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A searing, yet quirky, investigation into the “natural” disasters we’re willing to see and prepare for and the unnatural ones we’re not.

COOKED: Survival by Zip Code is adapted from Eric Klinenberg’s ground-breaking book
Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago

 

ABOUT THE FILM

In COOKED: Survival By Zip Code, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand uses her signature serious-yet-quirky connect-the-dots style to take audiences from the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave -- in which 739 mostly black, elderly, and poor Chicagoans died during the course of one week-- deep into one of our nation’s biggest growth industries: disaster preparedness. Along the way, Helfand forges inextricable links between extreme weather, extreme disparity, and extreme racism, daring to ask: what if a zip code was just a routing number and not a life-or-death sentence? 

Scheduled for 4,854 airdates in total on 613 PBS channels, COOKED: Survival By Zip Code ranks among the top dozen Independent Lens films of all time for broadcast frequency and channel reach.


We are striving to support grassroots movements working at the intersection of climate justice and the long-term struggle to dismantle structural racism.  We are offering city governments, public health officials and practitioners, and emergency management leaders the chance to view their work and the communities they serve, through a racial equity and climate justice lens. Together we have an opportunity to redefine “disaster” and rethink, reimagine and reframe preparedness, recovery and “resilience”.

To date, we’ve screened for:

  • Public health departments in Boston, and New York City, and with 200+ staff at the Cook County Department of Public Health (Chicago)

  • City and County Directors of Racial Equity and Resilience offices in Milwaukee, New York City, Chicago, and Boston

  • Disaster preparedness and emergency management officials in Boston, Cambridge, Chicago, Madison, the Bay Area, and New York City

  • Environmental justice and grassroots activists and community-based anchor institutions in Charlotte, Chicago, Detroit, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Washington DC, and Wilmington

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UPCOMING SCREENINGS

September 2024

Sept 10: Rusell Sage College

May 2025

May 9: Evergreen College Tacoma Campus

Please check back for additional upcoming public screenings. If you want to watch the film as an individual, please find it on Amazon Prime. For educational screenings, please go to Bullfrog Pictures to purchase or request a screening.

PAST SCREENINGS

August 2024

August 25: People’s Response Network, 350 Wisconsin, and Wisconsin Community Health Action

July 2024

July 7: San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Voices At The Table.

May 2024

May 21: The National Energy & Utility Affordability Coalition (NEUAC), Annual Conference. Three-hour pre-conference kickoff.

April 2024

April 17: JCC Harlem in partnership with WE ACT for Environmental Justice

May 2023

May 24: Climate Change and Sustainability Film Series, May 24 · 12am - May 26 · 11:30 pm EDT, reserve a spot

April 2023

April 5: Screening for the Mono County, CA Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) group to discuss disaster preparedness and equity in the county. Judith Helfand in attendance.

February 2023

February 8: Essex County’s Greenbelt Association, 2023 Film & Lecture Series “Systems and Ecosystems: We are all Connected” Following the film was a discussion with Marcos Luna, professor at Salem State’s Department of Geography and Sustainability, who explained how mapping tools can help save lives. 6 pm ET.

July 2022

July 18: Porter Sanford III Performing Arts & Community Center, Decatur, GA

June 2022

June 5: First Unitarian Congregational Society

March 2022

March 17: Emory University

January 2022

January 20: UC Davis Growing as a Community Racism is a Public Health Crisis webinar

November 2021

November 4: American University

October 2021

October 21: University of Michigan Community Scholars Program

September 2021

September 21: GASP, whose mission is to advance environmental justice in the greater Birmingham area

August 2021

August 21: The (In)Justice For All Film Festival. Register here.

August 21: The 10th Ecofalante Environmental Film Festival, Brazil

August 3: The Switzer Foundation, Race & Equity Group, Environmental Fellows cohort, screening, and discussion with Judith Helfand. See the conversation and learn more here.

May 2021

May 10: Temple Israel Center screening and discussion with Judith Helfand

April 2021

April 28: College of Staten Island, CUNY, featuring Judith Helfand and other special guests.

April 13: The University of North Carolina, in partnership with Working Films, presents a virtual screening and panel discussion with Judith Helfand and other special guests.

March 2021

March 3: Georgetown Green Film Series, Huston–Tillotson University and Southwestern University present a virtual screening followed by a Q&A discussion.

February 2021

February 24: The Los Angeles Faith & Ecology Network and Sonia Cummings are hosting a conversation about extreme weather and climate preparedness, featuring Cooked: Survival By Zip Code. See the recorded conversation here.

February 15: San Francisco Urban Film Fest. Panel discussion.

February 7: KIPCOR, the Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Bethel College, Go to kipcor.org and click the Film Series box to find the link for viewing the film for free, and to register for the Feb. 7 discussion.

January 2021

January 31: Big Bold Jewish Climate Fest. Panel discussion and screening.

January 14: Philadelphia’s Academy of Natural Sciences Environmental Justice Week, 7 pm, EST, Watch the recording of the discussion, which includes Director Judith Helfand and special guests here.

December 2020

  • December 6: Sacramento Social Justice Film Festival. Virtual screening and panel discussion with local public health and anti-racism advocates and Judith Helfand. Click here to watch.

November 2020

October 2020

  • October 25: American Public Health Association Feature Film Festival Opening Kick-Off Event, “Understanding Racism and Promoting Policy Change for Racial Healing”

  • October 16: EarthXFilm virtual screening and panel discussion with Judith Helfand and Jerry Hawkins, ED, Dallas Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation

  • October 8: Revisioning Recovery - Accountability in Documenting Disaster, multi-filmmaker panel discussion. Click here to watch.

  • October 2: Drive-in screening & discussion to find out what local organizers in Charlotte, NC are doing for environmental justice. Click here to watch (password =drivein)

September 2020

  • September 16: GreenTown Conference - film screening and panel discussion with Judith Helfand and other special guests

  • September 17: Cook County Racial Equity Week Film - Free Screening and Panel Discussion

  • September 10-September 24: Minority Health Film Festival 2020, Milwaukee [VIRTUAL SCREENINGS]

  • September 21: CT panel discussion with Judith Helfand and other special guests

August 2020

  • August 20, August 27, September 3 - Summer of Extremes: Racism, Health Inequity, and Heat

    COVID-19 Collides With Climate Crisis: Boston/Brookline/Cambridge

Part 1 - It’s All The Same Map

Part 2 - Mental Health & Reporting Trauma

Part 3 The Now and The Future

June 2020

  • June 11 - University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, Community Action to Promote Healthy Environments, and the Detroit Community-Academic Urban Research Center host a virtual screening and talk back with environmental justice advocates and public health experts. Watch the discussion here.

  • June 23-25 - SUMMER OF EXTREMES: Racism, Health Inequity, and Heat – COVID 19 Collides With Climate Crisis on the 25th Anniversary of Chicago Heat Wave [Multi-evening VIRTUAL convening]

May 2020

April 2020

March 2020

February 2020

January 2020

ST. LOUIS, MO | November 2019

NEW YORK, NY | November 2019

  • November 1 @ 5pm - New York University

    Panelists: Munerah Ahmed (Director of the Climate and Health Project, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene), Judith Helfand (Director/Producer of COOKED: Survival by Zip Code)

New York University | Department of Anthropology Kriser Screening Room | 25 Waverly Place | New York, NY 10003

WILMINGTON, NC | November 2019

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MILWAUKEE, WI | October 2019

Broadway Theatre Center |158 N. Broadway | Milwaukee, WI 53202

PHILADELPHIA, PA | October 2019

  • THURSDAY October 24 @ 6pm - Panel at UPenn Law

    Panelists: Kevin Brown (People’s Emergency Center), Zakia Elliott (Program Manager, Philadelphia Climate Works), Jose Ferran Jr. (Hunting Park United), Tayyib Smith (Cofounder, Little Giant Creative) Judith Helfand (Director/Producer of COOKED: Survival by Zip Code)

University of Pennsylvania Law School |3501 Sansom Street | Philadelphia, PA 19104

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  • SATURDAY October 26 @ 7pm - Producers’ Forum at Scribe Video Center

    Panelists: Kevin Brown of the People's Emergency Center, Zakia Elliott (Program Manager, Philadelphia Climate Works), Jose Ferran Jr. (Hunting Park United), Tayyib Smith (Cofounder, Little Giant Creative)

    Scribe Video Center | 3908 Lancaster Avenue | Philadelphia, PA 19104

CHICAGO, IL | October 2019

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  • FRIDAY October 25 @ 4pm - Chicago Beyond And Woods Fund Panel

    Panelists: Danielle Perry (Growing Home), Dennis Deer (Cook County Commissioner of the 2nd District), James Bloyd, Collaborative for Health Equity, Judith Helfand (Director/Producer of COOKED: Survival by Zip Code) | Moderator: Caronina Grimble, Woods Fund Chicago

    Chicago Beyond |811 West Fulton Market| Chicago, IL 60607

  • FRIDAY October 25 @ 9:30am - Global Symposium on Sustainable Cities and Neighborhoods

International House |1414 E 59th Street| Chicago, IL 60637

October 2019

CHICAGO, IL | September 2019

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  • THURSDAY September 19 @ 6pm - Cook County Takes on Racial Equity

    Panelists: Judith Helfand (Director/Producer of COOKED: Survival by Zip Code), Dennis Deer (Cook County Commissioner of the 2nd District), Alma E. Anaya (Cook County Commissioner of the 7th District), Lanetta Haynes Turner (Cook County Government Chief of Staff)

    Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago | 164 N. State Street | Chicago, IL 60601

  • THURSDAY September 29 @ 1pm - South Side Film Festival

McCormick Tribune Campus Center | 321 South State Street | Chicago, IL 60616July 2019

September 2019

CHICAGO, IL | August 2019

CHICAGO, IL | JULY 2019

COOKED: Survival by Zip Code had its Chicago premiere in the form of a two-week theatrical run July 12-18th at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Our timing was intentional. It was the 24th anniversary of the 1995 Heat Wave, the hottest summer on record, and the City had just welcomed a new mayor who was committed to addressing systemic inequity and the climate crisis.

Our goal: re-fresh and reframe the narrative around the 1995 heat disaster and get the press, the public and elected officials talking about investment in the city’s “most vulnerable” communities as the most effective way of preparing for disaster. A human emergency plan.

WATCH THE PANEL DISCUSSIONS FROM OUR JULY 2019 CHICAGO THEATRICAL RUN

JULY 2019

APRIL 2019

MARCH 2019

NOVEMBER 2018

  • DOC NYC - New York, NY - World Premiere

PRESS

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Press Inquiries:

For media requests and inquiries, please contact:

2050 Group: 212-642-4317 (O) 202-422-4673 ©
Adam Segal, adam@the2050group.com

Kartemquin Films: 773-472-4366
Tim Horsburgh, tim@kartemquin.com

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FILMMAKERS

Judith Helfand

Director/Producer

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Peabody Award winning filmmaker Judith Helfand is best known for her ability to use her quirky sense of humor, irony, personal storytelling chops and the power of transparency to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time -- from toxic chemical exposure to climate change to the politics of “disaster.” Her films have premiered at Sundance and been nationally broadcast on PBS (POV), HBO and The Sundance Channel. BLUE VINYL received the Sundance Excellence Award in Cinematography and two Emmy nominations and its prequel, A HEALTHY BABY GIRL, won a Peabody. Helfand’s other long-form films include EVERYTHING’S COOL and THE UPRISING OF ‘34. Helfand has produced and directed shorts for Frankfurt Kurnit, The New York Times and most recently for 23&Me (Absolutely No Spitting).

Helfand is a field-builder who has helped reshape the documentary landscape by co-founding two critical organizations -- Working Films and Chicken & Egg Pictures. As Creative Director she helped design and lead Chicken & Egg Pictures’ mentorship and funding programs for nearly a decade, served as a Producer on the Oscar-nominated, Dupont-winning short, THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM and Executive Producer on the award-winning films SEMPER FI: ALWAYS FAITHFUL, PRIVATE VIOLENCE and HOT GIRLS WANTED. She continues to be actively involved as a Senior Creative Consultant. In 2007, Helfand received a United States Artist Fellowship, one of 50 awarded annually to “America’s finest living artists.” In 2016 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She has just completed LOVE & STUFF, launching in 2020. It is an intergenerational love story about mourning her mother and becoming a “new old mom” at the same time.  

Helfand is currently the Bob Allison (Allesee) Endowed Chair in Media at Wayne State University. She taught documentary production at NYU’s undergraduate program for seven years, was filmmaker-in-residence at UW Madison in 2007 and 2009 where she taught environmental documentary production  and co-taught and designed an intensive summer documentary boot camp for New School University. She lives in NYC with her five-year-old daughter Theodora and their beta-fish MaxiTaxI.

Fenell Doremus

Producer

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In addition to producing COOKED: Survival by Zip Code, Doremus co-produced the Academy Award nominated and Emmy Award winning, ABACUS: Small Enough to Jail for PBS’ Frontline series.  Doremus got her start working as an Assistant Editor on HOOP DREAMS and went on to serve as staff Producer at Kartemquin Films for the next eight years. She Produced and Directed A YEAR ON TEEN ST, a short documentary broadcast locally on PBS, following a teen theater troupe over the course of a year and was Segment Producer/Co-Editor of the groundbreaking multi-part immigration series THE NEW AMERICANS, broadcast on PBS’ Independent Lens and winner of multiple awards at festivals worldwide. She is currently producing END OF LOVE, a story about the dangerous intersection of technology, adolescence and porn. Doremus lives in Chicago, is an active member of the Documentary Producers Alliance and serves on the Board of Kartemquin Films.

Simeon Hutner

Editor

Simeon Hutner is a film editor, director, and producer with twenty-five years of film and television credits, including works shown at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Telluride and many other film festivals, as well as on HBO, BBC, Bravo, A&E and PBS. He is currently editing the documentary feature My Ascension, about teenage suicide. He recently finished editing When We Walk, directed by Jason DaSilva, a follow-up to his award-winning film When I Walk. When We Walk will premiere at Hot Docs in April 2019. Simeon also edited the documentary Vessel, about the Dutch abortion activist Rebecca Gomperts and her organization Women on Waves. Vessel premiered at the SXSW 2014, where it won a Special Jury Award for Political Courage and the Audience Award. It was released theatrically in January 2015. Simeon also edited and co-directed Harlem Street Singer, a documentary feature about the influential blues and gospel musician the Reverend Gary Davis. Harlem Street Singer premiered at DOC NYC in 2013 and was released theatrically in 2014.

Additional selected credits include: editing on the documentary features When I Walk, Melting Planet and Blue Vinyl which premiered at Sundance in 2013, 2007 and 2002, respectively; editor and co-producer on Mentor (Tribeca premier, 2006) and editor on Chicks in White Satin, which premiered at Sundance and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1994. Simeon also directed the the documentaries No Humans Involved, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival; St. Mulekicker, which played in over 40 film festivals world-wide; Martyrs and Saints; and My Brother, Nathaniel. Simeon has received two MacDowell and two Yaddo fellowships. He has an MFA in Film Production from the University of Southern California, an MBA from New York University and a BA from Middlebury College.

David E. Simpson

Editor

David E. Simpson is a documentary filmmaker with three decades of experience. Films he has produced, directed or edited have garnered three national Emmys, a pair of Peabody awards, two DuPont-Columbia batons, an Oscar nomination, a Sundance jury award and best in category at countless festivals. He has worked in close association with Kartemquin Films since 1997.

An experienced director/producer, David considers editing the heart of documentary-practice and has chosen to spend the bulk of recent years in the edit room, crafting impactful works with talented collaborators. He is currently at work on City so Real, an episodic series directed by Steve James, that paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of Chicago through the lens of the 2019 mayoral election.  David co-edited James’ prior work, America to Me, a groundbreaking 10-part series about race and education, which premiered at Sundance 2018 and aired on STARZ.

All told, David has edited some fifteen projects with Kartemquin Films (see partial list below). He co-edited the recently released Cooked: Survival by Zip Code; as well as Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, which received a 2018 Oscar nomination, won Best Documentary Editing at the Ashland Film Festival, and was termed “an exemplary piece of filmmaking” by Sight & Sound. With director Steve James, David co-edited Life Itself, about Roger Ebert, which screened at Cannes and Sundance, and won an Emmy for Outstanding Editing. He co-edited Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, which premiered at Sundance, aired on American Masters and won a Peabody.

Other key editing credits include: Frontline's Shtetl (grand prix - Cinema du Real), the Emmy-nominated NOVA: Mysterious Crash of Flight 201, Living in Tall Trees for WGBH/TV Asahi-Japan, episodes of Cold Case Files for A&E, and an episode of The People’s Century for BBC/PBS. David received a BA in Philosophy from St. John’s College, and an MFA in Filmmaking from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has taught filmmaking at Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Kathy Leichter

Engagement Strategist

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Kathy Leichter is an award-winning documentary producer, director, impact producer, and engagement strategist with over thirty years of experience. She has designed and implemented numerous successful outreach and engagement campaigns for many social issue documentaries, and has produced over 300 impact events across the country featuring films about economic and racial justice, mental health, women, civil discourse, juvenile justice, and Jewish identity

Leichter directed/produced A Day’s Work, A Day’s Pay, in association with ITVS, which follows three welfare recipients in New York City, and designed/directed the film’s 5-year audience engagement campaign. Her most recent film, Here One Day, about mental illness and suicide, premiered at IDFA, won Best Doc and the Jury Prize at the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival, and is now the centerpiece of a national screening initiative that Leichter designed and currently directs.

Eric Klinenberg

Author

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Eric Klinenberg is Helen Gould Shepard Professor of Social Science and Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. He is the author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life (Crown, 2018), Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone (The Penguin Press, 2012), Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media (Metropolitan Books, 2007), and Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2002), as well as the editor of Cultural Production in a Digital Age, co-editor of Antidemocracy in America (Columbia University Press, 2019), and co-author, with Aziz Ansari, of the New York Times #1 bestseller Modern Romance(The Penguin Press, 2015). His scholarly work has been published in journals including the American Sociological Review, Theory and Society, and Ethnography, and he has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and This American Life.

 
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Sparking democracy through documentary since 1966, Kartemquin is a collaborative center empowering filmmakers who create documentaries that foster a more engaged and just society.

The organization's films have received four Academy Award ® nominations and won several major prizes, including six Emmys, four Peabody Awards, multiple Independent Spirit, IDA, PGA and DGA awards, and duPont-Columbia and Robert F. Kennedy journalism awards. Kartemquin is recognized as a leading advocate for independent public media, and has helped hundreds of artists via its filmmaker development programs that help further grow the field, such as KTQ Labs, Diverse Voices in Docs, and the acclaimed KTQ Internship. 


Kartemquin is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. www.kartemquin.com

COOKED: Survival by Zip Code is a co-production of
Judith Helfand Productions and Kartemquin Films

 
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MADE IN ASSOCIATION WITH:

Ford Foundation | JustFilms
The Center for Independent Documentary

MAJOR FUNDING PROVIDED BY:

Independent Television Service (ITVS)
Leo S. Guthman Fund
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
The Fledgling Fund
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program with support from
Open Society Foundations
JustFilms | Ford Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation 
The Marisla Foundation
The Putnam Foundation
The Dobkin Family Foundation
Park Foundation, Inc.
The Dorot Foundation
Lisa K. Chanoff & Matthew I. Chan/Rose Gold
Bertha Foundation
Fork Films, LLC
The Todd and Betiana Simon Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Russell Family Foundation
Sarah & Timothy Cavanaugh
Beth B. Sackler
The Ettinger Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation’s Media Arts Fellowship
and many generous others…

 
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Special Thanks To The Sponsors
Of Our Theatrical Run In Chicago

Media Sponsor:

 
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Corporate/Organization Sponsors:

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CONTACT

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Press Inquiries:

For media requests and inquiries, please contact:

2050 Group: 212-642-4317 (O) 202-422-4673
Adam Segal, adam@the2050group.com

Kartemquin Films: 773-472-4366
Tim Horsburgh, tim@kartemquin.com

General Inquiries:

Please complete the form below to connect with the COOKED team.