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Friday’s Silverdocs schedule is packed with exciting new premieres. How do you choose what to see? We’ve got another roundup of today’s best.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth-An Urban History
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a thoughtful film that examines both the mythology and the history of a St. Louis housing complex. Once monuments to modernism and the new look of the city, Pruitt-Igoe’s buildings remain in the popular imagination as little more than an instance of public housing gone terribly awry. Fraught with crime, drug abuse, and structural decay, the Pruitt-Igoe complex was eventually demolished and dismissed as a social-policy failure.
>> Full Review and Showtimes
Catching Hell
Did Steve Bartman, a quiet, unassuming man in the front row of the right-field grandstand at Wrigley Field during Game 6 of the 2003 National League Championship Series, actually screw over the Chicago Cubs? It doesn’t matter. A dozen fans jumped for that foul ball but Bartman was closest, damning him for life at the once-friendly confines. Adding to ESPN’s lauded “30 for 30” series, Alex Gibney takes his methodical analysis to the most recent insult in the Cubs’ century of failure.
The Learning
There’s nothing a karaoke sing-along can’t heal. At least that seems to be the case for a cadre of endearing Filipino women brought to Baltimore to teach science and math in periled public schools. Woven between these sing-alongs are three archetypal documentary stories packed into one film, only one of which has the depth and intrigue to shine.
Hot Coffee
Susan Saladoff’s Hot Coffee starts out with the 1994 case of Stella Liebeck, the New Mexico woman who sued McDonald’s over the temperature of its coffee after burning herself with it. If you thought Liebeck’s case was emblematic to our country’s overly litigious culture, you should see this film.
>> Full Review and Showtimes
Never Make It Home
G.J. Echternkamp started filming Kansas band Split Lip Rayfield in 2005, intending to capture footage for a music video. What he ended up documenting, however, is the final days of the band’s charismatic and hella-passionate lead singer, Kirk Rundstrom. Rundstrom was diagnosed with cancer eight months into filming; after enduring intense treatment, he was nonetheless given two months to live. So what did this family man do? He went on tour.
Also opening tonight: Fire in Babylon, Incendiary: The Willingham Case, Scenes of a Crime, and Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. View the entire slate of Silverdocs coverage.