San Fernando Valley : Film Explores Suburban Life
Public television viewers nationwide will get an intimate look at the Antelope Valley tonight in a documentary that focuses on the strains that living in a distant bedroom suburb imposed on two women and a teen-age girl.
In “Home Economics,” filmmaker Jenny Cool paints a sharply focused portrait of stressed-out suburbanites--one of them her former sister-in-law--who pay a steep personal price for homeownership.
The documentary, which Cool made as part of her master’s thesis at USC’s Center for Visual Anthropology, will be broadcast at 10 p.m. on KCET, Channel 28, in the “P.O.V” series of independent “point of view” films.
The film pictures a sea of red and gray tile roofs springing up from the brown desert, beyond colorful billboards urging motorists to pull off the Antelope Valley Freeway and put a down payment on a dream home.
But after move-in day, Cool found, many Antelope Valley residents must endure long, stressful commutes to work, leaving them little time or energy for their families. The Antelope Valley has the highest per capita rate of child abuse cases in Los Angeles County.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
