Film Review: Windfall

By

Paul Anderson

Director/Producer Laura Israel’s documentary film Windfall is based in the town of Meredith in upstate New York, and she does an excellent job at showing how “solutions” were offered to the hard working, well intentioned residents who needed money, or had fears of losing a dairy farm and/or a way of life, all of which were advantageous, to say the least, for shrewd prospecting wind developers.

Windfall explores how effective the techniques of contractual control and secrecy through non-disclosure agreements can destroy a community. In this particular case, AIRTRICITY, an Ireland based company, approached the town’s people to gain land leases for turbines to be installed in elevated regions of the town. The agreements between AIRTRICITY and the land owners/neighbors brought about a divide and ensured that there was no solidarity among the people who needed it most – the land owners. The results were disastrous. Unlike the poor in urban areas, the people in Windfall are land owners and moderately successful, so the mechanisms of manipulation necessitated a different tactic. The fears invoked by a potential lawsuit prevented residents from banning together to achieve the greater good for all involved as they soon found that the leases offered were merely years of inferior solutions to going green.

Windfall is a testament to how an industry can take green technology that is beneficial for society at large (i.e. alternatively fueled cars) and subvert it into another cynical shakedown of hope for the future.

I, after watching Windfall, felt the urge to get involved in some way to help expose this ongoing ruse to distract the public from viable solutions for tomorrow that are not shrouded in subterfuge. Strong communities will continue to face challenges from those who wish to benefit from the weakest parts of a divided society. It’s a great film, and one that is insightful, alarming, and very capable of moving the masses to demand what we deserve – a path to a truly green environment. Every American’s clock should go off to this wake up call, and we should hold the parties in power responsible for a cleaner, safer, more viable environment. 

Film Review: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

By
Michele Wilson-Morris

Prior to viewing The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, I’m ashamed to admit that I had a certain stereotypical view of people who lived in housing projects. I didn’t understand why there was so much crime, hatred, and needless violence. Why couldn’t they just be more “civilized” like the rest of us? I must say with all sincerity that The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, quickly and  clearly brought things into perspective for me, giving background information on how this particular housing development, Pruitt-Igoe, came to be and began its descent on a downward spiral of a decline that was irreversible. The causes were clear, and I soon realized that perhaps that the state of public housing was more than about just housing – it was about the degradation and dissolution of the black community.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth presents a very sobering and painful look at how the government, in all of its wisdom (not!), can destroy families, and how racism under the guise of public housing can be a poison to one generation after another until finally it devolves into what we have today. The “Myth” has always been based on some truth. The first families to find refuge in Pruitt-Igoe were promised that "Shining city on a hill," which in this case, turned out to be the middle of St. Louis, Missouri. But the sweetness of the new promise was laced with insidious, proven elements of social and spiritual destruction, perfected during the time of slavery in that part of the country. The deliberate prohibition of the male influence in black families who were allowed to “escape” to the promised land of Pruitt Igoe trumped all other factors in the determination of whether these families would succeed or fail, and whether communities would be born or destroyed. The enticement of the white middle-class to "escape" to the suburbs with the same federal funding that entrapped the poor predominately black families, with the myth of the 'new' American dream, was a bait and switch. The icing on this cake was the ill-prepared lack of funding for intricate building maintenance which led to deplorable living and social conditions. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth makes all viewers witnesses of the complete and absolute failure of one social experiment, and the absolute success of another -- how to make a ghetto with bitter people who have no one else to take their rage and disillusionment out on but each other. The migration of jobs and work from traditional locations of easy access for the working poor is seen today on a national scale with corporation globalization moving American jobs to the poorest countries.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is the template of systematic urban destruction under the false pretense of renewal, and this film is such an eye opener that it should be mandatory viewing in every classroom and all households so all may understand why certain things are the way they are. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth more than tugs at your heartstrings – it impacts you on such a deep level that if you have any conscience about yourself, you’ll never again be the same. The lesson learned from the film is that we have a responsibility to understand the failures of Pruitt-Igoe, learn from them, and do better.  It most certainly accomplishes its mission of imploding “the myth.”

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth was directed by Chad Freidrichs, and produced by Chad Freidrichs, Jaime Freidrichs, Paul Fehler, and Brian Woodman. It is heavily endorsed by me, the viewer and one who wishes to see the world a better place for all to live in, Michele Wilson-Morris.