The Unfolding Play: Life and Loss on Chicago's Streets

A Violent Thread

This experimental documentary film by Jon Lowenstein investigates the impact that social violence has had on multiple generations of community members who live in his community on Chicago's South Side. The film is a montage of images, scenes and voices from community residents whose lives have been deeply and irrevocably changed by the violence. A young boy witnesses a shooting in his front yard, a teenager recounts speaks about standing up to his abusive step-father of the first time and, a mother yearns for the day thatcher daughter can walk safely in the community. The film speaks to the deep rooted hold that interpersonal violence continues to have had on the Southside. The narrative thread of the film draws from a series of ongoing oral histories that the director, a long time resident of the South Side, has conducted with friends, former students and residents in their community.