SLO County Climate Justice Alliance to screen “Cooked” at the Palm Theater

A screening of the documentary film “Cooked: Survival by Zip Code” will take place at 1:00 pm on Sunday, September 22 at the Palm Theater in San Luis Obispo.  Directed and produced by the Peabody Award-winning Judith Helfand (adapting the book “Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago” by Eric Klinenberg), “Cooked” tells the shocking story of a 1995 heat wave that devastated the most vulnerable and impoverished communities in Chicago.

As the temperature climbed to 104, people could not open their windows, because they were nailed shut against the crime-ridden streets.  As the death toll climbs to 800, we watch as local government officials go from concerned to defensive to questioning that so many deaths were attributable to the heat.  As “Cooked” so forcefully points out, we can celebrate that governments are more prepared to respond to natural disasters than ever before, but we’ve done little to address the underlying socio-economic conditions.

“We feel this film focuses on an issue that no one wants to address in this country,” says Stacey Hunt of Ecologistics.   “We at the SLO County Climate Justice Alliance are focusing on climate inequities in the County.”

Tickets for the screening will be on sale at the Palm Theater or can be pre-ordered here and there will be a community discussion following the screening featuring highlights of local resiliency programs and resources.