Didn't get to that see the movies or join in the community discussion about waning inner-ring suburbs here at home as well as across the nation, or learn how they're handling their problems?

Well, here's the reel replay: both "The New Metropolis" and its sibling, "New Metropolis Minnesota," will be aired on Twin Cities Public Television, tpt, starting at 8 p.m. Sunday May 1.

For a sense of the issues and the mood, this is what "New Metropolis" filmmaker Andrea Torrice told me in a phone interview last month:

"I'm very concerned about all the communities in America, the way we are growing and the way we are becoming more unequal, both economically and in terms of racial segregation,'' Torrice said.  

Take that to mean declining infrastructure, dwindling commercial and residential real-estate tax bases and increased racial segregation in schools and communities in those first-ring suburbs, for instance. Torrice's on-screen stories are meant to illustrate what some see as effects of public policies that stimulate movement away from big cities and their neighboring suburbs to farther-flung areas.

"The New Metropolis" includes two 30-minute episodes. First is "A Crack in the Pavement," narrated by actor Peter Coyote, which investigates national infrastructure and regional land-use policy debates. It zeroes in on public officials in two suburban Ohio towns struggling to battle population and business losses to newer suburbs.

The followup video "The New Neighbors,'' narrated by Academy Award nominee Ruby Dee, tracks a diverse group of ordinary people and pubic officials determined to turn around a declining housing market and create a healthy and integrated community in suburban Pennsauken, N.J.

Shown here in March and hosted by 1000 Friends of Minnesota (which just changed its name to Envision Minnesota) and tpt, the films and panel discussions were used to jumpstart a local conversation which MinnPoster Steve Berg very ably documented. The film of the event will be shown at 9 p.m. Sunday on tpt.

Tune in for more.