TEACHER’S GUIDE
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code
2018 • 54 minutes • Directed by Judith Helfand • Distributed by Bullfrog Films
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code is a story about a severe example of environmental injustice and the people most
affected by it. In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced an unthinkable disaster triggered by extremely high
humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution that drove the heat index to more than 126°F (52°C).
Cooked revisits this tragic heat wave in which 739 citizens died over the course of a single week, most of
them poor, elderly, and African American.
Behind the shocking headlines filmmaker Judith Helfand finds a long-term crisis, a “slow-motion disaster”
fueled by poverty, economics, social isolation, and racism.
Viewer advisory: This film includes news footage from 1995 of emergency personnel moving victims in body bags.
Teacher’s Guides may be copied and shared but not sold.
Face to Face Media 2022
CURATOR
Rajashree Ghosh
Affiliated Scholar, Women’s Studies
Research Center, Brandeis University
WHY I SELECTED THIS FILM
Throughout the film Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, filmmaker Judith
Helfand argues that there is an inextricable connection between
environmental injustice and racism as she explores the impact of the
1995 Chicago heat wave that caused hundreds of deaths. The people
most affected, she finds, often live in zip codes that are underserved,
under-resourced, and ill equipped to deal with extreme events like
heat waves, hurricanes, forest fires, and, more recently, pandemics.
An examination of these disasters reveals structural inequalities that
make poor communities and communities of color vulnerable to these
events. The film is an important teaching tool and will promote
critical classroom discussions about how social location, privilege,
and disadvantage intersect to create very different impacts and
experiences within society.
SUGGESTED SUBJECT AREAS
African American Studies Medicine
Environmental Justice Meteorology
Environmental Sciences Political Science
Epidemiology Social Policy
Gerontology Sociology
Management Sciences Urban Economics and Planning
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOCUS
The film was inspired by Eric Klinenberg’s book Heat Wave: A Social
Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, which examines the July 1995 heat
wave. Klinenberg and filmmaker Judith Helfand both make the case
for environmental health equity as they point out the damage to
communities inflicted by racially restrictive covenants, redlining by
banks, a lack of safety, exclusion from political engagement in
land-use planning, and inadequate health care, all of which
contribute to a slow-motion environmental and social disaster
created by humans and driven by systemic racism.
SYNOPSIS
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of a
tragic heat wave, the most traumatic in U.S. history
at the time, in which 739 citizens died over the
course of a single week, most of them poor, elderly,
and African American.
The film questions existing policy as it explores
a slow-motion disaster that continues to disrupt
and shorten the lives of Chicago residents in
neighborhoods like Englewood, a district ravaged by
pernicious poverty, social isolation, and racism.
This is a place where one resident says, “It’s easier
to buy a gun than a tomato.” One epidemiologist
concludes that 3,200 people die each year from
preventable illnesses in such Chicago
neighborhoods. The filmmaker comes to question
policies that ignore these kinds of ongoing disasters
while preparing, at the same time and at great
expense, for rare events like earthquakes.
The film does find reason to hope for change
because of two community-based initiatives that
address current inequities. Sinai Urban Health
Institute actively reaches out to residents, and an organic farm that
grows vegetables for residents of Englewood calls itself a “human
emergency plan.”
Cooked raises key questions: Can we realign our social priorities?
Can we expand the definition of “disaster” to include socially
patterned deprivation? Would doing so allow us to address the
slow-motion disasters that kill people every day just because they
live in the wrong zip code?
KEY LOCATIONS
Westchester County, New York
Englewood, Chicago, Illinois
Cook County, Illinois
New Madrid Seismic Zone, Tennessee
New Orleans, Louisiana
Paducah, Kentucky
This film is searing,
smart and insightful...
[it] asks important
questions with humor,
humility, and humanity.
This film can be used in
a wide range of
classrooms with social
and ethnic studies and
health policy as well as
in public contexts of
churches, community
groups, and other
venues.
Julie Sze, Professor,
American Studies, UC-Davis
PEOPLE FEATURED
Valerie Brown – granddaughter of Alberta Brown,
who died in the heat wave
Richard Daley – mayor of Chicago from 1989 to 2011
Dr. Edmund Donoghue – chief medical examiner, Cook County
Jim DuPont – President, RescUSA, Illinois Urban Search and Rescue
Maureen Finn – forensic scientist,
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office
Geraldine Flowers – church elder, Sweet Holy Baptist Church
Oreletta Garmon – community health worker
Shirl Gatling – Gatling’s Chapel and Funeral Services
Judith Helfand – film director
Brigadier General John Heltzel – director,
Kentucky Emergency Management
Sadhu Johnston – chief environmental officer, City of Chicago
Eric Klinenberg – author of Heat Wave:
A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
Michele Landis Dauber – author of The Sympathetic State
Reverend Joseph Ledwell
Mike McReynolds – medical examiner,
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office
Dr. Linda Rae Murray – medical officer (ret.),
Cook County Department of Public Health
Andy Nebel – reporter at ABC
Toni Preckwinkle – board president,
Cook County Board of Commissioners
Colleen and Jeremiah Scott – residents of Englewood
Celevia Taylor – community health worker,
Sinai Urban Health Institute
Bessie Trotter – Action Coalition of Englewood
Steve Whitman – chief epidemiologist, City of Chicago
Orrin Williams – community organizer, Englewood, Chicago
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
WHY I SELECTED THIS FILM
Throughout the film Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, filmmaker Judith
Helfand argues that there is an inextricable connection between
environmental injustice and racism as she explores the impact of the
1995 Chicago heat wave that caused hundreds of deaths. The people
most affected, she finds, often live in zip codes that are underserved,
under-resourced, and ill equipped to deal with extreme events like
heat waves, hurricanes, forest fires, and, more recently, pandemics.
An examination of these disasters reveals structural inequalities that
make poor communities and communities of color vulnerable to these
events. The film is an important teaching tool and will promote
critical classroom discussions about how social location, privilege,
and disadvantage intersect to create very different impacts and
experiences within society.
SUGGESTED SUBJECT AREAS
African American Studies Medicine
Environmental Justice Meteorology
Environmental Sciences Political Science
Epidemiology Social Policy
Gerontology Sociology
Management Sciences Urban Economics and Planning
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOCUS
The film was inspired by Eric Klinenberg’s book Heat Wave: A Social
Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, which examines the July 1995 heat
wave. Klinenberg and filmmaker Judith Helfand both make the case
for environmental health equity as they point out the damage to
communities inflicted by racially restrictive covenants, redlining by
banks, a lack of safety, exclusion from political engagement in
land-use planning, and inadequate health care, all of which
contribute to a slow-motion environmental and social disaster
created by humans and driven by systemic racism.
SYNOPSIS
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of a
tragic heat wave, the most traumatic in U.S. history
at the time, in which 739 citizens died over the
course of a single week, most of them poor, elderly,
and African American.
The film questions existing policy as it explores
a slow-motion disaster that continues to disrupt
and shorten the lives of Chicago residents in
neighborhoods like Englewood, a district ravaged by
pernicious poverty, social isolation, and racism.
This is a place where one resident says, “It’s easier
to buy a gun than a tomato.” One epidemiologist
concludes that 3,200 people die each year from
preventable illnesses in such Chicago
neighborhoods. The filmmaker comes to question
policies that ignore these kinds of ongoing disasters
while preparing, at the same time and at great
expense, for rare events like earthquakes.
The film does find reason to hope for change
because of two community-based initiatives that
address current inequities. Sinai Urban Health
Institute actively reaches out to residents, and an organic farm that
grows vegetables for residents of Englewood calls itself a “human
emergency plan.”
Cooked raises key questions: Can we realign our social priorities?
Can we expand the definition of “disaster” to include socially
patterned deprivation? Would doing so allow us to address the
slow-motion disasters that kill people every day just because they
live in the wrong zip code?
Filmmaker Judith Helfand
KEY LOCATIONS
Westchester County, New York
Englewood, Chicago, Illinois
Cook County, Illinois
New Madrid Seismic Zone, Tennessee
New Orleans, Louisiana
Paducah, Kentucky
PEOPLE FEATURED
Valerie Brown – granddaughter of Alberta Brown,
who died in the heat wave
Richard Daley – mayor of Chicago from 1989 to 2011
Dr. Edmund Donoghue – chief medical examiner, Cook County
Jim DuPont – President, RescUSA, Illinois Urban Search and Rescue
Maureen Finn – forensic scientist,
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office
Geraldine Flowers – church elder, Sweet Holy Baptist Church
Oreletta Garmon – community health worker
Shirl Gatling – Gatling’s Chapel and Funeral Services
Judith Helfand – film director
Brigadier General John Heltzel – director,
Kentucky Emergency Management
Sadhu Johnston – chief environmental officer, City of Chicago
Eric Klinenberg – author of Heat Wave:
A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
Michele Landis Dauber – author of The Sympathetic State
Reverend Joseph Ledwell
Mike McReynolds – medical examiner,
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office
Dr. Linda Rae Murray – medical officer (ret.),
Cook County Department of Public Health
Andy Nebel – reporter at ABC
Toni Preckwinkle – board president,
Cook County Board of Commissioners
Colleen and Jeremiah Scott – residents of Englewood
Celevia Taylor – community health worker,
Sinai Urban Health Institute
Bessie Trotter – Action Coalition of Englewood
Steve Whitman – chief epidemiologist, City of Chicago
Orrin Williams – community organizer, Englewood, Chicago
As the planet heats up,
we are faced with one
natural disaster after
another.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
WHY I SELECTED THIS FILM
Throughout the film Cooked: Survival by Zip Code, filmmaker Judith
Helfand argues that there is an inextricable connection between
environmental injustice and racism as she explores the impact of the
1995 Chicago heat wave that caused hundreds of deaths. The people
most affected, she finds, often live in zip codes that are underserved,
under-resourced, and ill equipped to deal with extreme events like
heat waves, hurricanes, forest fires, and, more recently, pandemics.
An examination of these disasters reveals structural inequalities that
make poor communities and communities of color vulnerable to these
events. The film is an important teaching tool and will promote
critical classroom discussions about how social location, privilege,
and disadvantage intersect to create very different impacts and
experiences within society.
SUGGESTED SUBJECT AREAS
African American Studies Medicine
Environmental Justice Meteorology
Environmental Sciences Political Science
Epidemiology Social Policy
Gerontology Sociology
Management Sciences Urban Economics and Planning
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE FOCUS
The film was inspired by Eric Klinenberg’s book Heat Wave: A Social
Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, which examines the July 1995 heat
wave. Klinenberg and filmmaker Judith Helfand both make the case
for environmental health equity as they point out the damage to
communities inflicted by racially restrictive covenants, redlining by
banks, a lack of safety, exclusion from political engagement in
land-use planning, and inadequate health care, all of which
contribute to a slow-motion environmental and social disaster
created by humans and driven by systemic racism.
SYNOPSIS
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of a
tragic heat wave, the most traumatic in U.S. history
at the time, in which 739 citizens died over the
course of a single week, most of them poor, elderly,
and African American.
The film questions existing policy as it explores
a slow-motion disaster that continues to disrupt
and shorten the lives of Chicago residents in
neighborhoods like Englewood, a district ravaged by
pernicious poverty, social isolation, and racism.
This is a place where one resident says, “It’s easier
to buy a gun than a tomato.” One epidemiologist
concludes that 3,200 people die each year from
preventable illnesses in such Chicago
neighborhoods. The filmmaker comes to question
policies that ignore these kinds of ongoing disasters
while preparing, at the same time and at great
expense, for rare events like earthquakes.
The film does find reason to hope for change
because of two community-based initiatives that
address current inequities. Sinai Urban Health
Institute actively reaches out to residents, and an organic farm that
grows vegetables for residents of Englewood calls itself a “human
emergency plan.”
Cooked raises key questions: Can we realign our social priorities?
Can we expand the definition of “disaster” to include socially
patterned deprivation? Would doing so allow us to address the
slow-motion disasters that kill people every day just because they
live in the wrong zip code?
KEY LOCATIONS
Westchester County, New York
Englewood, Chicago, Illinois
Cook County, Illinois
New Madrid Seismic Zone, Tennessee
New Orleans, Louisiana
Paducah, Kentucky
PEOPLE FEATURED
Valerie Brown – granddaughter of Alberta Brown,
who died in the heat wave
Richard Daley – mayor of Chicago from 1989 to 2011
Dr. Edmund Donoghue – chief medical examiner, Cook County
Jim DuPont – President, RescUSA, Illinois Urban Search and Rescue
Maureen Finn – forensic scientist,
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office
Geraldine Flowers – church elder, Sweet Holy Baptist Church
Oreletta Garmon – community health worker
Shirl Gatling – Gatling’s Chapel and Funeral Services
Judith Helfand – film director
Brigadier General John Heltzel – director,
Kentucky Emergency Management
Sadhu Johnston – chief environmental officer, City of Chicago
Eric Klinenberg – author of Heat Wave:
A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
Michele Landis Dauber – author of The Sympathetic State
Reverend Joseph Ledwell
Mike McReynolds – medical examiner,
Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office
Dr. Linda Rae Murray – medical officer (ret.),
Cook County Department of Public Health
Andy Nebel – reporter at ABC
Toni Preckwinkle – board president,
Cook County Board of Commissioners
Colleen and Jeremiah Scott – residents of Englewood
Celevia Taylor – community health worker,
Sinai Urban Health Institute
Bessie Trotter – Action Coalition of Englewood
Steve Whitman – chief epidemiologist, City of Chicago
Orrin Williams – community organizer, Englewood, Chicago
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
The health inequities
that exist are not
accidents. They are
created by people.
Linda Rae Murray,
medical officer, Cook County
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
3,200 people die from
racism each year.
Steve Whitman, epidemiologist
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Helfand’s brilliance in
Cooked is precisely the
way she shifts and
re-orients our entire
social mentality and
approach to thinking
about racism, poverty,
and disaster. She asks
us to think about and
redefine racism and
poverty as, indeed,
disasters.
Tim Libretti, People’s World
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
Everything is about race.
Mike Mceynolds,
Chicago medical examiner
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewellen-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
The film challenges
then-Mayor Richard
Daley’s description of
heat-stroke fatalities as
‘non-violent deaths’,
urging us instead to see
this loss of life as part
of a bigger story of
structural violence
against communities of
color.
Neil Singh, a primary care physician
and senior teaching fellow at
Brighton and Sussex Medical School
(See review in Medical Humanities)
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
VIEWING TIME
Cooked: Survival by Zip Code was originally released as an
82-minute feature-length film and a 54-minute educational version.
The 54-minute version, included in this collection, was broadcast by
PBS on the Independent Lens series.
IF TIME IS SHORT
Where viewing time is limited, five excerpts with a combined length
of 27 minutes could be assigned for viewing or screened in class.
See page 10 for a description of these excerpts.
OUTLINE OF THE 54MINUTE VERSION
Opening: “Disaster through lens of privilege” (00:00–04:09)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand and her family are preparing for Hurricane
Sandy. They are well supplied with generators, flashlights, tools, and
even a boat. She’s confident that her family will be secure and safe as
the storm hits.
Reflecting on her position of privilege in the face of a disaster,
Helfand sets out to explore the story of the catastrophic but largely
forgotten heat wave that killed hundreds of Chicago residents in 1995,
as documented by Eric Klinenberg in Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of
Disaster in Chicago. Retracing that disaster takes Helfand to its
epicenter in South Chicago (opening title).
Non-violent deaths?
(04:10–13:50)
As temperatures rose to 104°F
(40°C) on July 13, 1995, the
residents of Chicago tried to
cope. Mayor Richard Daley
downplayed the danger even
as hospitals were overflowing
with patients suffering from
heat-related illnesses, and
people began to die.
Valerie Brown recalls trying to
reach her grandmother on the
phone. Her grandmother was
found at home, in bed, deceased.
Her windows had been nailed
shut. As the death toll climbed,
refrigerator trucks were brought
in to store bodies.
The Medical Examiner’s Office couldn’t keep up. “It was like a war
zone,” forensic scientist Maureen Finn said. On Saturday morning
there were 87 bodies. The next morning there were 83 more, and then
another 117 the following day.
As the number of deaths mounted the mayor hedged, saying it was
not certain that the deaths were due to excessive heat but allowing
that the number of “non-violent” deaths were increasing. Examining
old footage and exploring the cause of the deaths, Helfand realizes
that people had to make an agonizing choice between staying safe
and staying cool. The death rate is the greatest in poor
neighborhoods on the West and South Sides.
“Everything is about race.” (12:50–17:32)
Medical examiner Mike McReynolds, intake
supervisor at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s
Office, recites a saying that in Chicago,
“Everything is about race.” Helfand asks about the
disproportionate number of deaths among Blacks.
Mayor Daley blames family members of senior
citizens who died all alone and accuses the Medical
Examiner’s Office of exaggerating the number of
deaths. Resident Geraldine Flowers points to a lack
of compassion as a cause. The bodies of 41
unclaimed victims are buried. The death toll rises,
especially in under-served poor neighborhoods.
Mapping heat and social conditions
(17:33–21:52)
Steve Whitman, chief epidemiologist for the City of
Chicago, presents a key map showing communities
with high poverty rates, with an overlay showing
where heat-related deaths occurred.
The mayor creates a task force and an emergency
plan, but the plan does not address the issue of
poverty or the social fau
lt lines that leave some
neighborhoods at the mercy of the heat wave.
Whitman says what is needed is “a social evil
remedying plan.”
The slow motion disaster
(21:53–24:45)
Police tell children to “back off”
as they shut down the spray
from a hydrant. Meanwhile,
across town by the lakeshore,
the Buckingham Fountain puts
on a spectacular display. Author
Eric Klinenberg worries about
the collective failure to address
these everyday crises, calling
them “disasters in slow motion.”
The aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina in New Orleans provides
further evidence of systemic
denial and neglect.
The discussion pivots to
uncomfortable topics, including
the impact of generations of
racism and denial. The recovery
plan for New Orleans, with its
focus on physical repairs to the
dikes, is an example.
The impact of entrenched racism and denial
(24:46 – 35:45)
In Chicago, the mayor’s climate action plan will develop a “green roof”
for city hall. In South Chicago, community organizer Orrin Williams
laments the continued erosion of a once-vibrant and safe
neighborhood after it was cut off by redlining by the banks.
With gradual disinvestment, he says, communities were
“left out” and “forgotten.”
Chicago epidemiologist Steve Whitman demonstrates that the
differences between Black and white communities in measures of
health are growing. Life expectancy in Black communities is 65 years.
For whites, it is 81 years. Whitman goes on to say that 3,200 people
die in Chicago from health inequities due to racism every year.
If the same number of people died from terrorism, Helfand suggests,
it would be a national tragedy; but dying predictably, from readily
treatable diseases, is not treated as
a disaster.
2. What does Klinenberg mean when he says natural disasters are
more “seen” and visible? Why is it different for unnatural disasters
that are man-made? (04:08–05:15)
3. How does Alberta Washington’s fate resemble those of several
others who perished in the heat wave?
(06:38–07:40, 15:37–16:20)
4. There was a media frenzy related to the heat wave in 1995 in
Chicago. What did the media focus on at the time, and what was
the underreported story? (10:54–11:22)
5. What is problematic in the mayor’s statement that “all neighbor-
hoods were impacted by the heat wave”? What is Klinenberg’s
opinion on that? (19:26–20:21)
6. What was the “heat emergency plan”? Why did epidemiologist
Steve Whitman lack confidence in it? (20:31–21:52)
7. What does Klinenberg mean when he says he is “concerned with
the collective failure to address the everyday crisis, the disaster
in slow motion”? (22:37–23:25)
8. Following the discussion of Hurricane Katrina and its impact on
New Orleans, the focus of the documentary shifts to an examina-
tion of the impact of generations of racism and denial. Why is this
a pivotal moment for the filmmaker and the film? (23:35–24:45)
9. How did the practices of redlining and contract buying exploit
families of color and affect their neighborhoods? (27:41–32:14)
10. Using Steve Whitman’s research findings, how would you describe
a Black neighborhood and the people’s living conditions?
(32:15–35:00) See also Whitman, Steve (2010),
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Chicago.
11. Note the variety of maps and overlays shown in the film. How do
maps help us examine the health risk factors for African Americans
and their relative vulnerability? Why does the map of heat deaths
overlap with other demographic indicators? Discuss. (32:15–35:00)
12. Disaster preparedness is a well-funded industry. Explain.
(35:10–43:35)
13. What is the difference between a disaster kit and a “get through
the week” kit?
14. How do organizations like Sinai Urban Health Institute and Grow-
ing Home organic farm provide a sign of hope? (45:10–50:05)
15. How would an expanded definition of disaster help in realigning
national priorities? (52:14–53:40)
Disaster-prevention/preparedness (35:45–45:12)
Judith Helfand attends disaster preparedness exercises in Cook County
and in Kentucky, two of many exercises in a rapidly expanding national
industry. Helfand finds expensive resources standing by in preparation
for fire, earthquakes, or floods. Could these resources instead be
applied to communities struck by unnatural disasters? In Kentucky,
the exercise director agrees that emergency management plans don’t
address poverty issues because they are not thought of as disasters.
Finding help, and hope, in
communities
(45:13–50:05)
Vulnerable communities rely on
their ingenuity and meager
resources. With help from the
Action Coalition of Englewood,
residents line up to receive a
$150-a-year subsidy on heating
bills. Community health workers
from Sinai Urban Health Institute
reach out to women to alleviate
their health issues. Growing
Home, an organic farm in
Englewood, sees itself as a
“human emergency plan” and a
sign of hope.
Redefining disaster
(50:06-53:40)
The filmmaker calls for
expanding the definition of
disaster so that underlying
conditions that are killing
thousands of people each year
in places like Chicago could be
addressed. Lives could be saved.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
For the 54-minute version
1. Why does Helfand feel privileged as Hurricane Sandy is about to
hit her hometown in Westchester County, New York? How is her
experience of disaster planning different from those of others who
are less fortunate? (00:48–03:33)
WHEN TIME IS SHORTOUTLINE OF EXCERPTS
If time is short, these five selected excerpts, with a total length of
27 minutes, can be viewed in class or assigned for viewing outside of
class. Discussion questions and activities tailored for these excerpts
are suggested below.
An unthinkable disaster: Chicago 1995 (00:00–11:22)
Filmmaker Judith Helfand investigates a catastrophic heat wave that
killed more than 730 people living in under-resourced and under-
served neighborhoods of Chicago in 1995 and uncovers the “unnatural”
causes that caused the deaths of many people, largely elderly and
Black. Many victims were “cooked” to death behind closed doors and
windows. Chicago’s mayor attempted to minimize the crisis, but as
triple-digit temperatures continued, hospitals were inundated.
“It was like a war zone,” a medical examiner recalls.
Environmental injustice: Mapping a slow-motion disaster (15:37–18:10)
Unclaimed victims are buried. The final death tally is 739. Linda Rae
Murray talks about the city’s inappropriate handling of the heat crisis.
Steve Whitman shows a map of Chicago that demonstrates heat
deaths in areas with high poverty rates. Would these people have
died had the heat wave not happened?
What happened to Orrin
Williams’ neighborhood in
South Chicago? (25:40–29:55)
Community organizer Orrin
Williams takes the filmmaker on
a tour of a once-thriving neigh-
borhood in southwest Chicago.
Englewood has seen redlining
by banks, disinvestment, compa-
nies moving out, churches
burned, boarded-up buildings,
loss of services, and the develop-
ment of a food desert. What was
once a vibrant community
disappeared as redlining and
contract buying deliberately
undermined homeownership by
Black families. These were highly
political decisions, Helfand finds,
that allowed racism to thrive.
Maps reveal the cumulative
impact of generations of denial
and deprivation.
Disaster is big business (35:00–38:18)
Filmmaker Helfand records natural disaster preparedness exercises in
Cook County. On display is $47 million worth of equipment, including
emergency vehicles and a “morgue on wheels;” extra food drills are
practiced and ventilation units readied in case of earthquakes or fires.
Could some of these resources be diverted to communities struck by
unnatural disasters? Or could the definition of disaster be expanded
to include the slow-motion disaster that is consuming neighborhoods
like Englewood?
Signs of hope (45:10–50:05)
Organizations like Action Coalition of Englewood and Growing Home
organic farm are working in the community to address structural
inequities. Helfand finds their work to be of critical importance in
addressing inequities and providing people opportunities for a better
life. By expanding the definition of disaster to include human
emergency, the underlying conditions that are killing thousands
of people each year could be addressed.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS TO ACCOMPANY THE
SELECTED EXCERPTS
1. Discuss some of the conditions during the 1995 heat wave in Chicago.
2. What does the film title Cooked mean?
3. Why is the heat wave a forgotten event?
4. What do Steve Whitman’s maps reveal?
5. Are specific neighborhoods more vulnerable to heat waves than
others? Discuss.
6. How have race and
economic class played a role
in Englewood’s decline?
7. What were some of the
processes instituted by
banks and other lenders that
deprived Black residents of
homeownership?
8. Can community action
address the existing social
fault lines? Refer to the
sequence titled
“Signs of hope.”
ACTIVITIES
A. Break into groups and reflect on different identities as well as
diversity within and across groups. Explore assumptions and
expectations from participants identifying with different racial
backgro
unds. Some topics that may be used for this exercise:
– Vic
e President Kamala Harris, a woman and person of color,
achieves political office. How does she describe herself?
How would you describe her?
– Juneteenth was made a federal holiday. Why do some call it the
second Independence Day?
– Commen
t on the CDC’s guidelines to deal with extreme heat
and explore how they impact different communities.
B. W
rite a one-pager about one of the following disasters, discussing
the disproportionate impact on low-income people and
communi-
ties of color as demonstrated by the government’s response:
–
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”
–
Flint, Michigan: lead in the water supply
–
The Dakota Access Pipeline and its impact on indigenous
populations
–
Investigate the deadly heat dome in western Canada in 2021.
How many people died and who were the most vulnerable?
How was this disaster similar to or different from the Chicago
heat wave?
– Puerto Rico, a U.S. colony, was damaged by Hurricanes Maria
and Irma in 2017. What was the role of race and racism in
emergency response and recovery in the aftermath of these
hurricanes? Or, more deeply, how did these storms and their
aftermath expose colonial laws and practices resting on white
racial superiority? See Carlos Rodríguez-Diaz and Charlotte
Lewell
en-Williams’ Race and Racism as Structural
Determinants for Emergency and Recovery Response in the
Aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico.
– Explore your state or provincial emergency response guidelines.
C. COVID-19, also a disaster, is disproportionately impacting environ-
mental justice communities. In your state or province, what steps
have been taken to ensure investments designed to help communi-
ties respond and recover from the pandemic are actually going to
communities that need them the most?
D. COVID-19 in Chicago tells a story of social vulnerability and racial
inequity. Download and discuss this paper.
E. Develop a map of your neighborhood, plotting density, income,
education, housing, health (including COVID-19 levels, if available),
and overall mortality levels.
F. Visit communities that were redlined. Meet with organizations
working in those communities. Develop focus group discussions
and interviews to understand inequity issues.
Read an article on redlining.
G. Explore resource hubs and geographic information system (GIS)
applications that develop racial equity maps.
H. See the catastrophe from the perspective of residents, physicians,
reporters, paramedics, politicians, and relatives of victims.
I. View Chicago’s current heat emergency plan.
J. Discuss whether racial inequities are addressed in FEMA’s
National Disaster Recovery Plan: Chicago Tribune Article
Highlights Significant Disparities in FEMA Disaster Relief
Response Between White and Black Communities.
K. Find out about environmental justice communities in and
around where you live. Map them according to location, health,
education, and income indices.
L. Read about environmental racism.
M.
View a panel discussion that includes filmmaker Judith Helfand and
Cook County Board of Commissioners President Toni Preckwinkle.
Environmental Justice
affirms the need for
urban and rural
ecological policies to
clean up and rebuild
our cities and rural
areas in balance with
nature, honoring the
cultural integrity of all
our communities, and
provided fair access for
all to the full range of
resources.
One of the 17 Principles of Environ-
mental Justice developed by the
First National People of Color
Environmental Leadership Summit.
Washington D.C., 1991
Cooked / Global Environmental Justice Documentaries
