Director Chad Freidrichs Interviewed by Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

Here’s a short interview with Brian Woodman and “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth” director Chad Freidrichs.  An excerpt:

Big Sky: What kind of challenges did you face with doing a documentary with a subject so racially charged?

Chad Freidrichs: Poverty and crime, the two markers most attributed to Pruitt-Igoe’s residents, often unfairly, are extraordinarily sensitive subjects, especially when race gets involved. Those were certainly conditions that existed in Pruitt-Igoe and deeply affected many of its residents; we don’t shy away from them, but we also wanted to tell another story.

If you want to tell a truthful story about Pruitt-Igoe, a story that presents life as it was truly lived, you have to show the relative normality that prevailed. Most people in Pruitt-Igoe lived lives free of crime. And yet, that’s not often pointed out. Many were poor, but the focus often stops there. It usually doesn’t extend to the ingenuity and brave struggle that the poverty engendered.

(Full interview at Big Sky’s website)