Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

Synopsis: In 1960, Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds, with its exploration of the consequences of modern planners’ and architects’ reconfiguration of cities. Jacobs was also an activist, who was involved in fights in mid-century New York to stop ‘master builder’ Robert Moses from running roughshod over the city. This film retraces the battles for the city as personified by Jacobs and Moses, as urbanisation moves to the very front of the global agenda. Many of the clues for formulating solutions to the dizzying array of urban issues can be found in Jacobs’ prescient text, and a close second look at her thinking and writing about cities is very much in order. This film sets out to examine the city of today through the lens of one of its greatest champions.
Language: English
Country: United States
Year of release: 2017
Subjects: Architecture; Geography
Keywords: cities; city planning; environmental issues; New York; town planning; urban development; Jacobs, Jane

Name: Dogwoof Pictures
Email: oli@dogwoofpictures.com
Web: http://www.dogwoof.com External site opens in new window
Phone: 020 7395 1217
Fax: 020 7900 3270
Address: 2nd Floor, 1A Neal’s Yard
Covent Garden
London
WC2H 9DP
Notes: Dogwoof is an independent distributor specialising in quality films from around the world that raise awareness, trigger change, and get people involved. The main focus is socially conscious films including THE AGE OF STUPID, THE END OF THE LINE, BURMA VJ and BLACK GOLD. Sale on DVD. In Autumn 2011 Dogwoof launched Popup Cinema (http://popupcinema.net/) to allow non-theatric screenings of their just-released and classic titles.

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British Universities Film & Video Council