The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2012)

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a 2011 documentary film detailing the history of the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri, and the eventual decision to implode the entire complex in 1976.

The documentary argues that the violent social collapse within the Pruitt-Igoe complex was not due to the demographic composition of its residents, but was a result of wider, external social forces, namely the declining economic fortunes of St. Louis and the resulting impact upon employment opportunities.

Synopsis

The film begins with a former resident of the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex returning to the site of the buildings in the north side of St. Louis, and noting that in spite of the decades since the planned demolition of the buildings, the site remains largely vacant. It continues by detailing the decision by the city to replace 19th century tenement housing with high-rise public housing, ultimately designed by Minoru Yamasaki (later the famed designer of the World Trade Center) in the modernist style as thirty-three 11-floor buildings.