Problem: Briefly summarize the documentary. Document your reaction. Consider any outstanding questions you have, relate the documentary to your ideas and beliefs, look up and review additional resources related to the documentary, and evaluate the merit and relevance of the documentary.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
"It began as a housing marvel. Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the future model public housing project, "the poor man's penthouse." Two decades later, it ended in rubble. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs, and stigmatize public housing residents.
The documentary has two goals. One is to inform and enhance the ongoing debate over public housing and government welfare programs. The film uses Pruitt-Igoe as a lens through which a larger story about affordable housing and the changing American city can be viewed. It untangles the various arguments about what went wrong in Pruitt-Igoe and dispels the over-simplifications and stereotypes that turned Pruitt-Igoe into a symbol of failure. Second, the film illustrates how conclusions are dangerously and erroneously drawn when powerful interests control debate.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight. To examine the interests involved in Pruitt-Igoe's creation. To re-evaluate the rumors and the stigma. To implode the myth" (Pruitt-Igoe). Need Assignment Help?