How surprised was I to find amongst countless low-grade purient crime documentaries on Rakuten TV this sensitive and thoughtful social, economic & political history of a proud and beautiful in part little province of Missouri, from it's origin in the early 19th century to recent years. Using countless interviews with first-hand experiences of real locals, and some intelligent expert & official analysis. The Spanish Lake story forms a microcosm of America over the period, with the merciless effect of deindustrialization, Regan/Clinton-era housing boom financialisation and the build-up to the inevitable crisis of 2008 affecting local mortgage holders. Apart from the economic narrative there's the cultural phenomenon of 'white flight', the effects of civil rights legislation and the impact of housing & integration policies on these poorer white working-class - identifying as ''middle class" - suburbs. You get a complex picture of flux - with a corresponding kind of black flight from poorly planned projects and slum developments in St. Louis into the neighbouring suburbs assisted by the Johnson administration voucher projects - "Section 8". It's an issue most complex and sensitive, but the ebullient stories of likable local people and their stoic humour helps to lift and humanise the discourse. My impression is that the main drivers of the cultural strife are the underlying tectonic socio-economic shifts affecting the population - both black and white - least empowered to do much about directing their own destiny and fostering more wholesome family & community life. The ensueing effects of chronic underinvestment in infrastructure & public facilities (apart from in police, at war with crime) are all made obvious in the story. It could have been a dream of a successful 'melting-pot', but in many respects became a nightmare. Now this mirrors the whole US political landscape today and informs the success of popular demagoguery tapping into the insecurities and fears of so many folk whose economy has been pulled out from under them by neoliberals who have for too long abandoned any proper national industral strategy for all the people. There are glimmers of optimism in more recent community activism and frameworks being built for supporting civil society, an inspiring Lakers tribute band, but sadness and regret seems to predominate.
The way such a multifaceted history is condensed in only 84 minutes is quite a tribute to the production team. I couldn't recommend this little family Polaroid snapshot of American political economy any higher.
