Cooked: Survival by Zip Code

This audacious look at natural disaster American-style starts with the stark premise that a zip code can be an accurate predictor of life or death.

Inspired by Eric Klineberg’s book, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Helfand (BLUE VINYL) takes a hard, personal, and often quirky look at the inequity of natural disaster, beginning with her family’s own experience of Hurricane Sandy. She ultimately zeroes in on Chicago’s shockingly inadequate response to the deadly July 1995 heatwave, during which the city morgue overflowed with the sudden deaths of 726 citizens, largely the elderly and people of color from the city’s impoverished South and West Side. This audacious look at natural disaster American-style starts with the stark premise that a zip code can be an accurate predictor of life or death when nature unleashes its worst. With increasing frequency and force, climate change sets the agenda for hurricanes, floods, heatwaves, and such, but systemic neglect, deep poverty, and political expediency have already drawn the line between the survivors and the doomed, even before disaster strikes. DCP digital. (BS)

On Cooked’s initial run, critics raved:

"For those who don't know the story: You need to see this movie."

– Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

"As Helfand asks, “What if with a slight torque of the system and a reframe of the terms ‘disaster,’ ‘preparedness’ and ‘resilience,’ we could invest in the most vulnerable communities now—instead of waiting for the next ‘natural disaster’?” Urgent questions, asked crisply and well."

– Ray Pride, New City

"Makes a persuasive argument that it’s time to broaden the definition of disaster— to include the vast and ongoing economic and community inequities."

– Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune