Chicago Southland International Film Festival set for Oct. 13-15

Shame of Chicago logo


Daily Journal Staff Report

October 1, 2022

University Park — “The Shame of Chicago: The Segregation of an American City” explores the origins of the city’s wealth gap between its Black and white residents and will be one of the films featured at this year’s Chicago Southland International Film Festival from Oct. 13-15. Tickets are on sale now.

With the five-part documentary, director, community activist and Chicago native Bruce Orenstein blazes a trail and shines a light on injustices in Chicago’s real estate market that began after World War II.

The latest episode, “The Chicago Plan,” will be featured Oct. 15 — the second day of the festival — and opens with crackling Black and white footage. Elizabeth Wood, the first executive director of the Chicago Housing Authority, states flatly: “Negros have lived in a state of fear and isolation, and this is the shame of Chicago and the nation.”

“Shame of Chicago” is one of the many powerful films to be showcased during the Feature Film Competition of the Governors State University festival, which opens Oct. 13.