It’s not just Hunting Wives. Two prominent filmmakers were planning to shoot in Charlotte — one of them the granddaughter of the man who made It’s a Wonderful Life, the other a Broadway legend. Then North Carolina’s film money ran out.

Dae-Lee Arrington is mounting a campaign to reconnect the people who run Charlotte — before the city’s biggest decisions arrive this fall. He started by asking nine of the city’s most accomplished artists to make a song.

How Tom Gabbard helped turn a cautious city into a national arts leader — and change its own story.