LEWISTON — “Neighbor by Neighbor,” a feature documentary about five years of community organizing and urban redevelopment in downtown Lewiston, will be aired on the Maine Public Broadcasting Network at 11 a.m. Saturday.

The 90-minute film was produced by Lewiston video maker Craig Saddlemire in partnership with The Visible Community, a group of community organizers in downtown Lewiston. To date, “Neighbor by Neighbor” has screened at numerous venues, including the Maine African Film Festival, the Farmington Social Justice Cinema Festival and the Maine International Film Festival. It has recently been awarded “1st Place Documentary Profile” in the Alliance for Community Media Northeast 12th Annual Video Festival and the “2009 Project of the Year Award” by the Maine Association of Planners.

Connecting numerous examples throughout history, “Neighbor by Neighbor” takes a comprehensive look at the issue of gentrification, in which poor people who are left out of the planning process for economic revitalization are displaced from their homes and communities.

As a case study, the movie delves into the controversial story of The Heritage Initiative, which was a plan proposed by the city of Lewiston to develop a boulevard through downtown Lewiston’s residential neighborhood and eliminate low-income housing for 850 people.

Instead of allowing their neighborhood to be paved over, residents of the downtown organized into a group called The Visible Community. What happened next was an incredible story of people coming together to protect their homes, hold their political leaders accountable and work toward creating a democratic planning process that honored the input of low-income people as much as any other person’s voice.

“Neighbor by Neighbor” reveals the strategies, mistakes, prejudices and lessons of the political process in Lewiston.

To view a trailer of the film, go to www.roundpointmovies.org/roundpointmovies/trailer.html.