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A huge electric sign in the neighborhood once proclaimed "What Chester Makes Makes Chester." These words begin the story of the former glory of a great industrial and cultural center on the Delaware River, a few miles south of Philadelphia. The documentary features the reminiscences of elderly residents who fondly recall the streets lined with shops and theaters, the factories and shipping docks by the river, and a large religious community of neighborhood churches. A sense of security and prosperity pervaded in those times, before the post-industrial economic and social changes of the 1960s.

Frankford, one of the oldest communities in the county that came to be called Philadelphia, has a rich legacy of involvement in the Underground Railroad. Located just above the Mason-Dixon line, Pennsylvania—and Philadelphia in particular—was a major hub of anti-slavery activity. An 1830 Black political convention in Philadelphia to protest and organize against slavery encouraged abolitionists to use churches as sanctuaries for fugitive slaves. Next Stop: Freedom was shot by a group of Philadelphia high school students. They focus on Campbell A.M.E.

Celebrate the work of dancer Ione Nash, a 74-year-old African American woman who has been teaching dance in community centers in Philadelphia for more than thirty years. A heroine to those who know her, Ms. Nash is grounded in her belief that passionate expression of feeling is at the heart of great dance. In this piece, interviews with several students, members of her dance troupe, her drummer/long-time collaborator Skip Burton, and others pay tribute to her iconic status as a dancer, teacher, and an honored elder of African American culture.