Urban Studies

We’ve all seen homeless people pushing shopping carts down the street, shopping carts packed to the brim with all kinds of "junk." But what’s actually inside those shopping carts anyway?

Chronicles life on East Seventh Street in New York City and its transformations. Residents share their memories of what used to be an immigrant lower-class neighborhood.

This documentary examines two migrant experiences, one from the Caribbean and one from Latin America, which comprise an important part of the Hispanic experience in New York.

This video follows the sculptures of the late Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), one of Europe’s most popular artists, as they are transported from his Swiss studio to their new home at the Museum of Basel.

Focuses on the Russian city of Ekaterinburg as a case-study illustration of the former Soviet Union's difficult transition from a socialist to a capitalist economy.

Weimar: A Modern Day Renaissance City is a celebration of the small town that has capped its triumphant comeback by being recognized as the Culture city of Europe in 1999. This video looks at Weimar's past and present.

For nearly thirty years, in the longest ongoing war in Africa, the Eritrean people waged a bitter struggle against the occupying forces of the Ethiopian government, which were armed by the Soviet Union and Israel.

Examines the operations of the Bronx Housing Court which annually mediates some 125,000 disputes between tenants and landlords, including evictions, rent strikes and housing code violations. The film also explores the social and economic causes for the growing problem of urban housing decay.

Tells the stories of poor people in Philadelphia who illegally take over or `squat' in abandoned houses in order to get places to live and to change housing policy locally and nationally. The film focuses on a 22-year-old single mother of three small children who becomes a leader in the national squatters movement, and includes numerous interviews with activists, real estate developers and government officials.

Examines gentrification, a process by which an underdeveloped neighborhood is `upgraded' by real estate speculation, with higher income individuals moving into and improving existing properties, but also displacing many of the neighborhood's longtime residents.

Depicts the efforts of Latino residents of New York's Lower East Side who have taken over their own buildings abandoned by landlords. Organizing themselves into Tenants' Associations, they undertake the repair and renovation of their decaying tenements and provide their own services.

Examines the plight of `squatters' in Brooklyn, NY as they try to claim buildings abandoned by the city and to transform them into habitable dwellings.