Film screening "Citizen Jane: Battle for the City" (2017)

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) is an icon, a visionary writer who can be credited for almost single-handedly launching a powerful American urbanist movement whose principles continues to shape debates over the city today.  A successful journalist during a time when women had little to no agency in professional architectural or city planning circles, Jacobs wrote the seminal work The Life and Death of Great American Cities. Her scholarship was complemented by a fierce street-wise activism that showed how engaged citizens can fight the power for better neighborhoods. This highly-praised documentary depicts the epic 1960s battle between Jacobs and the ruthless New York City "master builder and planning tsar" Robert Moses, a crucial battle that was to determine the future of lower Manhattan.

The "Teple Misto" (Warm City) platform (Ivano-Frankivsk) invited the film series to be screened as part of a public program MetaLab  and provoke a discussion thereon.

"Cinematic Visions. American Cities and Architecture in Documentaries" is a series of film screenings which will be held from February to June. We will view films and discuss architecture through the lens of American movies. The American experience in shaping architectural trends, urban planning, and design in the Modern and post-Modern eras has been celebrated and vilified through the cinematic lens. Our newly launched film series Cinematic Visions explores, celebrates, and deplores the visual legacies of American society. Monthly screenings will offer interpretations of American efforts in contemporary architecture, urban construction (and deconstruction), as well as related topics.

Credits

Cover Image, Image Gallery by Facebook-profile of MetaLab