Centre Avenue and Crawford Street: the Hill District corner is packed with memories bitter and sweet for Leo Casino, a 55-year-old film producer and musician who left town about 40 years ago.

	Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Saxophonist Leo Casino, a Hill District native, is making a movie about people touched by violence. Click photo for larger image.

Standing in front of St. Benedict the Moor Church, Casino is across the street from Freedom Corner and the monument to Pittsburgh's civil rights fighters that was designed by his school friend, Carlos Peterson.

He points toward an area only four blocks but light years away that housed the old Hurricane, a nightclub where he played the saxophone as a 15-year-old and befriended writer James Baldwin.

Sadly, he gestures down Centre Avenue near the tidy, urbane Crawford Square development. "My mother was a prostitute and a heroin addict. She walked these streets, did tricks and got high," he said.

Casino, who grew up as Leo Harris, is back in town to make a documentary film on the Hill, a community of good folks who rescued him so that he "didn't feel like an orphan."

A succession of people looked after Casino. One family knew Lena Horne and he met the screen beauty plenty of times. Others nurtured his love of music.

There were plenty of blues, too. Casino's brother died of drugs and his "sweet, beautiful" sister was tortured by a pimp who killed her.

Casino escaped. His talents carried him to Howard University, where he became one of the first students to major in jazz. He met Quincy Jones, Miles Davis and Eartha Kitt.

Casino did well. He forged a successful music career, produced for the Geraldo news show and won induction to the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.

But he never forgot the Hill District.

"This is my Israel," he said, peering through the gate at Mellon Arena and gazing toward where his home would have been on now-gone Fullerton Street.

"It's my emotional homeland. The whole community was my parents. I had a thousand eyes watching me."

Casino is in town for five days to help his community heal. He's hoping his film, which he's mostly financing himself, will be picked up by cable. It's largely a tale of how to stop the violence, and why.

Yesterday, he walked with a film crew, talking to people on the streets about how to stem the tide of violence. He gathered old friends and classmates -- Louis "Hop" Kendrick and County Councilman Bill Robinson -- in a conference room at the Hill House Association to talk about the good old days.

Casino has a good spirit, said his friend, Bonnie McLain, who worked to bring the project together.

"He has a great love for his people, coupled with a big heart ... that is the driving force behind this man who is determined to bring about a change."

Casino said the project began a decade ago -- in his mind.

"But I had to come here and stand and feel the spirit," he said, arms stretched wide at Freedom Corner. "The destruction started here and so can the hope."