Cul de sac

Combining newsreel footage and contemporary interviews, this film begins with the news story of Shawn Nelson, the man who, in May 1995, emerged from a mineshaft dug in his backyard to seize a 60 ton tank and rampage through the streets of his suburban San Diego neighborhood. This is extended to the larger story of this defense-industry dependent working class community from the 1950's to the 1990's, during which time it decayed into a desperate strip-mall wasteland. Interviewees sketch the rise and fall of the one-time boomtown, tracing the neighborhood's social ills to World War II, the Vietnam War, and recent industry layoffs.