August 13: The Story of Cabrini Greens (with Scott Craig)
Tuesday, August 13
2:00pm – 4:00pm
Munnecke Room
$15
About 20 years ago, the fledgling Home and Garden Television Network commissioned me to make a film set in Chicago’s notorious housing project, Cabrini Green, one of the most violent locations in our nation. The story centered on a white man from the suburbs who dreamed of working with black children in the project to create a vegetable garden on the site. He teamed with a black father (one of the few living in Cabrini) to enlist the children. My film documents the story from planting to harvesting to selling the vegetables, from which the children made real money from their work. I believe that while watching this film you will at times giggle and at other moments feel a lump in your throat.
After our discussion, if there is time, I will show a short piece of television made some 60 years ago in which I was involved. I promise you, this example of “high art” will make you laugh.
SCOTT CRAIG
Scott is a retired television documentary producer. His programs have appeared on CBS, NBC, Turner, Fox, and others. He produced two series for the Home and Garden Network, The Good Life and Extreme Homes. His productions for PBS total more than 20 titles. His work has won more than 100 prestigious awards including a George Foster Peabody Award, a National Emmy, and 32 Emmys from the Chicago Chapter of the Television Academy, more Emmys than any other individual in the history of Chicago television. His programs were honored by the Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Atlanta Film Festivals, as well as the Film Festival of Italy. Scott holds a BA from the College of Wooster and an MA and PhD from the University of Illinois. He is married to Carol Bawden, owner of the Painted Bird in Suttons Bay.