Seen through the lens of a 1970s era television camera, the building looks like it has survived a tornado—barely. Eleven stories of shattered windows and crumbling walls tower over the abandoned silence. The Gateway Arch is seen from a distance. Suddenly muffled explosions—like distant thunder—implode the foundation. In seconds, the entire dilapidated shell of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project crashes to the ground in ruins.
This is the most iconic scene from director Chad Freidrichs' award winning documentary "The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History". Celebrated for its masterful execution, the film has won numerous awards since its debut in the spring of 2011. It continues to screen at festivals in North America and Europe, but Freidrichs, an instructor in Stephens' film and media department, is letting the documentary do most of the work now.
Freidrichs' break from the chaos surrounding the film, albeit small, is deserved. Before filming, he spent two years researching the Pruitt-Igoe disaster to make sure the story was grounded in fact.
"I call it my Pruitt-Igoe master's," said Freidrichs about his lengthy investigation of the subject. His perseverance, however, led him to discover that social issues, economic woes and suburban migration were the real causes for the failure of the infamous housing project.
"I thought it was an architectural movie and—turns out—it was totally different," Freidrichs said.
The city's attempt—and ultimate failure—to provide public and welfare housing for its dwindling population left 33 11-story buildings, brand new in 1954, vacant and pillaged by the mid-'70s. The film provides audiences a deeper understanding of mid-century St. Louis.
After researching and shooting, Freidrichs spent more than a year editing the film, incorporating new footage with archival footage of the housing projects from the 1950s and '60s. It wasn't until the film's public debut that he stopped polishing.
"You never finish production until you get into a festival," Freidrichs said. "That becomes your hard deadline."
"Pruitt-Igoe" premiered at the Oxford Film Festival in Oxford, Mississippi on February 11, 2011, where it won the Best Documentary Feature Award. It screened at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana the same weekend.
Thus began a ruthless campaign of festivals for "Pruitt-Igoe". It screened at such events as the AFI Silverdocs Documentary Festival in Silver Spring, Maryland; the Stranger than Fiction Doc Series in New York City; the Oslo International Film Festival in Oslo, Norway; and the Antenna Documentary Festival in Sydney, Australia.
Freidrichs sent "Pruitt-Igoe" to more than two dozen festivals, and its multi-continent trek has gained momentum with each screening. The film won the Heartland Feature Award at the Kansas City Film Festival in Kansas City, MO, and the ABCNews VideoSource Award for best use of archival footage at the 2011 International Documentary Association Awards. It also received the American History Association's John E. O'Connor Film Award January 6. Most recently, the film was nominated for a Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award.
The film's success hasn't gone unnoticed. First Run Features, distributor of independent documentaries and foreign films based in New York City, picked up "Pruitt-Igoe" several months after Freidrichs started the film's festival run.
"They (First Run Features) have better contacts," Freidrichs said of the benefits of having a distributor promote the film versus doing it himself. Larger market screenings result in more press appearances—and press legitimizes the film, he said.
Looking at the air miles he has accumulated in the past year, one might never guess Freidrichs is, foremost, an educator.
"He could be anywhere right now, but he loves teaching," said Kerri Yost, chair of the digital film and media department at Stephens.
In fact, Freidrichs played a large role in developing the film department, which has existed only since 2004. His influence on classes has helped shape the department's curriculum into something unique. Yost said she didn't know of another college in the nation that offers classes as refined in archival editing and research as Stephens, and, for that, Freidrichs is to thank.
"He's very, very gracious with his knowledge," Yost said.
Digital filmmaking senior Mariah Overstreet agrees.
"He's more than a professor. He's a mentor," Overstreet said. "He knows what we're good at and he helps us get jobs. We're a family."
"Pruitt-Igoe" may, in fact, be doing more for Freidrichs than he knows. Seeing his success reassures students that they are in the right place, Overstreet said. They get to see him take what he's teaching them, put it to use, and show that it works.
is a member of the 
Be the first to comment on this article!