Dir.: Frederick Wiseman; Phot.: John Davey; Ed.: Frederick Wiseman; Prod. & Sales: Frederick Wiseman, Zipporah Films, Inc., 1 Richdale Avenue, # 4, Cambridge, MA 02140 (États-Unis), tél.: (617) 576-3603, fax: (617) 864-8006.

Millions of poor Americans live in public housing, shelter that the government makes available to poor people who meet the eligibility requirement of public assistance. This documentary takes place in a public housing development (formerly known as a "project") in Chicago named after Ida B. Wells, a prominent black Chicagoan passionately involved in aiding the urban poor. In Chicago's South Side, where Wells is located, there is a four-mile stretch where many such developments exist side by side, housing any thousands of people. Where one ends, the next begins. In this particular area of Chicago, the residents are mainly black and the linked developments constitute an enormous black ghetto. This film documents the daily life of the residents of this development and the way they cope with the intersecting problems of racial discrimination, unemployment, poor education, illiteracy, dysfunctional families, poor health, inadequate diet, drug and alcohol addiction, teenage pregnancy, depression and despair. The film includes sequences illustrating the inter-relatedness of these issues and shows the work of some of the agencies that have been established in the development to help the residents help themselves to bring about changes in their personal and communal lives. The meetings of some of these groups provide a forum for the expression of the tenants' grievances.