Urban Studies


EAT BITTER
EAT BITTER

2024  African Studies  Asian Studies  Business  Economics  Environmental Studies  Family Relations  Political Science  Urban Studies  Sociology 

An eye-opening documentary filmed in the Central African Republic follows a native sand diver and a Chinese national developing the land.  As we follow the hardships and struggle, the film raises the question of what are we prepared to sacrifice for a better tomorrow, without a promise that it will ever arrive.


GHOST TROPIC (narrative)
GHOST TROPIC (narrative)

2020  Cinema Studies  Narrative Films  Urban Studies 

Khadija (Saadia Bentaïeb) is a fifty-eight-year-old Maghrebi cleaning woman living in Brussels in the wake of the 2016 bombings that shook the city. After work one night, she falls asleep on the last subway train, wakes up at the end of the line and has no choice but to make her way home—all the way across the city—on foot.

THE FOURTH KINGDOM: the kingdom of plastics
THE FOURTH KINGDOM: the kingdom of plastics

American Studies  Alcohol & Drug Abuse  Chicano Studies  Cinema Studies  Environmental Studies  Immigration  Labor Studies  Latino Studies  New York City  Urban Studies  2020 

The Fourth Kingdom: The Kingdom of Plastics is a compassionate through-the-seasons study of a non-profit recycling and redemption center in New York.

SUBURBAN BIRDS (narrative)
SUBURBAN BIRDS (narrative)

2019  Asian Studies  Cinema Studies  Urban Studies 

Hao (Mason Lee) is part of a team of young engineers called in to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of the city. As he and his team survey the subsiding area, another story is taking place in the same suburban landscape. A younger boy, also named Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief until one-by-one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow stranger. 

I AM GAGARIN
I AM GAGARIN

2019  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Directed by Women  Music  Russia  World History  Urban Studies 

A deeply personal exploration of post-Soviet Russia, I am Gagarin examines the Moscow rave scene, and the influential trendsetters at the forefront of the subculture. 



I'M LEAVING NOW (YA ME VOY)
I'M LEAVING NOW (YA ME VOY)

2019  American Studies  Chicano Studies  Latino Studies  New York City  Urban Studies  Cinema Studies  Immigration 

Felipe, an undocumented Mexican immigrant in Brooklyn, struggles with whether to return home to Mexico, to the wife and children he no longer really knows.



CHINESE PORTRAIT
CHINESE PORTRAIT

2019  Anthropology  Asian Studies  Art History  Cinema Studies  Photography  Urban Studies 

From acclaimed director Wang Xiaoshuai (Beijing BicycleSo Long, My Son) comes a personal snapshot of contemporary China in all its diversity. Shot over the course of ten years on both film and video, the film consists of a series of carefully composed tableaus of people and environments, each one more extraordinary than the last. 

ALSO KNOWN AS JIHADI
ALSO KNOWN AS JIHADI

2019  Cinema Studies  Cultural Studies  Flaherty Collection  Middle Eastern Studies  World History  Urban Studies  Terrorism Studies 

Pulling from real events and court documents in the wake of the 2015 Paris terror attacks, Also Known As Jihadi follows a young man's journey to radicalism not through his actions, but through his surroundings. 

OWNED: A TALE OF TWO AMERICAS
OWNED: A TALE OF TWO AMERICAS

2018  Sociology  American History  Urban Studies  Cultural Studies  African-American Studies  2019 

Owned: A Tale of Two Americas is a fever dream vision into the dark history behind the US housing economy. Tracking its overtly racist beginnings to its unbridled commoditization, the film exposes a foundational story few Americans understand as their own.

RAT FILM
RAT FILM

2017  Urban Studies  Environmental Studies  Political Science  Sociology  Cultural Studies  Cinema Studies  Anthropology  American Studies  Architecture  African-American Studies 

A documentary that uses the rat to explore the complicated history of Baltimore and how racial segregation, redlining, and environmental racism built the American city we see today.

CITY OF TREES
CITY OF TREES

2016  Kartemquin Films  Environmental Studies  American Studies  Labor Studies  Criminal & Law  African-American Studies  Urban Studies  Political Science  Sociology  Health  Business 

A complex tale of social justice, urban forestry and community politics, City of Trees portrays the struggles of a DC non-profit to challenge the cycle of poverty and violence in blighted urban areas by implementing an ambitious "green jobs" program that hires 150 unemployed residents to plant trees in underserved parks.

COUNTING
COUNTING

2015  Cinema Studies  New York City  Russia  Urban Studies 

In fifteen linked chapters shot in locations ranging from Moscow to New York to Istanbul, Counting merges city symphony, diary film, and personal/political essay to create a vivid portrait of contemporary life.

1 WAY UP
1 WAY UP

2015  Urban Studies  Europe  Education  Children & Young Adult  Directed by Women 

From the producers of the Academy Award winning documentary Inocente, 1 Way Up tells the inspirational story of two teenage boys hoping to escape one of the toughest gang neighborhoods in London with the only thing they have—a bike.

LUCKY
LUCKY

2015  Puerto Rican Studies  New York City  Women's Studies  Urban Studies  Latino Studies  LGBTQ  Directed by Women  Immigration 

Executive produced by Steve James (The Interrupters, Life Itself), Lucky is an unforgettable portrait of a young Puerto Rican woman, a single mother, homeless, and struggling to find work, yet still passionately dreaming of true love and success. Filmed over six years, the film powerfully brings to light a myriad of social issues such as the flaws of foster care and social services, systemic poverty, urban blight, homelessness and LGBT discrimination.

LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF
LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF

Urban Studies  Sociology  Media Studies  Latino Studies  Cinema Studies  Chicano Studies  Architecture  2014 

Never before available, Thom Andersen's landmark documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself explores the tangled relationship between the movies and their fabled hometown – as seen entirely though the films themselves.Newly remastered, this kaleidoscopic tour through the metropolis' real and cinematic history, from the silent era to modern times, is an extraordinary achievement, unlike any documentary that has come before or since.

RECONVERSÃO
RECONVERSÃO

2014  Urban Studies  Architecture  Environmental Studies  Cinema Studies 

A master of the essay film, Thom Andersen (Los Angeles Plays Itself, Red Hollywood) surveys the work of Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura - winner of his profession's highest honor, the Pritzker Prize - whose astonishing, often-controversial projects embrace decay, the passage of time, local history, and nature.

DEMOLITION / CHAIQIAN (拆 - 迁)
DEMOLITION / CHAIQIAN (拆 - 迁)

Sensory Ethnography Lab  Asian Studies  2014  Sociology  Urban Studies  Labor Studies 

Focusing on a vast demolition site in the center of Chengdu, the Sichuan capital in western China, a bustling site emblematic of the rapid growth and development occurring throughout the country, J.P. Sniadecki’s Demolition is a wonderfully patient and revealing portrait of the migrant laborers who work and live in its shadow.

YOUR DAY IS MY NIGHT
YOUR DAY IS MY NIGHT

Asian-American Studies  Asian Studies  American Studies  Urban Studies  Women's Studies  New York City  2014  Directed by Women  Immigration 

Blending autobiographical monologues, intimate conversations, and staged performances, Lynne Sachs' Your Day Is My Night documents the lives of Chinese immigrants sharing a "shift-bed" apartment in the heart of New York City's Chinatown, offering a deeply felt portrait of the Asian-American immigrant experience.

ZIPPER: CONEY ISLAND'S LAST WILD RIDE
ZIPPER: CONEY ISLAND'S LAST WILD RIDE

Urban Studies  New York City  Architecture  American Studies  Political Science  2013  Directed by Women 

A documentary about greed, politics, urban development and renewal, the award-winning Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride is an absorbing chronicle of the efforts to redevelop an iconic American landmark, Coney Island.

THE HILL
THE HILL

2013  African-American Studies  American Studies  Sociology  Urban Studies  Directed by Women 

Clinging to the last affordable housing in a rapidly gentrifying city, a determined group of neighbors come together when the city claims eminent domain over their land in order to build a new school. An absorbing look at the complex issues surrounding urban planning, gentrification and economic renewal.

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