why did you pick levittown new york, as the setting for the documentary?t a number of films that had been done and as you know, there's been a lot done on the deindustrialization and the rust belt. the housing crisis also which hit very hard in florida las vegas, california. so we decided why not go to the heart and soul of the suburban dream. levittown, long island really, after world war ii, became the model for the new suburbia and the new social contract that if you worked hard, were responsible citizen, you could have a secure life, not necessarily get rich but have a good life and hopefully give your kids a better life. that's what led us to long island. >> jennifer: do you think -- having done this, a lack of empathy or policy for the long-term unemployed? >> well, i think there is a general mischaracterization it is so easy to fall into, i would admit i've done it at times, you know saying they're lazy, they're not looking for work. they're moochers, free-loaders, you know, just to kind of ignore it or put them down. and what we found was people wh

>> well, i think that the story of levittown is really the story of after world war ii, the americangreat generation, we helped them with homes and levittown was built as a model town for suburbia and returni ining gis. and it became the center of expansion that happened on long island and all over this country. but we decided instead of going to the rust belt or some of the places that were hardest hit by the real estate crisis, that we would go to the kind of an iconic spot, the heart of what we consider the good life in america and see what had happened there. so that's what brought us to long island. >> and so, you know, a lot of the population, i guess, you're talking about people with college degrees, people who have or had good jobs and homes and yards and that sort of thing. what did you find? can you tell us some of the stories you found? how their lives have changed in the last few years? >> absolutely. the film chronicles four families and a lot of other supporting characters, but basically what you see is kind of a different narrative than we sometimes hear on radio and t

. >> reporter: from skyscrapers in manhattan to four-family homes in suburbs like levittown, long islandup. >> it's just flush inside and doesn't interfere with the drapes. >> beginning in 1950, you start to see the spread of residential air conditioning in the suburbs. >> reporter: in 1955, 1 in every 22 american homes had air conditioning. by 1960, that number had jumped to 1 in 5. >> 1970, the federal census, "the new york times" calls it the air condition census, because you can really see the movement of population in the united states. >> reporter: the national academy of engineering named air conditioning among the top ten inventions of the 20th century. but what happens when we can't keep our cool? this june, record-breaking temperatures contributed to the hottest 12-month period our nation has experienced since 1895. and with well over 100 million air-conditioned households tapping into the grid in the u.s. alone, experts warn that our addiction to cool and the short-term comfort it provides may not always be sustainable, as we saw in 2003, when the entire northeast went dark. >

levittown become the new post war ysuburbia and if you worked hard, were a responsible citizen, you could we started it in 2010 when there was optimism it was going to be recovery, the summer of recovery, and at the end of 2010 after the republicans had won congress and the tea party had risen. and this isn't just two years we're going to be back. >> we see it everywhere. and i think that people are very distrustful of the federal government and i think that the tea party, people have gravitated to that because they want information. many times we say it is almost impossible to give our constituents too much information right now. they want the facts on things. they don't like what they see happening to the american dream and they want the ability to say washington bureaucrats, get out of my way. just let me do my job. let me get back to work. >> well, you know, it's interesting. we have made a conscious effort to kind of strip this film of po politics. you can imagine there were quite passionate debates. >> that's admirable that did you that. >> there was one couple where the husband wen