Arlo Weiner is a documentary filmmaker with a deep interest in how collective memory, industrial growth, and historical events intersect. His work explores the often-overlooked personal narratives within large-scale disasters. His latest film centers around the 1947 Texas City Disaster, where a ship carrying fertilizer bound for post-war Europe exploded, causing widespread destruction and casualties in the small newly industrialized town of Texas City.

A graduate in history, Weiner has always been fascinated by how certain stories are told—and others are left out—when documenting the past. His work focuses on the hidden emotional impacts of major events, and the often conflicted relationships between communities and the industries that both sustain and threaten them.

The film Texas City came to life when Weiner connected with Carl Trepagnier, an author who survived the explosion and wrote a fictionalized account of the tragedy. Through Trepagnier, Weiner was able to gain access to other firsthand witnesses of the disaster. Weiner traveled to Texas City, interviewing residents who lived through the event as children and hearing the untold stories of survivors who had never shared their experiences, not even with their families.

In the documentary, Weiner brings to light not only the impact of the disaster itself but the larger socio-economic, generational and racial dynamics of the time, exploring how the Black community was disproportionately affected yet left out of the historical narrative.

With this project, Weiner hopes to evoke a deeper understanding of how history, childhood trauma and memory shape one another and how industrial towns, often built by their industries, remain deeply tied to them even after disaster strikes.