Artist in Person

Five years in the making, Cul de Sac takes as its starting point an unemployed plumber's frenzied drive down the streets of San Diego in a stolen military tank. While the media delight in his "madness," his neighbors reveal their understanding of his desperate act. Director Scott grounds Shawn Nelson's rage in an examination of the decline of the Clairemont suburb in which he lived. A kaliedoscope of interviews with neighbors, real estate agents, the police, and a DEA official portray a once-prosperous community built to house labor manning the Cold War economy, but now having "reached the end of its useful life." Documents ranging from promotionals to TV news and home movies highlight a class shift that occurred across the country: As weapons and aeronautic plants closed and skilled labor positions disappeared, families ensconced in the middle class dead-ended into poverty and marginality. As Scott deftly reveals, the American Dream, like this community and its residents, is being rendered obsolete.