Spanish Lake Releases New Trailer, Premier Set for November in St. Louis

The Spanish Lake film by native Phillip Andrew Morton has been selected for the St. Louis International Film Festival this November and will be released nationally in December. St. Louis got a sneak peek of the film at this year's Open/Closed vacant land conference in April. At that event, the filmakers shared approximately 20 minutes of Spanish Lake and were joined by several residents of the unincorporated area for a discussion (view video of the event below). A new trailer for the film has added some national context for the north St. Louis County community. It's hard to escape the parallels to another recent documentary focused on St. Louis, the Pruitt-Igeo Myth. Both films examine federal housing policy, local politics, racism and poverty. While the Pruitt-Igoe Myth covers post WWII St. Louis, roughly 1950 to 1970, Spanish Lake brings these issues to today. The film looks to be an important addition to our understanding of St. Louis. You'll have to wait until November to see Spanish Lake, but if you want to learn more now about the issues it address, check out: The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (film), Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City (book), A Nation Of Realtors: A Cultural History Of The Twentieth-century American Middle Class (book).