McCormack Baron Salazar’s work featured in new documentary film
Feature Documentary reveals McCormack Baron Salazar’s role in revitalizing public housing. “Envisioning Home,” a new feature-length documentary about the role of Richard Baron and Jean King in transforming low-income, public housing in St. Louis and throughout the country, is completing production early this summer. Produced by Emmy-nominated writer/producer Daniel Blake Smith and directed by feature filmmaker, Jason Epperson, “Envisioning Home” explores the personalities and accomplishments of two imaginative leaders, two agents of change in public housing, Richard Baron and Jean King. Beginning with the 1968-69 tenant strike, these two strikingly different people came together in St. Louis and forged a vision for transforming the way we think about affordable public housing. By inspiring resident empowerment while creating more humane places to live, they showed how they can make a difference, invigorating individual lives and building vibrant neighborhoods and communities from distressed central cities.
McCormack Baron Salazar communities that the production crew filmed included St. Louis’s Murphy Park, Crawford Square (Pittsburgh), Harmony Oaks (New Orleans), Green Streets (San Francisco), and Pueblo del Sol (East Los Angeles). Funded in part by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “Envisioning Home” will be completed by early September, with premieres in each of the cities where filming took place. The film will also be entered into numerous film festivals across the country and will look for major nationwide distribution. For information on Smith and Epperson, visit their sites: www.danielblakesmith.com and www.eppicfilms.com.