Sat, Jun 24 / 7 pm & 9 pm
Sun, Jun 25 / 7 pm
Wed, Jun 28 / 7 pm
Thur, Jun 29 / 9 pm
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer
2016, USA, 92 min
In 1960, Jane Jacobs’s 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 and she was involved in many fights in mid-century New York, while trying 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 urbanization moves to the very front of the global agenda. Many clues for formulating solutions to a dizzying array of urban issues can be found in Jacobs’s prescient text, and a close second look at her thinking and writing about cities is very much in order.
Citizen Jane is generously sponsored by the Winnipeg Architecture Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to advancing the awareness and appreciation of Winnipeg’s built environment through public education. Together with the Cinematheque they present an ongoing series dedicated to architecture and design.
