Sometimes Cities: Urban America Beyond NYC

When you hear “sus­tain­abil­ity,” do you imme­di­ately think “green” or “envi­ron­men­tal”? When you hear “urban” or “city” do you only think about the usual, major met­ro­pol­i­tan areas?

Anthol­ogy Film Archives’ film series “Some­times Cities: Urban Amer­ica Beyond NYC” chal­lenges New York­ers to look beyond tra­di­tional notions of urban sus­tain­abil­ity and seek inspi­ra­tion from com­mu­nity strug­gles and orga­niz­ing vic­to­ries in the face of eco­nomic aus­ter­ity through­out the coun­try. The series runs June 14–17 and inten­tion­ally fea­tures five films that focus on urban loca­tions too often over­shad­owed in national debates, includ­ing Cleve­land, St. Louis, and Detroit. For the full series sched­ule, visit the Anthol­ogy Film Archives website.

Requiem for Detroit (2010, 75 min) high­lights Detroit’s cur­rent strug­gles amidst major trans­for­ma­tions and upheavals, includ­ing the restric­tion of elec­tric­ity to half of the exist­ing city. All over the world, peo­ple who care about the future of cities look to Detroit as both a con­tem­po­rary case study and lit­mus test for the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties fac­ing post-industrial cities in the U.S. Direc­tor Julien Tem­ple presents the viewer with encour­ag­ing moments of urban resilience, high­light­ing the influx of artists and urban farm­ers into Detroit, while also acknowl­edg­ing the stark real­i­ties fac­ing many urban residents.

Some­times City (2011, 80 min) fea­tures res­i­dents of Cleve­land talk­ing about their home­town: what they love, what they wish was dif­fer­ent, and ideas they have for change. Cleve­land, a city that fea­tures homes for sale for $1,900 even today, may seem like a world away to some New York­ers, but the eco­nomic strug­gles fac­ing many city res­i­dents will surely res­onate. Direc­tor Tom Jar­musch uti­lizes doc­u­men­tary, home movies, fic­tion, and per­sonal sto­ries to weave a tapes­try of con­tem­po­rary urban experiences.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban His­tory (2011, 83 min) chron­i­cles the impact of large-scale pub­lic hous­ing on the post-WWII U.S. city. Directed by Chad Frei­drichs, the noto­ri­ous Pruitt-Igoe devel­op­ment in St. Louis became a widely rec­og­nized sym­bol of the fail­ure of archi­tects, politi­cians, and pol­icy mak­ers to develop viable and func­tional pub­lic hous­ing. New York­ers in atten­dance might reflect on their city’s own his­toric and cur­rent strug­gles to develop sus­tain­able pub­lic hous­ing that meets the needs of res­i­dents, pol­icy mak­ers, and design­ers alike.

The “Some­times Cities PGM” dou­ble fea­ture includes two shorter doc­u­men­taries – Tighten Your Belts, Bite the Bul­let and Tak­ing Back Detroit.

Tighten Your Belts, Bite the Bul­let (1980, 48 min) con­trasts New York and Cleveland’s response to fis­cal cri­sis and col­lapse. Fea­tur­ing then-Mayor Den­nis Kucinich of Cleve­land and com­mu­nity orga­niz­ers in Brook­lyn, the film chron­i­cles the chal­lenges pre­sented by polit­i­cal admin­is­tra­tors and gov­ern­ment bureau­cracy, as well as vic­to­ries and lessons learned through grass­roots orga­niz­ing cam­paigns in both Ohio and New York City.

Tak­ing Back Detroit (1980, 55 min), the sec­ond doc­u­men­tary in the Some­times Cities PGM dou­ble fea­ture, looks at the his­toric elec­tion of two social­ist can­di­dates to Detroit pub­lic office. Per­haps you’re already sat­u­rated with elec­tion talks as we move through the pri­mary sea­son of 2012, but this film may pro­vide a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive on both the lim­i­ta­tions and pos­si­bil­i­ties enabled by local city elections.

Indi­vid­u­ally, each film high­lights unique moments in urban his­to­ries as com­mu­ni­ties strug­gle to sur­vive and thrive amidst shift­ing eco­nomic and polit­i­cal con­texts. As a whole, the series pro­vides an invalu­able look at the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties fac­ing U.S. cities today and raises impor­tant ques­tions about how to ensure the ongo­ing via­bil­ity of urban spaces, a press­ing ques­tion for New York City.

Anthol­ogy Film Archives bills itself as “an inter­na­tional cen­ter for the preser­va­tion, study, and exhi­bi­tion of film and video, with a par­tic­u­lar focus on inde­pen­dent, exper­i­men­tal, and avant-garde cin­ema.” To learn more about other AFA screen­ings and events, please visit their web­site.

Photo: Garry Owens