watching

i've been watching some heavy documentaries lately, and they are well worth checking out. all can be streamed on Netflix.

Hot Coffee is about tort reform, so-called "frivolous" law suits, and how we are all basically signing away any rights we have to sue companies who have wronged us and/or others.

Pruitt Igoe was a public housing project in St. Louis in the 50's + 60's. touted as a truly modernist solution, due to the decline of the city of St. Louis after world war II, poor planning from city planners, and egregious maintenance, Pruitt Igoe had to be torn down in the mid 70's. i learned about Pruitt Igoe as an art student - many people point to it's demolition as the birth of postmodernism. The Pruitt Igoe Myth explores all issues of race, the decline of the American city, and speaks with people who lived in Pruitt Igoe.

Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story is actually a documentary of another documentary, one shot in the 1960's for NBC. the son of the original documentarian goes back to speak with the family of an outspoken waiter, Booker Wright, who dared to talk on national television about what life was really like in Greenwood Mississippi in the 1960's. a sad story of recent history is a great reminder that although we may think we have come a long way from racial issues in America, there is still a very long way to go.