Directed by Chris Perkel and Georgie Roland, this compelling feature film documentary premiered in competition at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival. In 1962, a trash fire ignited a seam of anthracite coal beneath Centralia, Pennsylvania -- a once thriving mining town of over 1600 people. Filmed over a period of five years with interviews ranging from former residents to Congressmen, The Town That Was is an intimate portrait of John Lokitis, the youngest remaining Centralian, and his quixotic fight to keep alive a hometown that has literally disintegrated under his feet. His unbowed determination and steadfast refusal to acknowledge defeat reveal a man, a town, a region, and a way of life abandoned and forgotten.