucket’s successful use of the arts as an economic catalyst, and features interviews with key city officials and arts professionals who have chosen to locate here.
Pawtucket Mayor James E. Doyle, who spearheaded the city’s arts district initiatives, is featured prominently in the film, as are such urban pioneers as designer Morris Nathanson, one of the first to convert an old mill to a new use.
Caminiti, originally from Newport, works in video and information technology and moved to Fall River because of the affordable rents. As a video artist, he met other creative professionals living and working in the city who have a stake in seeing it adopt a new image.
Caminiti, who was asked to join the board of Arts United Fall River, an organization involved in generating support for storefront artists projects in vacant buildings. The group was going to research projects in Pittsfield and Lowell, Mass. when an acquaintance, filmmaker and Rhode Island School of Design graduate Jeff Carpenter, told Caminiti about the successful arts movement that was happening just up the highway in Pawtucket.
“Growing up in Rhode Island, I knew of Pawtucket and I was surprised by the art scene,” said Caminiti. “But then I thought, if Pawtucket can do it, Fall River certainly can.”
Caminiti was put in touch with Herb Weiss, Pawtucket’s Economic and Cultural Affairs Director. He recalled coming to Pawtucket on the day before Thanksgiving in 2007 and finding that Weiss, a tireless ambassador for the city, had lined up more than half a dozen people for him to interview. “That’s when I realized there was a story there,” he said.
The intent of Caminiti’s film had originally been to spur the City Council to approve the creation of an “arts overlay district” in the downtown and waterfront areas.
That proved to be an easier sell than he thought, essentially because the zoning change could presumably be used to block an effort by a waterfront restaurant owner to bring adult entertainment to his establishment.
However, while the City Council unanimously adopted the legislation, Caminiti said that not much else has been done by city officials to lure arts-minded developers and professional artists. “The city hasn’t really embraced it, and that’s the problem, from the mayor’s office on down,” he said.
“We need someone like Herb Weiss,” Caminiti noted, saying the city should hire or promote an individual to a director level position to handle economic development and cultural affairs.
Caminiti said there has been some progress among Fall River artists. Members of the Lower Highland Historic District, of which he is a member, have organized an arts festival called “Arts Around the Block,” and another group holds an annual arts festival along the city’s waterfront.  Additionally, a storefront artists’ project funded by a grant has brought creative professionals into an empty business at North Main and Purchase Streets, and the occupants held an “open studio” tour this past November.
Supporters are hoping that the City Council chooses an arts-oriented developer out of two who are currently vying to acquire a vacant textiles school at 64 Durfee Street. He cites the success of such Pawtucket ventures as the Hope Artistes Village and other mill conversion projects that offer living and/or work spaces for artists.
“People are waiting for that to happen here, because we now have an overlay district,” Caminiti said. He added, however, that given the current economic climate, there are no tax incentives available now for historic building projects at the state level and that the city can’t afford to offer anything either. He holds out hope that such incentives will once again become available, and that an aggressive marketing campaign will attract creative developers.
Herb Weiss said he hopes Caminiti’s film reaches a broad audience because Pawtucket “has a message to send to the nation about how cities and towns can revitalize themselves through the arts.” 
Weiss continued, “Every state has a small city or town nestled in between larger ones that wants to maintain its own identity and create a unique niche for itself.” Pawtucket, he said, “picked itself up by its bootstraps” and forged a new identity that is working to re-energize the aged downtown.
Randy Rosenbaum, executive director of the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, which provided the close-captioning for the broadcasts, said, “The Pawtucket story is one that other communities can learn from.” He added that the success not only helps the city, but helps the arts community in the state as a whole.
The “Pawtucket Rising” DVD is available for $19.95, plus shipping and handling, and can be ordered through the website: www.pawtucketrising.info.