Highlights from StLJobWatch, a blog chronicling employment, labor and the economy in St. Louis and beyond.
Documentarian coming to St. Louis to interview unemployed
Nearly four decades after Studs Terkel published the seminal chronicle on the state of the American workforce, a New York documentary moviemaker and author is picking up where Terkel left off — with a twist.
Terkel wrote "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do" — a narrative that holds up today as well as it did when it hit bookstores in 1972.
DW Gibson, conversely, is making his way from California to New York for a project that probes the opposite end of the spectrum: An oral, written and video history of Americans displaced by the recession.
More than 100 people have shared their stories since Gibson set out from the Los Angeles area last month.
A running compendium can be found on a blog, video, photographs and audio posted at americanotworking.com.
The book-length account of the project, co-authored by director and actor MJ Sieber, will be published next year.
Currently in Kansas City, Gibson's next stop is St. Louis.
He will be here Tuesday through Friday to chronicle the experiences of short- and long-term unemployed residents throughout the region.
Some interviews will be held Wednesday at the Quality Inn, 3730 S. Lindbergh Boulevard.
Interested parties unable to meet Gibson in South County are asked to contact him at 917-319-6452 or dwmgibson@yahoo.com.
(07.14.11)
