NLIHC is pleased to announce that United for Action: NLIHC 2013 Housing Policy Conference & Lobby Day will feature a special Washington, D.C. screening of the widely acclaimed documentary, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth. The screening will take place Sunday evening, March 17, 2013. Chad Freidrichs, the film’s award-winning producer, will participate in an audience Q&A and discussion after the viewing.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home. At the film’s historical center is an analysis of the impact of the 1950s and 1960s urban renewal program, which prompted mass suburbanization and emptied American cities of their residents, businesses and industries. Those left behind faced a destitute, rapidly de-industrializing city; their gripping stories of survival, adaptation and success are at the heart of the film. Despite this complex history, Pruitt-Igoe itself has often been stereotyped. The world-famous image of its implosion helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, which has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs and stigmatize public housing residents. The film sets the historical record straight by examining the interests involved in Pruitt-Igoe’s creation, re-evaluating the rumors and stigma and imploding the myth.

Variety calls The Pruitt-Igoe Myth “superb” and an “uncommonly artful example of cinematic journalism.” The New York Times calls it a “shattering documentary.” It received the International Documentary Association’s 2011 ABCNEWS VideoSource award for archival footage usage and the American Historical Association’s prestigious 2012 O’Conner Film Award for outstanding interpretation of history.

Copies of The Pruitt-Igoe Myth will be available for purchase following the screening and discussion.

Learn more about the conference and reserve your hotel room early at http://bit.ly/wvGV1N.

For more on The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, visit www.pruitt-igoe.com.