In the summer of 1995, Chicago experienced an unthinkable disaster, when extremely high humidity and a layer of heat-retaining pollution drove the heat index up to more than 126 degrees. Cooked: Survival by Zip Code tells the story of this tragic heatwave, the most traumatic in U.S. history, in which 739 citizens died over the course of just a single week, most of them poor, elderly, and African American.
When peeled away from the shocking headlines the story reveals the less newsworthy but long-term crisis of pernicious poverty, economic, and social isolation and racism. Cooked is a story about life, death, and the politics of crisis in an American city that asks the question: Was this a one-time tragedy, or an appalling trend?
The Filmmaker
Judith Helfand is best known for her ability to take the dark worlds of chemical exposure, heedless corporate behavior and environmental injustice and make them personal, highly-charged and entertaining. Her films include The Uprising of ‘34, the Sundance award-winning and Emmy-nominated Blue Vinyl, its Peabody Award-winning prequel A Healthy Baby Girl, and Everything’s Cool. Three of those premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, with national broadcasts on PBS (POV), HBO and The Sundance Channel. A committed field-builder and educator, Helfand co-founded Working Films in 1999 and Chicken & Egg Pictures in 2005. She was Producer on the Oscar-nominated, DuPont-winning short, The Barber of Birmingham, and Executive Producer for Brooklyn Castle, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, Private Violence, and Hot Girls Wanted. In 2007, Judith received a United States Artist Fellowship, one of 50 awarded annually to “America’s finest living artists,” and in 2016 she was invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. Helfand is in production on a first-person, non-fiction feature Love & Stuff, an intergenerational love story about losing her mother and becoming a new “old” mom in her fifties, both at once
Cinematography
Tod Lending
Stanley J. Staniski
Keith Walker
Executive Producers Sandra Itkoff
Justine Nagan
Gordon Quinn
Betsy Steinberg Sally Jo Fifer
Lois Vossen Diana Barrett
Julie Parker Benello
Co-Producer & Editor David Cohen
Supervising Producer David Eisenberg
Senior Editorial Consultant Lewis F. Erskine
Consulting Producer Faye Lederman
Additional Camera Pete Biagi
Ines Sommer
David Schalliol
Greg Stidham
Nadia Hallgren
Mirko Popadic
Peter Gilbert
Tony Hardmon
Mike Harlow
Kimmer Olesak
Joe Williams
Location Sound Alan Chow
Derek Hanson
John Mathie
Rich Pooler
Patrick Tillmann
Additional Sound Robert Aguilar
Toni Medici
Zak Piper
JB Smith
Bennett Spencer
Benjamin Steger
Adam Teichman
Matt Vogel
Avi Weider
Field Producers Veena Rao
Xan Aranda
Beth Sternheimer
Archival Research Natalie Bullock Brown
Jeff Martin
Additional Editors Jacob Steingroot
Dara Kell
Rebecca Parrish
Scott Burgess
Sabrina Gordon
Jeremy S Levine
Melissa Sterne
Amy Seplin
Megan Katz
Kathryn Barnier
Jillian Schlesinger
Editorial Consultants Jonathan Oppenheim
Margaret Brown
Jean Tsien
Sabine Hoffman
David Teague
Robb Moss
Mary Manhardt
Einat Sidi
Jenny Golden
Mary Lampson
Jeremiah Zagar
Story Consultant Andrea Meditch
Assistant Editors Mary Kerr
Chris Bravo
Katherine Knight
Sally Volkmann
Leigh Anne Sides
Research Pamela Kerpius
Emily Hart
Sound Mixer Tom Paul
Colorist Stewart Griffin
Score Musicians
Clarinet
Matt Bauder Violin, Viola, Cello & Composer Assistant
Jordi Nus Drums, Additional Keyboards & Additional Music
Ryan Rummery Additional Drum Programming & Composer Assistant
Jake Sillen Composers' Assistants
Brian Crimmins
Gavin Brivik
Additional Graphics & Animation Nuncle
Post Production Services Final Frame
Post Audio Services Gigantic Studios
Additional Narration Services Heard City
FOR KARTEMQUIN FILMS Director of Development Joanna Lakatos Director of Finance
Andrea de Fraga
Suzanne Niemoth Director of Marketing and Distribution Tim Horsburgh Director of Production and Post
Risé Sanders-Weir Post Production Managers
Hillary Bachelder
Matt Taylor Technical Directors
Ryan Gleeson
Jim Morrisette Additional Staff Max Asaf
Abbie Brewer
Julia Martin
Laura Mesquita-Gomez
Ingrid Roettgen
Pedro Urgiles
Transcription Anna Campbell
Reid Compton
Kathryn Drury
Kelly Duncan
Dave Korta
Fair Use Consultant Peter Jaszi
Legal Counsel Pelosi Wolf Effron & Spates LLP
Shatzkin & Mayer, P.C.
Holland & Knight LLP
Kristina M. Hodges, Esq
Production Insurance C&S International Insurance Brokers Inc.
The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc.
Ventura Insurance Brokerage, Inc.
One Beacon Insurance
Archival Materials Provided by
Budget Films
Chicago Transit Authority
CNN Image Source
Ken Herzlich
Nathan Fitch
Pond5
Producers Library Service
Storm Stock
USA Today Sports Images
Valerie Brown
Additional Materials Provided by Chicago History Museum/iCHI-04694/iCHI04674 - Arthur M. Weiland
Museum of Broadcast Communications
News Exposure, LLC
U.S. Navy Blue Angels
Vanderbilt News Archive
Special Thanks Ra'anan Alexandrowicz
Macky Alston
Mia Barricini & Adam Gross
Peter Boger
Center for Culture, History and Environment
Yance Ford
Patricia Gillespie
Faye Ginsberg
Laura Goldin
John Hoffman
Institute for Public Knowledge
Jim Klein
Grace Lee
Beth Levison
Tia Lessin
Loira Limbal
Lower East Side Girls Club
Carrie Lozano
Susan Margolin
Sarah Masters
Ronny Merdinger
Yoruba Richen
Rinku Sen
Rona Talcott
Lana Wilson
Working Films
Funding Provided by Ford Foundation
Barbara Dobkin and the Dobkin Family Foundation
Leo S. Guthman Fund
MacArthur Foundation
Marisla Foundation
Abigail Disney and Fork Films
Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program
Fork Films
Putnam Foundation
Park Foundation
The Ettinger Foundation and The Educational Foundation of America
Lisa & Matthew Chanoff
Sarah & Timothy Cavanaugh
Bertha Foundation
The Russell Family Foundation through the Chicago Community Foundation
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President's Grant
The Dorot Foundation
The Todd and Betiana Simon Foundation
Jack Lampl through a donor-advised fund at the Tides Foundation
Beth B. Sackler
Dominique Bravo & Eric Sloan
Marjorie Roswell through a donor-advised fund at the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
Carolyn Fine and The Fine Fund
Karma Foundation
The Cohen Family Foundation
Christopher & Phoebe Pilaro
Nancy Blachman through a donor-advised fund at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Summer Fund
MAC fund, a donor-advised fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation
And others. A complete list available from PBS.
Original Series Funding Provided by The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Wyncote Foundation
The National Endowment for the Arts
COOKED: Survival by Zip Code is a co-production of Judith Helfand Productions, Kartemquin Films and Independent Television Service (ITVS) with funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
This program was produced by Judith A. Helfand Productions, Inc. and Kartemquin Films which are solely responsible for its content.