Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

A Short History of the Highrise

September 2013 •English

“A Short History of the Highrise” is an interactive documentary that explores the 2,500-year global history of vertical living and issues of social equality in an increasingly urbanized world. The centerpiece of the project is four short films. The first three (“Mud,” “Concrete” and “Glass”) draw on The New York Times's extraordinary visual archives, a repository of millions of photographs that have largely been unseen in decades. Each film is intended to evoke a chapter in a storybook, with rhyming narration and photographs brought to life with intricate animation. The fourth chapter (“Home”) comprises images submitted by the public. The interactive experience incorporates the films and, like a visual accordion, allows viewers to dig deeper into the project’s themes with additional archival materials, text and microgames.

A Capital Plan

January 1949 •English

This short documentary features a portrait of Ottawa in the mid-20th century, as the nascent Canadian capital grew with force but without direction. Street congestion, air pollution, and rail traffic were all the negative results of a city that had grown without being properly planned. French architect and urban designer Jacques Gréber stepped in to create a far-sighted plan for the future development of Ottawa. With tracks moved, factories relocated, and neighbourhoods redesigned as separate communities, Ottawa became the capital city of true beauty and dignity we know today.

Alternate Spaces

December 2022 •English

A short documentary on the River Ouse, following it downstream from Lewes to Newhaven, meditating on the surrounding area.

World In A City

January 2016 •English

World in a City is a portrait of Toronto and the steps Torontonians are taking to create a society that welcomes and encourages new immigrants to flourish

Megalópolis

November 2021 •Spanish

Exploration of the territory in a delirious time-space journey through the largest Megalopolis in America.

Brasília

January 2011 •Portuguese

Rabble Rousers: Frances Goldin and the Fight for Cooper Square

December 2022 •English

In 1959 New York City announced a "slum clearance plan" by Robert Moses that would displace 2,400 working class and immigrant families, and dozens of businesses, from the Cooper Square section of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Guided by the belief that urban renewal should benefit - not displace - residents, Frances Goldin and her neighbors formed the Cooper Square Committee and launched a campaign to save the neighborhood. Over five decades they fought politicians, developers, white flight, government abandonment, blight, violence, arson, drugs, and gentrification - cyclical forces that have destroyed so many working class neighborhoods across the US. Through tenacious organizing and hundreds of community meetings, they not only held their ground but also developed a vision of community control. Fifty three years later, they established the state's first community land trust - a diverse, permanently affordable neighborhood in the heart of the "real estate capital of the world."

Jaime Lerner - Uma História de Sonhos

September 2016 •Portuguese

Amancio Williams

November 2013 •English

A biography documentary of the Argentine modernist architect Amancio Williams.

Snow Fighters

January 1957 •English

A close-up of a snow-bound city, and the men, money and machinery it takes to dig it out.

The heart of Caracas

November 2013 •Spanish

Caracas has been changing since the nineteenth century this is a story that tries to explain why the Venezuelan capital is complex, chaotic and fertile. In light of these new evidences, community experiments, social awareness and organization of people, seem to be the necessary ingredients to rescue a metropolis that is not yet completely lost.

Chairs for Lovers

January 1973 •English

Architect Stanley King involves the local Vancouver community in urban design.

City Center and Pedestrians

January 1974 •English

A look at the design of pedestrian oriented city centres.

Lewis Mumford on the City, Part 1: The City - Heaven and Hell

January 1963 •English

American historian Lewis Mumford looks at the city through history.

Saskatoon: Land and Growth Control

January 1974 •English

The city of Saskatoon makes strategic decisions which prevent speculation and keep land prices down.

Real Estate

January 1973 •English

Exploring the impact of the now defunct Steinberg supermarkets on the urban environment.

Some People Have to Suffer

January 1976 •English

Bridgeview, British Columbia is less than 30 kilometres from downtown Vancouver. The residents were promised a sewer system in 1953, but more than 20 years later the sewer system has yet to be built.

Co-op Housing: The Best Move We Ever Made

January 1975 •English

Canada is facing a housing crisis, and cooperative housing might be a part of the solution.

Halifax Neighbourhood Center Project

January 1967 •English

Legault's Place

January 1964 •English

Legault is an aging man who lived in a rural cabin, now a suburban cabin, as developments have popped up around him.