U-Matic

Tape 1 Housing Project (Marcia Gibson) Footage

U-Matic tape containing footage shot for the video "Public Housing: Your Responsibilities and Rights," produced by the City of Detroit's Department of Public Information and the Detroit Housing Department. The video primarily features scenes of the Herman Gardens public housing complex's apartments, grounds, and offices. Sound and some dialogue accompany the video.

The first segment of the video consists of office scenes. The video opens with a scene of a woman and man at counter with a check. Then a woman is shown seated at a desk answering a phone, and filing out a Service Request and Word Order form. Next, a woman talks to a man seated at a desk.

The apartment unit's kitchen is the scene of the next set of shots. Here, a girl gets a glass of water from a sink. A coffee maker receives a close-up. A person is shown cleaning the top of a stove, and then writing a note on a kitchen table. A stove is featured in a shot, beside a poster for a 1983 El Greco exhibit at the Toledo Museum of Art on an adjacent refrigerator.

The next show features a woman listening to a boom box with her headphones on. A date stamp on this shot reveals that it was shot on July 30, 1985. Next a man with a pipe in his mouth is shown spraying insecticide around a kitchen sink. Afterward, a woman is filmed carrying a baby into an office, then talking to another woman behind the desk. A Coleman A. Young poster is hung on the wall in the background.

The next set of shots take place outside on the apartments' grounds. A man takes leaves, and another man uses a ride-on lawn mower. The camera then pans across the exteriors of the housing united. A woman is shown sweeping grass clippings from the sidewalks. Then a woman is filmed as she takes the trash out from her front door to a garbage can beside the door.

Then a woman is filmed watching television inside of one of the apartment units. A woman puts a lid on a jar and sets it atop her fridge. A man is show walking along the sidewalk to a unit's door, and then he mimes forgetting his keys. That same man is then shown going to a help desk, filling out paperwork, and receiving a new set of keys.

Next, a woman carries luggage up the walkway of an apartment unit, where a man answers the door and turns her away. In the following shot, that same man carries the woman's luggage as they both walk out of the door, and down the walkway. He loads the luggage into the trunk of a car.

A garbage truck is then shown stopping in front of the complex. A man gets out and tosses garbage from a can into the truck's rear.

Inside of one of the units, the camera pans about. The unit is mostly empty except for a snare drum and several boxes on the floor.

Another set of office scenes begins with a woman filling out paperwork at a desk beside a man. The camera then focuses on the Herman Gardens-Smith Homes management sign above a bulletin board, and then a sign containing a quote from Abraham Lincoln above a Herman Gardens bulletin board.

In the next shot two men are shown exchanging money outside. A man then adjusts the valve on one of the unit's radiators. Then someone is shown disassembling a kitchen faucet.

The camera then captures a shot of the entrance and signage for the Detroit Housing Department office at 2211 Orleans Street.

The tape ends with shots of a City of Detroit Housing Department lease agreement.

The video is on a 3M UCA-30 U-Matic tape with a handwritten 3M label on its top. The tape is housed within a black plastic latching clamshell case with a handwritten 3M label on its cover.