It was released and shown in Park Forest<\/a> in January and in Chicago in April. It was shown Saturday at the Gwendolyn Brooks Library on the campus of Chicago State University and more than 40 people showed up to watch the film and listen to a panel discussion with Rockrohr and five others.<\/p>\n Martin and Park Forest natives Marla Dillard, Don DeMarco and Greg Davis took part in the session. They were joined by Professor Will Cooley of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, who authored the academic research paper \u201cWe Can\u2019t Afford to Be Democratic: Liberals, Integrationists and the Post-War Suburb of Park Forest.\u201d<\/p>\n Trying to turn Park Forest into \u201cUtopia\u201d started in 1959 with village founder Philip Klutznick<\/a> but it took a while for it to fully kick in. Dillard remembers growing in the 1960s and she was called some racially insensitive names \u2014 the mildest being called \u201cchocolate paint\u201d by a Caucasian neighbor.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, I said \u2018you\u2019re vanilla paint,\u2019\u2019\u2019 she said.<\/p>\n Dillard said she was raised to be a confident woman and didn\u2019t take the insults to heart.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t fear, it was disappointment,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t quite anger, but it was very uncomfortable. Extremely uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n But in the early 1970s, things began to change and the various races lived side by side in a time when segregation was in vogue.<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of laid the groundwork,\u201d Dillard said. \u201cWe took the hits, if you will. I would definitely say that 1972 or 1973 was the switch. It was the turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin pointed out that it was also a time when Park Forest-Chicago Heights Elementary District 163 schools were integrated.<\/p>\n About 70 people were interviewed for the film, including former NBA player Craig Hodges<\/a> plus Hiro Yamamoto and Kim Thayil, who are members of the rock group Soundgarden<\/a>. They all grew up in the community.<\/p>\n For the most part, interviewees had glowing remarks about growing up during what Rockrohr calls the \u201csweet spot\u201d between 1972-86.<\/p>\n Many in the documentary said it was a time when whites, Blacks and other groups grew up socializing and playing sports with each other.<\/p>\n Some described it as living in a bubble and when they left Park Forest for college or other reasons, they saw racial tension they didn\u2019t know existed.<\/p>\n The sweet spot started to disappear in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 1986, we were kind of like the last year where we were one big happy family,\u201d Davis said.<\/p>\n He said he graduated from Rich East in 1986 stayed in the community until 1993. He said he noticed things change with the class of 1987.<\/p>\n \u201cKids \u2014 whites and blacks \u2014 walked together to school and after school,\u201d he said. \u201cBut starting right around 1987, I started seeing the white kids on one side of the street and the Black kids on the other side of the street. There was a very big change.<\/p>\n \u201cThere always has to be a \u2018last\u2019 of something and the \u2018last\u2019 of that was \u201986.\u201d<\/p>\n Some blame white flight and some blame the fact that people could move to bigger houses than Park Forest offered as a reason for the end of that era.<\/p>\n \u201cI know at least 10 people who wanted to move to a bigger house,\u201d Rockrohr said. \u201cBecause they just weren\u2019t there in Park Forest.\u201d<\/p>\n It may not be Utopia anymore, but Martin still loves the community.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Park Forest is still a good place to live,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know all about the changes. But one thing it still has that it had from the beginning is volunteerism.<\/p>\n \u201cWe still have cultural activities. A lot of good things that started in Park Forest are still going on.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Myrtle Martin was single and moved into an apartment in Park Forest in October 1964. The North Carolina…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":803012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,255447,326963,326964,326966,5386,1818,177799,326962,326965,175838,326961,326967,326960,38071],"class_list":["post-803011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-craig-hodges","tag-don-demarco","tag-greg-davis","tag-hiro-yamamoto","tag-il","tag-illinois","tag-kim-thayil","tag-marla-dillard","tag-myrtle-martin","tag-park-forest","tag-phil-rockrohr","tag-philip-klutznick","tag-revisiting-utopia","tag-soundgarden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116590373189748840","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Park](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DST-L-revisiting-utopia-screening-01.jpg\")
Park Forest native Marla Dillard takes a photo of the audience Saturday at the screening of the “Revisiting Utopia” documentary at Chicago State University. (Jeff Vorva\/for the Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n![\"Park](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DST-L-revisiting-utopia-screening-03.jpg\")
Park Forest native Greg Davis talks about race relations in his community after a screening of “Revisiting Utopia” Saturday at Chicago State University. (Jeff Vorva\/for the Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n![\"Park](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/DST-L-revisiting-utopia-screening-02.jpg\")
Park Forest\u2019s Myrtle Martin, 89, talks about Park Forest\u2019s racial situation through the years at a discussion of the documentary “Revisiting Utopia” Saturday at Chicago State University. (Jeff Vorva\/for the Daily Southtown)<\/p>\n