One aspect of modernism in the second half of the twentieth century was, for a moment, the clearing of traditional slums and shantytowns and the increased concentration of the displaced population in urban centers. Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, Missouri, was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, “the poor man’s penthouse.” But it began to flounder almost from the very beginning, plagued by disrepair, vandalism, and crime. This documentary is deep and rich, exploring the many forces—economic, social, legislative, political—that bedeviled the project in order to uncover the full story behind its failure. While the images of the implosions of Pruitt-Igoe remain well-known classics, this documentary digs much deeper under that rubble, as many former inhabitants share searing personal accounts of what it was like to live in, and then move on from, this monument to the “demise of modernism.”  TBW