IRONTON — The multi-award-winning documentary film, “Peerless City,” which has screened at
several regional film festivals, will be playing at Ohio University Southern Campus, in Bowman
Auditorium, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10.
The event is free, but registration is required.
“Peerless City” documents the story of Portsmouth, Ohio, a once-booming port city on the Scioto
River that later became known as the “pill mill capital of America” and was blamed for starting the
opioid epidemic. Co-director Amanda Page, who is from Portsmouth, tells the story of the city from
its days of bustling industry when it was called a peerless city to its challenges in the recent past
and the city’s forward-looking recovery efforts.

Although the film focuses on Portsmouth, viewers in nearby Ironton and beyond will relate to its story.

“Like a lot of communities in Appalachia, especially in river cities in Appalachia, Portsmouth was hit
hard by deindustrialization, the loss of its major employers and the loss of quite a bit of its
population. Then it was hit hard by the opioid epidemic,” Page said in a news release. “Taking a look
at the history of Portsmouth the way we are in this film and its recovery efforts will offer people in
other cities similar to Portsmouth a glimpse of how they can look at their own communities and start
to develop a sense of greater pride and a sense of recovery for those communities.”
Page, a graduate of Ohio University who began her collegiate journey at the Southern campus, will
be present to discuss the film and answer audience questions.
“‘Peerless City’ is a historical film in that it covers certain historical aspects of the city of Portsmouth,
and I really learned how important history was to me from sitting in lectures with [professor emeritus]
Dr. Leith,” Page said. “I took American history with him, and I’ll never forget how I could listen to him
talk about history forever. When I designed my own major, I kept history as a significant portion of
my curriculum — and that all started at OU Southern. It’s important to come back to OU Southern
because I consider it a home.”
“Peerless City” was made possible through funding from Ohio Humanities and the Ohio Arts
Council. For more information on the film and to watch the trailer, visit https://www.
peerlesscity.com/.
For questions about the screening in Ironton specifically, contact Barbara Biggs via email at
costas@ohio.edu or by phone at 740-533-4622.