COOKED: SURVIVAL BY ZIP CODE

A film by A film by Judith Helfand • A co-production of Judith Helfand Productions, Kartemquin Films and Independent Television Service (ITVS).

Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents—mostly elderly and black—died over the course of one week. As COOKED links the heat wave’s devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism it delves deep into one of our nation’s biggest growth industries: disaster preparedness. Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand (Blue Vinyl, Everything’s Cool), uses her signature serious-yet-quirky, connect-the-dots style to forge inextricable links between extreme weather, extreme disparity and the politics of “disaster”, daring to ask: What if a zip code was just a routing number, and not a life-or-death sentence?

COOKED reframes the narrative from a story about a devastating heat disaster to one about what happens when the long-term impacts of systemic inequality and racism meet climate change.

AWARDS:

WINNER! FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL

JURY AWARD BEST FEATURE FILM EARTHXFILM

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL AT YALE

OFFICIAL SELECTION ENVIRONMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL