Smelly Little Town

Madonna was born in the Rust Belt community of Bay City, Michigan, making her its most famous native by several orders of magnitude. Some see enormous opportunity for the struggling city to capitalize on its hometown hero. And yet … a myopic mayor flubbed a chance in 1985 to harbor goodwill with the rising pop icon, and matters weren’t made better when the newspaper took her description of the city out of context. What ensued was a small-town saga for the ages.

U.S. Premiere