Category: Documentary

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Review of “Dallas 2019” PBS Mini-Series

New Documentary Pulls Back the Curtain on the People Who Make Cities Run

‘Dallas, 2019’ makes it personal, following the real-world drama and complexities of day-to-day city management.

Growing up in the early 1980s, I remember tuning in every Friday to the nighttime soap opera Dallas, famous for the “Who shot J.R.?” season finale cliffhanger.

At the time, this titular Texas city represented something exciting and new, an ambitious, bold, brash city-on-the-move — a jolt of energy for a country eager to escape the pervasive ennui of the 1970s. Dallas was the future, or so we thought.

Soon, the bloom was off the rose as the show struggled to answer the essential questions of money and power in America.

But this spring, nearly five decades later, television returns to Dallas to tell a very different story — one with a lot more heart and soul, packed full of drama but free of unnecessary glitz and glamour. Billed as “an observational study of a city and its people,” the PBS/Independent Lens documentary miniseries Dallas, 2019 takes the time to sit with real people struggling with hard problems.

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It’s Time to “Punch 9 for Harold Washington”

The story begins in 1976 with the unexpected death of Mayor Richard J. Daley, who ruled every aspect of life in the city for over 20 years. His name was synonymous with the concept of the political machine. But by the 1980s, in a city with over one million Black residents — many of whom came north during the great migration seeking safety, political freedom, and a fair shot at the American Dream — a change seemed long overdue. They hoped to shun the old lines of patronage and ethnic politics and to represent the changing demographic landscape…

Read my review of Punch 9 for Harold Washington in the October issue of Planning Magazine.

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Review of “King Coal” in Planning Magazine

The film paints the rise and fall of the coal industry with broad strokes. In the 1930s, over 140,000 people were directly employed in mining in West Virginia. The industry fueled the regional economy and the expansion of manufacturing, transportation, and urbanization across the country and around the world. Today, fewer than 12,000 of these jobs remain, but the region remains steadfastly loyal to its roots. Told partly through the perspective of two young girls growing up in the shadow of “King Coal,” the film leaves the viewer to ponder not just the past but also the future of this industry, lifestyle, and culture.

See the full review in Planning Magazine.

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A Patriotic Tour of American Infrastructure on Film

As both parties in Washington wrangle over how much to spend to renew and reinvest in our nation’s roads, bridges, and rails (and more: even the definition of “infrastructure” is up for debate…), it seemed like a perfect time to review some great films exploring how these large-scale public projects actually ever got built. Items reviewed include The Race Underground from PBS/American Experience; Divided Highways: The Interstates and the Transformation of American Life (based on a book of the same name); the historical documentary that made Ken Burns a house-hold name, Brooklyn Bridge; and the epic tale of the Grand Coulee Dam (as sung by Woody Guthrie).

Here’s a link so you can read the full article in Planning.

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Raising the Roof: Celebrating Home-Building on Screen

For June, my “Plan to Watch” column in Planning features films about home-building, including Buster Keaton’s One Week, Cary Grant and Myrna Loy in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and Herself from Phyllida Lloyd. (Be sure to also click the link to learn about Home Made: A Story of Ready-Made House Building, a promotional film from Ford Motor Company on ready-made housing, a DIY-craze from an earlier era.)

Read the full article in Planning.

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