EVENT DETAILS

70 Acres in Chicago, a documentary film about the Cabrini Green housing project | Screening with Filmmaker Q&A

Iluminations, The Chancellor's Arts and Culture Initiative, the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy, and the Architecture and Urban Studies Research Cluster present a free public screening of the award winning documentary film 70 Acres in Chicago

For 70 years, there stood a Chicago public housing community known as Cabrini Green.Home to thousands, misunderstood by millions, Cabrini Green once towered over Chicago’s most valuable neighborhoods. A looming reminder of inequality and poverty, Cabrini’s high-rises were demolished and an African-American community cleared to make room for another social experiment: mixed-income neighborhoods.Shot over the course of 20-years, 70 Acres in Chicago documents this upheaval, from the razing of the first buildings in 1995, to the clashes in the mixed-income neighborhoods a decade later. The film tells the volatile story of this hotly contested patch of land, while looking unflinchingly at race, class, and who has the right to live in the city.

After the screening, a discussion of the film will take place with direct Ronit Bezalel, Andrew Highsmith (History, UCI),
Virginia Parks (Planning and Public Policy, UCI), and Rodolfo Torres (Planning and Public Policy, UCI).  Reception to follow.

Tickets can be reserved here.