At Home in Utopia

Actress Linda Lavin narrates this clear-eyed look at a legendary apartment complex built by a group of communist garment workers who found a way to assume greater control over the quality of their lives during a time of poor inner-city living conditions and hostility toward immigrants. Mainly Jewish, the workers began the project in the Bronx in the mid-1920s (land in the outer boroughs was inexpensive then), with the goal of housing 700 families. The resulting United Workers Cooperative Colony, “the Coops,” became the nation's largest complex of its kind, with several similar ventures springing up in its wake. During the eight years she worked on the film, director Michal Goldman spoke with residents past and present. Pete Rosenblum considered the Coops a place from which to “conquer the world”—with the advent of the subway, Manhattan was only a short ride away. Although life wasn't always easy, interviewees praise the reading room, open spaces, youth clubs, and Yiddish classes offered in the Coops. In the 1930s and '40s, the Coops actively recruited black families, leading to interracial friendships and relationships (the police arrested Boris Ourlicht simply for going out in public with Libby, a black tenant who became his wife). After he left home, Rosenblum moved to the South to organize union workers, one example of the many ways in which former Coops residents would affect the larger world. Aired on PBS's acclaimed Independent Lens series, DVD extras include a director's audio commentary and additional material about life during wartime and other cooperatives. [Note: At Home in Utopia is also being sold to individuals on home video for $24.95 on the Filmmakers Collaborative website, www.filmmakerscollab.org.] Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)