The Experimental City directed by Chad Freidrichs screens Friday June 22nd through Sunday June 24th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) as part of its St. Louis Earth Day Film Series. The film starts at 7:30pm all three nights.
In the 1960s, visionary scientist Athelstan Spilhaus, alarmed by the growing environmental crisis in America, worked with a team of committed urban experts to plan a domed city whose futuristic technology and innovative design would eradicate the pollution and waste of the modern city and lead the way to the 21st century. Spilhaus had worn many hats: respected meteorologist, oceanographer, and inventor; commissioner of the Seattle World’s Fair; and author of a popular futurist newspaper comic.
But in the mid-1960s, he became a frustrated member of a federal committee on urban pollution. To truly understand the problem, Spilhaus concocted the Minnesota Experimental City (Mxc), which would...
In the 1960s, visionary scientist Athelstan Spilhaus, alarmed by the growing environmental crisis in America, worked with a team of committed urban experts to plan a domed city whose futuristic technology and innovative design would eradicate the pollution and waste of the modern city and lead the way to the 21st century. Spilhaus had worn many hats: respected meteorologist, oceanographer, and inventor; commissioner of the Seattle World’s Fair; and author of a popular futurist newspaper comic.
But in the mid-1960s, he became a frustrated member of a federal committee on urban pollution. To truly understand the problem, Spilhaus concocted the Minnesota Experimental City (Mxc), which would...
- 6/18/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Experimental City directed by Chad Freidrichs screens Tuesday April 17th at 7:30 at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood) as part of its St. Louis Earth Day Film Series. This is a Free screening.
In the 1960s, visionary scientist Athelstan Spilhaus, alarmed by the growing environmental crisis in America, worked with a team of committed urban experts to plan a domed city whose futuristic technology and innovative design would eradicate the pollution and waste of the modern city and lead the way to the 21st century. Spilhaus had worn many hats: respected meteorologist, oceanographer, and inventor; commissioner of the Seattle World’s Fair; and author of a popular futurist newspaper comic. But in the mid-1960s, he became a frustrated member of a federal committee on urban pollution.
To truly understand the problem, Spilhaus concocted the Minnesota Experimental City (Mxc), which would be constructed in the Minnesota woods.
In the 1960s, visionary scientist Athelstan Spilhaus, alarmed by the growing environmental crisis in America, worked with a team of committed urban experts to plan a domed city whose futuristic technology and innovative design would eradicate the pollution and waste of the modern city and lead the way to the 21st century. Spilhaus had worn many hats: respected meteorologist, oceanographer, and inventor; commissioner of the Seattle World’s Fair; and author of a popular futurist newspaper comic. But in the mid-1960s, he became a frustrated member of a federal committee on urban pollution.
To truly understand the problem, Spilhaus concocted the Minnesota Experimental City (Mxc), which would be constructed in the Minnesota woods.
- 4/16/2018
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
DVD Release Date: May 15, 2012
Price: DVD $27.95
Studio: First Run Features
...and the neighborhood comes tumbling down in The Pruitt–Igoe Myth.
The 2011 documentary film The Pruitt–Igoe Myth examines the facts and fiction surrounding the well-known urban housing project built in St. Louis, Missouri in the mid-1950s.
When it was first conceived, Pruitt-Igoe was considered to be a housing marvel. Built in 1956, it was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, “the poor man’s penthouse.” As the years passed, the complex became internationally infamous for its problems, which included widespread crime, segregation and poverty. Two decades after it was constructed, Pruitt-Igoe ended in rubble – its razing an iconic event that the architectural theorist Charles Jencks famously called “the death of modernism.” The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth its failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture,...
Price: DVD $27.95
Studio: First Run Features
...and the neighborhood comes tumbling down in The Pruitt–Igoe Myth.
The 2011 documentary film The Pruitt–Igoe Myth examines the facts and fiction surrounding the well-known urban housing project built in St. Louis, Missouri in the mid-1950s.
When it was first conceived, Pruitt-Igoe was considered to be a housing marvel. Built in 1956, it was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, “the poor man’s penthouse.” As the years passed, the complex became internationally infamous for its problems, which included widespread crime, segregation and poverty. Two decades after it was constructed, Pruitt-Igoe ended in rubble – its razing an iconic event that the architectural theorist Charles Jencks famously called “the death of modernism.” The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth its failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture,...
- 5/7/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, slated to open in mid-December, will be the first major feature to be screened at 48 frames per second. Both Mike Bracken (Movies.com) and Carolyn Giardina (Hollywood Reporter) wonder just how many theaters will be able to handle the High Frame Rate Jackson and James Cameron have been promoting.
In other news. Senses of Cinema is back online with a new look.
Books. Ada Calhoun finds that Frank Langella's new memoir, Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women as I Knew Them, "paints Hollywood and Broadway as teeming with vulgar, neurotic and irresistible company, and Langella as relentlessly affable in the face of nonstop groping by famous people in far-flung locations. He ambles into history and falls into notable beds like some kind of sexy Forrest Gump or beefcake Zelig."
Reviewing Claude Lanzmann's memoir The Patagonian Hare for the New Republic,...
In other news. Senses of Cinema is back online with a new look.
Books. Ada Calhoun finds that Frank Langella's new memoir, Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women as I Knew Them, "paints Hollywood and Broadway as teeming with vulgar, neurotic and irresistible company, and Langella as relentlessly affable in the face of nonstop groping by famous people in far-flung locations. He ambles into history and falls into notable beds like some kind of sexy Forrest Gump or beefcake Zelig."
Reviewing Claude Lanzmann's memoir The Patagonian Hare for the New Republic,...
- 4/24/2012
- MUBI
"There's a broodingly meditative tone to Chad Freidrichs's Pruitt-Igoe Myth, a film whose deceptively simple, by-the-books documentary template serves dual purposes," begins Ernest Hardy in the Voice. "Freidrichs's main goal, which is fully realized, is the painstaking illustration of how racism, classism, and government serving the interests of big business all shaped the now-myth-like horrors of St Louis's notorious Pruitt-Igoe housing project. The massive complex, which at one time housed roughly 12,000 people in 33 buildings, was launched with much fanfare in the mid 1950s and touted as a solution to the city's many crime-ridden slums. It was demolished with even more fanfare in 1972 after being allowed to slide from a state-of-the-art planned community to a hellhole of violence and despair."
"Blisteringly high-res interviews with the now-grown children of Pruitt-Igoe, as well as urban planning students who studied the complexes firsthand, offer testimonial evidence to the germs of neighborhood pride that...
"Blisteringly high-res interviews with the now-grown children of Pruitt-Igoe, as well as urban planning students who studied the complexes firsthand, offer testimonial evidence to the germs of neighborhood pride that...
- 1/21/2012
- MUBI
First Run Features announced today its acquisition of the award-winning documentary The Pruitt-igoe Myth from filmmaker Chad Freidrichs. First Run is planning a March 2012 theatrical launch with VOD, home video and television to follow. The deal was negotiated by Film Sales Company head Andrew Herwitz and First Run’s Marc Mauceri.
The Pruitt-igoe Myth tells the story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home.
It began as a housing marvel. Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, “the poor man’s penthouse.” Two decades later, it ended in rubble – its razing an iconic event that the architectual theorist Charles Jenks famously called the death of modernism. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure,...
The Pruitt-igoe Myth tells the story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home.
It began as a housing marvel. Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, “the poor man’s penthouse.” Two decades later, it ended in rubble – its razing an iconic event that the architectual theorist Charles Jenks famously called the death of modernism. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure,...
- 12/13/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Patricio Guzmán's "Nostalgia for the Light" was the big winner at the 2011 International Documentary Association (Ida) Awards receiving the Best Feature trophy. Here's the full list of winners:
Career Achievement Award
Les Blank
Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award
Danfung Dennis
Best Feature Award
"Nostalgia For The Light"
Director/Writer: Patricio Guzmán
Producer: Renate Sachse
Atacama Productions (France), Blinker Filmproduction GmbH and Wdr (Germany), and Cronomedia Ltda. (Chile), Icarus Films
Best Short Award
"Poster Girl"
Director/Producer: Sara Nesson
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins (HBO)
Producer: Mitchell Block
Supervising Producer: Sara Bernstein (HBO)
Consulting Producer: Ross Kauffman
Portrayal Films, Inc. in association with HBO Documentary Films
Best Limited Series Award
"Boomtown"
Executive Producer/Director: Rachel Libert
Executive Producers: Josh Braun, Ken Druckerman, Susannah Ludwig, Banks Tarver
Co-Executive Producer: Matthew Galkin
Producer: Kevin Vargas
Left/Right Inc., Discovery Channel- Planet Green
Best Continuing Series Award
"Pov"
Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry
Co-Executive...
Career Achievement Award
Les Blank
Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award
Danfung Dennis
Best Feature Award
"Nostalgia For The Light"
Director/Writer: Patricio Guzmán
Producer: Renate Sachse
Atacama Productions (France), Blinker Filmproduction GmbH and Wdr (Germany), and Cronomedia Ltda. (Chile), Icarus Films
Best Short Award
"Poster Girl"
Director/Producer: Sara Nesson
Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins (HBO)
Producer: Mitchell Block
Supervising Producer: Sara Bernstein (HBO)
Consulting Producer: Ross Kauffman
Portrayal Films, Inc. in association with HBO Documentary Films
Best Limited Series Award
"Boomtown"
Executive Producer/Director: Rachel Libert
Executive Producers: Josh Braun, Ken Druckerman, Susannah Ludwig, Banks Tarver
Co-Executive Producer: Matthew Galkin
Producer: Kevin Vargas
Left/Right Inc., Discovery Channel- Planet Green
Best Continuing Series Award
"Pov"
Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry
Co-Executive...
- 12/11/2011
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Patricio Guzmán's Nostalgia for the Light won Best Feature at the International Documentary Association's Awards ceremony in Los Angeles last night. The La Times' Susan King: "Set in northern Chile's Atacama Desert, the documentary juxtaposes scenes of astronomers in observatories scanning the galaxies, while nearby, archaeologists and elderly women dig through the sand searching for the human remains of pre-Columbian mummies, 19th century miners who labored in slave conditions and the bodies of victims of Gen Augusto Pinochet's regime who were taken to the Atacama as political prisoners and dumped there." Michael Guillén interviewed Guzmán in October 2010.
TheWrap's Steve Pond notes that neither Nostalgia nor any of the other docs nominated for the Ida's top award — Better This World, How to Die in Oregon, The Redemption of General Butt Naked and The Tiniest Place — have made the Academy's shortlist of 15 films left in the race for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
TheWrap's Steve Pond notes that neither Nostalgia nor any of the other docs nominated for the Ida's top award — Better This World, How to Die in Oregon, The Redemption of General Butt Naked and The Tiniest Place — have made the Academy's shortlist of 15 films left in the race for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar.
- 12/3/2011
- MUBI
The 20th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival (Sliff), which began on Nov. 10, concluded on Nov. 20. Nearly 24,000 people attended . 23,948 patrons participated in fest-related events, a 23 percent increase from 2010 and a festival record.
Awards were announced at the Nov. 20 closing-night party at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark:
Audience Choice Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .In Darkness,. by Agnieszka Holland
Best International Narrative Feature: .The Artist,. by Michael Hazanavicius
Leon Award for Best Documentary Feature: .Carol Channing: Larger Than Life,. by Dori Berinstein
New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Director Award
.96 Minutes,. by Aimee Lagos ($500 cash prize)
Interfaith Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .The White Meadows,. by Mohammed Rasoulof
Best Documentary Feature: .The Welcome,. by Kim Shelton
Midrash Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .Joint Body,. by Brian Jun ($500 cash prize)
Best Documentary Feature: .The Pruitt-Igoe Myth,. by Chad Freidrichs ($300 cash prize)
Short Film Awards
Best of Fest: .Baby,. by Daniel Mulloy
Best Local Short: .My Best Wand,...
Awards were announced at the Nov. 20 closing-night party at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark:
Audience Choice Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .In Darkness,. by Agnieszka Holland
Best International Narrative Feature: .The Artist,. by Michael Hazanavicius
Leon Award for Best Documentary Feature: .Carol Channing: Larger Than Life,. by Dori Berinstein
New Filmmakers Forum Emerging Director Award
.96 Minutes,. by Aimee Lagos ($500 cash prize)
Interfaith Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .The White Meadows,. by Mohammed Rasoulof
Best Documentary Feature: .The Welcome,. by Kim Shelton
Midrash Awards
Best Narrative Feature: .Joint Body,. by Brian Jun ($500 cash prize)
Best Documentary Feature: .The Pruitt-Igoe Myth,. by Chad Freidrichs ($300 cash prize)
Short Film Awards
Best of Fest: .Baby,. by Daniel Mulloy
Best Local Short: .My Best Wand,...
- 11/24/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Better This World, The Tiniest Place and the other nominations for the 2011 Ida Awards have been announced. The 27th Annual Ida Awards (documentary awards) are presented by the International Documentary Association (Ida) “a non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media, to support the efforts of documentary filmmaking and video production makers around the world and to increase public appreciation and demand for the art of the documentary…the Ida has approximately 2,800 members in 53 countries, providing a forum for supporters and suppliers of documentary film making.”
This years presentation will see “the 2011 Career Achievement Award [awarded] to legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank. He will be presented his award by Werner Herzog. Director Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) will receive the 2011 Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.”
The full listing of the 2011 Ida Awards nominations is below.
Best Feature Award
Better This World
Directors/Producers/Writers: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega...
This years presentation will see “the 2011 Career Achievement Award [awarded] to legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank. He will be presented his award by Werner Herzog. Director Danfung Dennis (Hell and Back Again) will receive the 2011 Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.”
The full listing of the 2011 Ida Awards nominations is below.
Best Feature Award
Better This World
Directors/Producers/Writers: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega...
- 10/28/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
Ronald Reagan, Nancy Reagan in Eugene Jarecki's Reagan Euthanasia, Political Repression, Liberian Warlord: International Documentary Association Nominations David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award This award recognizes exceptional achievement in non-fiction film and video production at the university level and brings greater public and industry awareness to the work of students in the documentary field. GUAÑAPE Sur Director/Executive Producer/Writer: János Richter Executive Producers: Heidi Gronauer, Lorenzo Paccagnella Producer: Georg Zeller ZeLIG- School for Documentary, Andanafilms, Icarus Films Heart-quake Director/Writer: Mark Olexa Executive Producers: Heidi Gronauer, Lorenzo Paccagnella Producers: Georg Zeller, Nadia Caruso ZeLIG – School for Documentary River Of Victory Director/Producer: Trevor Wright Executive Director: Jack Emery Producers: A. Todd Smith, Jordan Augustine Full Mountain Pictures, Brigham Young University Smoke Songs Director/Producer/Writer: Briar March Executive Producers: Jan Krawitz, Jamie Meltzer, Kris Samuelson On the Level Production Transit Director/Writer: Regina Tan Producers: Haley Quartarone, Juvia Chua,...
- 10/27/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Updated through 6/27.
This year's Los Angeles Film Festival, running through June 26, opens tonight with the latest from Richard Linklater, and Steven Zeitchik talks with him for the Los Angeles Times: "'It was my most difficult one to get made,' he said flatly. 'It took 12 years to happen, and even then it was tough. People can say shooting in 22 days makes a movie better. It doesn't.' … Bernie is a shaggy, idiosyncratic work, possibly the strangest yet in a career full of strangeness. Set in the small town of Carthage, Texas, it tells of an effeminate, musical-loving mortician named Bernie Tiede [Jack Black] who befriends and then commits a horrible crime against a repressed wealthy matriarch [Shirley MacLaine], leaving him to face the wrath of a local prosecutor [Matthew McConaughey]. The movie is a dramatization of an actual case — the script was based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article about Tiede, and Linklater, who attended Tiede's trial,...
This year's Los Angeles Film Festival, running through June 26, opens tonight with the latest from Richard Linklater, and Steven Zeitchik talks with him for the Los Angeles Times: "'It was my most difficult one to get made,' he said flatly. 'It took 12 years to happen, and even then it was tough. People can say shooting in 22 days makes a movie better. It doesn't.' … Bernie is a shaggy, idiosyncratic work, possibly the strangest yet in a career full of strangeness. Set in the small town of Carthage, Texas, it tells of an effeminate, musical-loving mortician named Bernie Tiede [Jack Black] who befriends and then commits a horrible crime against a repressed wealthy matriarch [Shirley MacLaine], leaving him to face the wrath of a local prosecutor [Matthew McConaughey]. The movie is a dramatization of an actual case — the script was based on a 1998 Texas Monthly article about Tiede, and Linklater, who attended Tiede's trial,...
- 6/27/2011
- MUBI
In the 1950's, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project represented a new chapter in city life. The massive collection of buildings promised comfortable homes to lower class residents, but the its ideal manifestation was short-lived. Sixteen years after its erection in 1956, the city demolished Pruitt-Igoe, which had devolved into a disheveled environment marred by crime and filth. Today, it's something of a graveyard, and a symbolic one at that: Chad Freidrichs' ...
- 6/21/2011
- Indiewire
Holding court downtown from June 16-26, 2011, the Los Angeles Film Festival comprehensively curates the cinematic landscape across a variety of media. Produced by Film Independent, the festival has continued to grow in recent years, and now boasts many of the best independent films of the year.
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
- 5/3/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Magazine
Holding court downtown from June 16-26, 2011, the Los Angeles Film Festival comprehensively curates the cinematic landscape across a variety of media. Produced by Film Independent, the festival has continued to grow in recent years, and now boasts many of the best independent films of the year.
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
With the departure of the organization’s CEO, Dawn Hudson, to run the Academy, it will be interesting to see whether the festival’s director Rebecca Yeldham will stay on board past 2011. In the meantime, they’ve announced their line-up for the 2011 festival, and it includes some much buzzed about Sundance and SxSW titles (“Project Nim,” “The Future,” “Crime After Crime,” “The Salesman,” “Terri,” “Another Earth,” “The Guard,” “Natural Selection,” “Tyrannosaur,” “Where Soldiers Come From” and “Higher Ground,” to name a few), as well as 27 world, North American and U.S. premieres.
For the official list of competition and other films, as well as...
- 5/3/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
Film Independent Announces First Round Of Us & International
Film Selections For 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival,
Presented By The Los Angeles Times - 19 Films Chosen for Narrative & Documentary Competition - - International Spotlight to Focus on Cuba -
Los Angeles (May 3, 2011) . Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times, announced the first round of official Us and international selections. The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent . the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Spirit Awards . and will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries. Opening and Closing Night films, Galas, Conversations, Artists in Residence, Lafca.s Films That Got Away, along with additional special guests and programming for the Festival Talks will be announced at later dates.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday,...
Film Selections For 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival,
Presented By The Los Angeles Times - 19 Films Chosen for Narrative & Documentary Competition - - International Spotlight to Focus on Cuba -
Los Angeles (May 3, 2011) . Today the Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times, announced the first round of official Us and international selections. The 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival is produced by Film Independent . the non-profit arts organization that also produces the Spirit Awards . and will screen over 200 feature films, shorts, and music videos, representing more than 30 countries. Opening and Closing Night films, Galas, Conversations, Artists in Residence, Lafca.s Films That Got Away, along with additional special guests and programming for the Festival Talks will be announced at later dates.
Returning to downtown Los Angeles, with its central hub at L.A. Live, the Festival will run from Thursday, June 16 to Sunday,...
- 5/3/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Directed by Chad Freidrichs
2011, USA
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is an interesting and sometimes informative documentary that is good but not great. It tells the story of the Pruitt-Igoe projects in St. Louis and how they went from a promising housing utopia to a desolate and crime-ridden housing project. This is a very interesting topic and one that is ripe for a documentary, but director Chad Freidrichs, a local Columbia filmmaker, gets in his own way here through some key decisions.
The film is mostly comprised of archival footage and talking head interviews with residents of Pruitt-Igoe and historians of the period. Freidrichs gets some incredible archival footage like an interview with an African American man who can’t find a job despite looking everywhere. The man has a family and is facing institutional racism of the 1960s. That scene is truly heartbreaking to watch and yet Freidrichs...
Directed by Chad Freidrichs
2011, USA
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is an interesting and sometimes informative documentary that is good but not great. It tells the story of the Pruitt-Igoe projects in St. Louis and how they went from a promising housing utopia to a desolate and crime-ridden housing project. This is a very interesting topic and one that is ripe for a documentary, but director Chad Freidrichs, a local Columbia filmmaker, gets in his own way here through some key decisions.
The film is mostly comprised of archival footage and talking head interviews with residents of Pruitt-Igoe and historians of the period. Freidrichs gets some incredible archival footage like an interview with an African American man who can’t find a job despite looking everywhere. The man has a family and is facing institutional racism of the 1960s. That scene is truly heartbreaking to watch and yet Freidrichs...
- 3/10/2011
- by Josh Youngerman
- SoundOnSight
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