About The America’s Stairway Documentary
Locks Heritage District Aerial Photo by Alan Schwartz; Courtesy of Lockport Locks Heritage District Corp.
Why America’s Stairway
America’s Stairway places the historic Flight of Five locks on the Erie Canal in Lockport, New York, squarely in the American narrative as a symbol of a young and developing nation. It draws a direct line between the Erie Canal, the Flight of Five, and the birth of American tourism to today’s heritage tourism industry which is inextricably linked to community-based, grassroots preservation efforts and a community’s sense of place. In doing so, it has meaning and resonance that transcends both time and geographic location.
America's Stairway is a national story. For the first time in a documentary film intended for national PBS distribution, the Erie Canal and specifically the Flight of Five—the crowning achievement of America’s canal era and of those who envisioned scaling the Niagara Escarpment —is examined in relation to the natural and technological sublime, the birth of American tourism and how those ideas are linked to today’s embracing of heritage tourism, preservation, and sense of place. It will serve as an inspiration and a catalyst for other communities to explore and preserve their history and is a profound reminder that great moments in our nation’s narrative can be found in small towns and communities across the American landscape.
South Street Seaport : Painting by William James Bennett, “View of South Street from Maiden Lane”; Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of New York
The Grand Northern Tour
Because of its location on the canal, Lockport became part of what was known as the “Grand Northern Tour,” a leisurely trip across the northern United States and Canada with the highlight being a visit to Niagara Falls, 30-miles west of Lockport. For the burgeoning middle class, the canal allowed easy, inexpensive travel and historians refer to this era as the birth of American tourism. The majestic stone architecture of the Flight of Five, or the “Stairway to Niagara,” as one historian calls them, became to technology what Niagara Falls was to nature—an icon of the sublime. The locks at Lockport were renowned around the country and in Europe and by the 1830s, had put Lockport on the map.
Traveling the Erie Canal : Painting by E. L. Henry; Courtesy of Albany Institute of History & Art
‘Visitors to Niagara Falls’ by Silas Holmes (1850)
Our Story
America celebrates the 200th Anniversary of the completion of the original Erie Canal in the year 2025. America’s Stairway explores a unique, untold story. It tells of an American landmark, once the focal point of a nation and beyond, then overlooked, but now emerging in the new light of the twenty-first century.
The Flight of Five Locks are Locks 67, 68, 69, 70 and 71 of the 72-lock Enlarged Erie Canal. Erie Canal Locks 67-71 were completed in 1842 as part of the First Enlargement of the Erie Canal, or Clinton’s Ditch. The Lockport Locks were regarded as a modern engineering marvel at the time that the Erie Canal was originally opened in 1825, enabling water-borne commerce and passengers to travel from New York City to the Great Lakes via the Hudson River and the man-made inland waterway system, and opening up the Midwest to development.
The Flight of Five is often referred to as “staircase locks” due to the immediate succession from one lock to the next. However, during the conversion of the Erie Canal to the Erie Barge Canal, the southern flight of locks was demolished and removed, and the northern Flight of Five went into disuse, other than to serve as a spillway after 1922. Since 2003, the Lockport Locks Heritage District Corporation and the City of Lockport have collaborated with federal and state agencies to successfully rehabilitate three of the five locks in the abandoned northern tier of the Flight of Five back into working order. Returning this iconic 19th Century engineering marvel to working condition has been a major component of the City of Lockport’s strategy to enhance the community’s Erie Canal attractions as a major heritage tourism destination.
Celebrating the Restoration of the Flight of Five Photo by Joed Viera; Courtesy of Lockport Locks Heritage District Corp.
In the Making
Production of America’s Stairway is ongoing. We are excited to bring this documentary to life and share this momentous moment in history with communities around the Nation.
Recently, our Producer/ Director Paul Lamont sat down with Patrick McGreevy, author of Stairway to Empire: Lockport, the Erie Canal, and the Shaping of America. McGreevy is a Professor of History and Director of the Center of American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut, he shared his expertise on this important time in our Nation’s histoty.
Our Producer/ Director Paul Lamont, along with his team, sat down with Historian Tom Chambers. As an established scholar and teacher of American History, with an emphasis on the history of tourism, war, and memory of the early republic, we are excited to have Tom share his expertise in America’s Stairway.
A Voice to America’s Stairway
We are thrilled to share that renowned actor, Liev Schreiber will be narrating "America's Stairway"! A Tony Award-winning actor, Schreiber has appeared in countless movies and TV shows, and his voice is often recognized from HBO's Hard Knocks.
Heralded as “the finest American theater actor of his generation” by the New York Times, Liev Schreiber’s repertoire of resonant, humanistic, and often gritty performances have garnered him praise in film, theater, and television.
Schreiber will next be seen in Darren Aronofsky’s new crime thriller for Sony Pictures, Caught Stealing, alongside Oscar nominee Austin Butler, Academy Award winner Regina King, Vincent D’Onofrio, Zoe Kravitz and Matt Smith. Author Charlie Huston adapted the screenplay from his book of the same name about a burned-out former baseball player who is thrown into the criminal underworld of 90s New York City.
Schreiber recently starred opposite Nicole Kidman in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple, a limited series adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s New York Times bestselling novel of the same name. When one lavish wedding ends in disaster before it can even begin – with a body discovered in Nantucket Harbor just hours before the ceremony – everyone in the wedding party is suddenly a suspect. The murder mystery series is directed and executive produced by Emmy winner Susanne Bier.
Schreiber can be seen in the war drama, Across The River And Into The Trees, alongside Josh Hutcherson, Matilda De Angelis and Danny Huston. Schreiber stars as Richard Cantwell, an American Army Colonel in post-WWII Italy, haunted by the war. Determined to spend a weekend in quiet solitude, he commandeers a military driver to facilitate a visit to his old haunts in Venice. Directed by Paula Ortiz, the film is an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s last full-length novel published during his lifetime and will be released in theaters this August.
Schreiber starred as ‘Father Flynn’ in the Broadway revival of the critically acclaimed Doubt: A Parable, opposite Amy Ryan at Todd Haimes Theatre. Set in the 1960’s, a Catholic school principal suspects improper relations between a charismatic priest and a student. She’s forced to wrestle with what’s fact, what’s fiction, and the lengths she’ll go to expose the truth. His performance in the Scott Ellis-directed play earned him a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play.
Schreiber starred as ‘Otto Frank,’ father of Anne Frank, in the National Geographic limited drama series for Disney+ A Small Light, for which he won a 2023 Hollywood Creative Alliance (HCA) TV Astra Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Broadcast Network or Cable Limited Series or TV Movie. Schreiber also recently starred with Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, and Maya Hawke in Wes Anderson’s film Asteroid City. The film premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Schreiber starred with Helen Mirren in Nicholas Martin’s Golda biopic as Henry Kissinger, which premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival.
Schreiber starred in Showtime’s Emmy-nominated American crime drama, Ray Donovan: The Movie, co-starring Eddie Marsan and directed by David Hollander. The movie is a spinoff of the Emmy-nominated series and focuses on bringing the Donovan family legacy full circle. Schreiber starred in Showtime’s critically acclaimed hit series Ray Donovan, for seven seasons. His performance garnered five Golden Globe® Award nominations in the category of Best Actor in a Television Series Drama and three Primetime Emmy® nominations as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series.
His other recent credits include Wes Anderson’s stop-motion-animated film Isle of Dogs, Anderson’s latest venture The French Dispatch, Sony’s Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, and IFC’s Chuck which he also co-produced and co-wrote. The biopic tells the story of Chuck Wepner, the liquor store salesman and heavyweight boxer given the opportunity to fight Muhammad Ali as an underdog and was the inspiration for the film Rocky. The film also stars Naomi Watts, Ron Perlman, and Elisabeth Moss.
In 2015, Schreiber starred in Spotlight, an award-winning film detailing The Boston Globe Spotlight team’s reportage on child molestation within the Catholic Church. Schreiber played Marty Baron, the editor-in-chief of The Boston Globe who assigned the journalists to the task. The film won the Oscar® for Best Picture, the Golden Globe® for Best Motion Picture Drama, and the Independent Spirit Award® for Best Picture. It was also listed on the American Film Institute’s Top Ten Films of 2015.
Schreiber's many feature credits include Sony’s The 5th Wave; Ed Zwicks’ Pawn Sacrifice; The Good Lord Bird; Lee Daniels’ The Butler; Larry David’s Clear History; Fading Gigolo; The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Salt with Angelina Jolie; X-Men Origins: Wolverine; Defiance with Daniel Craig; Repo Men; The Painted Veil; The Manchurian Candidate opposite Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington; The Sum of All Fears; Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock; Kate & Leopold; Goon; Every Day; Michael Almereyda’s Hamlet; Spring Forward; The Hurricane; A Walk on the Moon with Diane Lane; The Daytrippers; Nora Ephron's Mixed Nuts; and Wes Craven's Scream trilogy.
His portrayal of Orson Welles in Benjamin Ross' RKO 281 earned Schreiber Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award nominations.
As one of the documentary medium's foremost narrators, Schreiber has lent his voice to Bird and Magic, Mantle: 03 from Gold, A City on Fire: The Story of the ‘68 Detroit Tigers. He has also narrated numerous installments of Nova, and Nature. Additionally, he has lent his vocal talents to HBO Sports' Hard Knocks.
In 2010, Schreiber received his third Tony® nomination for his role in Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge alongside Scarlett Johansson. His performance as Ricky Roma in the 2005 Broadway revival of David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, directed by Joe Mantello, earned him his first Tony Award. He was also nominated for a Tony for his portrayal of Barry Champlain in the 2007 Broadway revival of Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, directed by Robert Falls. Other stage work includes Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the lead role opposite Janet McTeer, the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park production of Macbeth, in the lead role opposite Jennifer Ehle, directed by Moisés Kaufman; Othello; Hamlet; Henry V; and Cymbeline.
In 2005, Schreiber made his feature directorial debut with Everything is Illuminated, which he also adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling novel of the same name. The film, starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hutz, was named one of the year's 10 Best by the National Board of Review.
Schreiber is the co-founder of BlueCheck Ukraine, an organization that identifies, vets, and administers urgent financial support to the people of Ukraine since the Russian invasion of the country in 2022. Schreiber also works closely with President Volodymyr Zelensky as an ambassador for United24, an initiative the president launched to raise funds for Ukraine
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