With equal parts naivete and requisite chutzpah, filmmaker Judith Helfand sets out on a quest to see if America’s disaster preparedness industry could be used to tackle what might be the deadliest man-made disaster of all – extreme poverty. With Chicago’s 1995 heat disaster at its dramatic core -- when 739 Chicago residents, most of them poor, elderly and African American, died over the course of one hot July week -- Cooked asks questions about the politics of disaster every city will have to answer: disaster preparedness for some or community resilience for all?

Issues: Community Organizing, Economics, Environment, Gentrification, Health, Human Rights, Nutrition, Politics, Race/Ethnicity/Racism, Science