Home Economics Movie

Home Economics

Home economics is a documentary type movie produced and directed by Jenny Cool. It talks about housing in the suburbs of Los Angeles and the effects that it has in people living there. Even though the documentary seem a little bit old and outdated, it’s still relevant with today’s situation with housing in the United States. It takes the perspective of women living in suburban housing developments like Lancaster and Antelope Valley. The women discuss their feelings about living in new developed areas and how is it affecting their lives.

To begin with, the documentary shows us how are these new homes conformed. It starts with a brief journey in these areas that are being developed, specifically Lancaster and Antelope Valley. We can notice that housing in the areas are mainly for low and medium income families. After that, there are interviews with the women that were living there when the documentary was made. One of the women interviewed in the film tells us that there have been a lot of changes in these new communities. This is happening because there’s a lot of money from the private and public industry destined to building housing in the last couple of years. Housing developments like tracks, condominiums, and multifamily and single-family housing are being made due the high demand of housing from people working in the big cities.

In addition, the interviewed women discussed why they chose to move there. They said that is mostly because it was cheap due to the fact that the new housing was developed just outside of the big city (mainly in the desert). Moreover, they said that the air there was cleaner and it was kind of beautiful place to live because it was big. People have more space in their homes, such as backyard and a garage, and that allowed them to personalize their homes by planting flowers, having space to improve their garages, etc.

Also they discussed about the advantages of living there. They said that they are friendlier with their neighbors and there’s more confidence between the people living there. They discussed that there are more involvement in their affairs as neighbors. If someone needs something, it can be easily obtained with help of the neighbors. There’s like a system of favors between them. For example, they said that if they have their car broken, they ask help to a neighbor who knows about automobiles. In exchange, they’ll give them back some help in the future by lending them tools, helping them to cook, or helping them to change a fusible.

Then, people living there have found some problems in their communities. Even though they are more in touch with their neighbors and with the neighborhood in general, the woman interviewed in the films tells us that there are negative effects by developing housing. They said that developments have redirected the way that things used to be. The natural ecosystems have been damaged. Lakes have been dried up, fish, birds and plants have been killed in the process of urbanizing the area, and there are more malls and housing that green spaces. Moreover, traffic and air pollution have been increasing. Since there are people commuting to the big city to work, it provokes more traffic and, therefore, is contaminating the air that they breathe. Crowded highways and