Comments | ellen_kushner: "At Home in Utopia": "The Coops" in the Bronx

ellen_kushner

"At Home in Utopia": "The Coops" in the Bronx - a must-see

Apr 28, 2009 23:13

Just watched "At Home in Utopia" on PBS' "Independent Lens" & was really blown away! More than just a documentary about workers' housing in the Bronx, it's a perfect bite of 20c American history: immigrants, their children, their dreams, the Depression, the War - which united Americans as one people at a time of fragmentation - the Commie witch ( Read more... )

movie, hebe

Comments 6

elissa_carey April 29 2009, 03:22:20 UTC

The timing is serendipitous: this is the era my U.S. History II class is studying. My instructor even fumbled and stammered around one of the reasons Joseph McCarthy was "Tailgunner Joe" aside from his WWII service. (My instructor is rather conservative in manner as well as his politics. I almost felt like patting him on the head.)

corva April 29 2009, 04:01:46 UTC

There are no broadcasts at anytime before 11:00 p.m. - drat! I wonder if these Coops lead into the Co-op City of my childhood? Off to do some research now and find someone with a working VCR to record the program for me.

ellen_kushner April 29 2009, 04:05:49 UTC

They did, actually - it comes right at the end!

nifwitch April 29 2009, 15:05:34 UTC

This sounds great, but I seem to have forgotten what a "TV" is.

From my Uncle Ron ellen_kushner April 29 2009, 18:18:22 UTC

He & my dad grew up in the Bronx, on Reservoir Oval. He writes:

"All of the places they mentioned, the Coops, the Sholem Aleichem Houses, and the Amalgamated were within a mile or so of where we lived. In fact, my cousin Sylvia (my father's brother Max's daughter - now 95 or so) still lives in their apartment in the Amalgamated (we used to call it the amalgies). "

DVDs available for "At Home in Utopia" anonymous May 7 2009, 16:22:02 UTC

Thanks for writing about our film. For anyone who missed the broadcast...or who wants to see over 60 minutes of special features and hear the directors commentary, you can buy a DVD at our website www.filmmakerscollab.org/films/at-home-in-utopia. DVDs for home use are $24.95 plus postage and handling. If you want to buy one for an academic institution- please go to www.newday.com. Take care, Ellen Brodsky (co-producer)