[Voices of Cabrini raw #5]

Footage for the documentary "Voices of Cabrini." Shot between 1995-1999, it documented the Cabrini Green redevelopment project proposed and carried out by the City of Chicago. This tape features an interview with Peter Geller (KSO G), Margaret, and Ray in 923 N. Sedgwick. They talk about their ideas of home and community, the future of Cabrini, and its current culture.

0:00Copy video clip URL Black.

0:21Copy video clip URL Crew sets up their interview with Ray, Margaret, and Peter Geller (rapper KSO G). They are in Ray and Margaret’s apartment in 923 N. Sedgwick.

2:33Copy video clip URL Geller: “How you doin’? This right here is an apartment in 923 Sedgwick. Sitting right next to me is my main man, Ray, and on the side of him, my sis, we have Margaret.” They try several takes. “We just gonna let you know how we feel about the demolition.”

3:33Copy video clip URL Ray: “I think the demolitions are… the beginning of the end for Cabrini Green as we know it. That building and this neighborhood is like a landmark…a lot of us my age and older grew up in that building…to see it come down is a shame.”

4:11Copy video clip URL Margaret: “…I think it’s a shame they’re tearing it down, cause it really is the ending of Cabrini-Green. I think the more that you see, the more that we know, that this is just the end of it.”

5:04Copy video clip URL Margaret: “It’s not just this one building. This is just the start of it. Who live here we know that it’s just the start, we hear rumors…” She says she would be in favor of tearing down the buildings and then rebuilding them “if we knew it’d be something we would be able to live in…I’m pretty sure it probably won’t be.”

7:04Copy video clip URL Ray: “I think that building was symbolic of what Cabrini-Green represented, and it’s been used in Hollywood films…it’s just symbolic of what Cabrini-Green was known for. To tear that building down is symbolic of what’s to come of Cabrini-Green. Granted we know they’ll replace it, but we know it won’t be something we can live in…” Ray describes how the majority of the buildings are either vacant or dilapidated.

8:43Copy video clip URL Ray: “I’m here temporarily, but I got a lot of friends that live here that I’m concerned with, that’s what concerns me most…they don’t know where they’re gonna go.”

9:29Copy video clip URL Director Ronit Bezalel asks Geller what the process is once a resident has been moved out of Cabrini. Geller: “…some families have been relocated, but many of them not…” He describes voucher slips and resident attitudes against relocation, and the reasons to be skeptical about relocation.

11:28Copy video clip URL Ray describes how the Cabrini-Green property is technically owned by the federal government: “Was this something planned beforehand, or is it just a coincidence?” He talks about the future of Cabrini and how residents’ entire lives are in Cabrini.

14:24Copy video clip URL Geller talks about trust and the locations where people might be relocated.

17:01Copy video clip URL Margaret, Ray, and Geller talk about how they came to Cabrini. Margaret has lived in Cabrini since 1979, moved out in 1980, and then she moved back once her own daughter was born. Ray was born and raised in the south side, but visited the Castle often. He’s been living in Cabrini for three years.

20:00Copy video clip URL They discuss their ideas of home and community. Geller: “My idea of home is security knowing that you’re comfortable in your environment, that you feel secure where you’re laying your head, that you’re around loved ones, that you can have someplace to come home to where you can shut out the rest of the world when you want to…My idea of community is Cabrini…”

21:49Copy video clip URL Ray: “My idea of home is a place of security, a place of love, a place of loyalty, trust, a place where you can always go and depend on to go and relax in, or get help or assistance in. My idea of community is a network, a chain of all those things, family, friends, neighbors joined together…someone’s there to lend you a helping hand…”

23:04Copy video clip URL Margaret: “My idea of home is a place to be comfortable…since I have children, the most thing I want is for them to be safe, and I want them to enjoy the way they live…”

25:34Copy video clip URL Margaret introduces Chanita, her seven year old daughter. Geller laments about how the “kids are growing up right now.” He talks about getting respect from the children, who glorify drugs and guns.

28:26Copy video clip URL The crew records portraits of each of them.

29:56Copy video clip URL End of interview.

32:00Copy video clip URL Crew records their car ride as they leave Cabrini Green.

34:12Copy video clip URL Close up of Cabrini Green gates.

37:40Copy video clip URL Close ups of cells of the  mural, “Peace in the Hood.”

39:19Copy video clip URL Shot of the first demolished building, The Castle.

43:08Copy video clip URL Shot from the demolition site, including bulldozers and construction workers.

47:32Copy video clip URL Cut to “Near North Food and Liquors” sign and currency exchange on the corner.

48:13Copy video clip URL Shot of Halsted and Weed Street with the Hancock Building in the background.

51:03Copy video clip URL Shot of Evergreen and Halsted, looking over Cabrini Green.

52:34Copy video clip URL Close up of “For Sale or Build to Suit” sign at Evergreen and Halsted.

54:45Copy video clip URL Cut to parking lot across from Cabrini Green, featuring several gourmet coffee signs.

56:18Copy video clip URL Shot of Cabrini in foreground with Chicago city skyline in background.

57:06Copy video clip URL End of tape.