There’s an adage that goes “The pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs.”

Symbolically, what the admittedly harsh image is stating is that “pioneers who explore new territory,” or those who create new things, innovate or lead, are often targets of the “arrows” of criticism, opposition or rejection.

Dave Fry, Bill George, Bridget George and Doug Roysdon are pioneers, pioneers in the arts, pioneers of South Side Bethlehem. They were there before there was a SouthSide Arts District. Heck, they were the arts district.

I was there in the mid-1970s when reporter Bob Sprague bounded up the stairs to the Globe-Times news room on the second floor of the Fourth and Brodhead building, sat down at the Remington manual typewriter and said, “Hey, Dave Fry is turning the old donut shop into a folk music club.” It was front-page news. Still is.

A documentary film tells the story of four pioneers, and others, who transformed Bethlehem Steel’s cast-off into a locus of the arts in the Lehigh Valley.

“Rooted: A story of artists embracing place” has its world premiere as part of the SouthSide Film Festival, 2 p.m. June 15, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University. The 75-minute film is made in partnership with the SouthSide Film Institute, which runs the SouthSide Film Festival.

The film’s collaborating team of regional artists are: Doug Roysdon, Mock Turtle Marionette Theatre; Dave Fry, Godfrey Daniels Folk Music Club; Bridget George, Bach Choir of Bethlehem and Touchstone Theatre; Bill George, Touchstone Theatre, and filmmaker Aidan Gilrain-McKenna.

The film draws from more than 200 hours of interviews, new and archival video, music and photos.

According to the film-makers, “The film distills and celebrates the Bethlehem story of a community transformed by art, of artists transformed by a community.”

Bill George recounts the film’s genesis:

“The late John Pettigrew [1959-2018], chair of the history department at Lehigh University, wrote a Mellon Grant to interview people in the community, business people, government leaders, educators, about the story of culture and arts and how they grow.”

With Aidan Gilrain-McKenna behind the camera, 60 hours of documentary material was gathered, including interviews with the late Ricardo Viera (1945-2020), director of Lehigh University Art Galleries, and the late Barbara Pearson (1946-2018), dancer-choreographer-educator.

“‘Rooted’ is built from the foundation of that work,” says Bill George, adding, “Doug Roysdon was intimately involved with this project. He felt something should be done.

“We all felt there was a story. It’s funny about story. Everybody sees a little piece of it. We felt if we came together, we could see what happened,” recalls Bill George.

“Bridget [George] was empowered to go through all 60 hours of documentary footage,” says Bill George.

“We started working on this last fall. We did new interviews where we thought there were people or subject material that were missed,” recalls Bill George.

“From the beginning, we were in agreement about the importance of certain values: the striving for excellence, the importance of collaboration, the poetry of place. We were all fascinated about the problems and history of our community. And in the process of creating art, we found that it transformed the community.

“The problem we faced was that we didn’t want a lot of ‘this happened and then that happened.’ How are we going to make a story out of it that was coherent? So, we decided to focus on the four of us, and the struggle to survive, and move away from us as individuals and toward the community itself.”

A through-line emerged that gave rise to the film’s title. In early September 2024, the first of seven tree-planting ceremonies was held to honor several of the artists and places where art creation sprang up over the last decades: Parham Park, adjacent to Touchstone Theatre; Charles A. Brown Ice House Performing Arts Center; Central Moravian Church, where the Bach Choir of Bethlehem first performed; Yosko Park in South Bethlehem; Godfrey Daniels; Zoellner Arts Center, and Payrow Plaza at Bethlehem City Center and Bethlehem Area Public Library.

“It gave something to hold the story together,” notes Bill George.

“The beginnings of the demise of The Steel was a long decline, beginning in the ‘70s and finally closing in the ‘90s. Fourth Street was a desert,” Bill George says.

“Because things were so bad economically, it became possible for these small fledging arts organizations to take root a little bit. These small arts organizations, these crazy people, were like small trees and they began to grow together. And they supported each. It’s remarkably interconnected.

“From that you have a healthy, creative eco system. And that’s why small arts organizations are incredibly important to the health of a community.”

The film “Rooted,” its producers say, is “a celebration of almost 50 years of art, music and performance that transformed a community,” and includes interviews with more than 50 artists and community representatives, video and photo records of pivotal arts events from throughout the decades.

States a press release for “Rooted”:

“During the mid-1970s, a surprising shift of fortune befell the City of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. As the curtain began to fall on over a century of steelmaking, this small post-industrial community underwent an unanticipated rebirth: a transformation from a Steel Town to an Arts Town.

“That transformation has still not seen its full potential, yet awakened by government advances in the late 1960s (the new 501-C3 tax laws and emerging state arts councils) and the experimental zeitgeist of the time, idealistic artists began to transform this particular back yard of American life.

“Since then over 30 new cultural nonprofits, a dozen galleries, innumerable festivals, and an accompanying layer of small creative businesses have taken root in Bethlehem’s Lenape soil.

“A strong, artist-led and community-minded arts culture took shape on the streets, in repurposed and sometimes abandoned buildings,” the press release states.

The film will be housed in the Special Collections branch of the Lehigh University Libraries, according to Bill George.

Says Bill George: “Making the movie became part of a larger gesture, which was to celebrate the arts community and what happened here and the power of small individual artists to transform a community.

“The film is pointing ahead of us, more than behind. There’s so much ahead to grow,” Bill George says.

“Rooted: A story of artists embracing place,” 2 p.m. June 15, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Avenue, Bethlehem. Tickets: 610-758-2787, Ext. 0; Zoellner Box Office.