Filmmaker Judith Helfand's searing investigation into the politics of “disaster” – by way of the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave, in which 739 residents perished (mostly Black and living in the city’s poorest neighborhoods).
Direction
Helfand turns personal grief into systemic indictment.
Editing
Juxtaposition of 1995 news footage with modern denial.
Writing
Reframes 'natural disaster' as manufactured inequality.
Director
Judith Helfand
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The 1995 heat wave was briefly national news then memory-holed; this film is essentially an act of historical recovery for 739 people society erased.
Helfand coined 'Cooked' after learning officials used the word to describe victims—turning their dehumanization into the title's accusation.
US
