Why the subject for Public Housing?
It s consistent with what I ve done before, looking at American institutions that affect a lot of people. Public housing has been around in the USA since the mid-30s, and I was interested in what daily life is like in a public housing development. It seemed a subject that lent itself to the technique I use.I try to immerse myself, to the extent I can, in the life of a place of which I have little prior knowledge, and I don t go in with a thesis I try to prove or disprove. The shooting of the film is the research. My response to that experience is what the final film is about. Q-So why did you decide on a housing project in Chicago? I picked Chicago not as a result of a search or a survey but because in my mind Chicago was synonymous with public housing. The Chicago Housing Authority (CHA), the city agency responsible for operating public housing, has always had difficulties; and what happens in Chicago has always been national news. That s probably what led me to Chicago, knowing that
