CHRONICLE OF AN AMERICAN SUBURB
Original language title: [same]

Country of production: USA
Year: 2002
Language: English
57 mins.

Park Forest under the microscope. H. James Gilmore returned from Florida to shoot this film about his hometown south of Chicago. He visited with old-timers and town fathers, exploring the roots of this planned community. After World War II, a group of Chicago businessmen bought 2400 acres of cornfield and designed clusters of apartments around a shopping mall. Their goal was to fill it with returning veterans and other young (white) professionals. They were so successful that Park Forest became something of the quintessential suburb: it was even the subject of the seminal sociological study THE ORGANIZATION MAN, by William H. Whyte. Park Forest, Whyte wrote, was "like every other suburb, only more so...a harbinger for the way America is going to be." In this loving yet analytical film, you learn something about how right - or wrong - he was.

Director: H. James Gilmore
Script: H. James Gilmore
Cinematography: Neil D. Novello
Editing: H. James Gilmore
Producers: H. James Gilmore, Laurence Jaquith, Neil D. Novello
Production Company: Acadia Pictures, Inc.
Source:
University of California Extension/ CMIL
2000 Center St. 4th Floor
Berkeley, CA 94704, USA
hjames@aug.com

H. James Gilmore is a native of Park Forest, Illinois. He holds degrees from Kalamazoo College and the University of Iowa. His first media industry job was at WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana, where he worked as a writer and producer. He has since worked with THE CHRSTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR REPORTS and New Hampshire Public Television. He is currently assistant professor of communication at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, and executive producer of Acadia Pictures.

Saturday, March 22
5pm
Facets Cinematheque
with discussion