Film

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

A documentary about Jane Jacobs, the writer and activist who challenged Robert Moses's vision for New York City in the 1960s. It's a brisk, engaging portrait of how one person with ideas and conviction took on the bulldozer logic of postwar urban planning. For anyone curious about how cities actually get shaped, and who cares about that fight.

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13th2016

Ava DuVernay's documentary about systemic injustice uses the same montage-and-talking-heads approach to build an argument. It shares Jacobs's moral urgency and narrative drive.

But It's heavy and disturbing in ways Citizen Jane isn't; this one doesn't let you look away comfortably.

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The Pruitt-Igoe Myth2012

A documentary about the rise and catastrophic fall of a St. Louis housing complex, it's exactly what Citizen Jane warns against. Shows the real human cost of the ideology she fought.

But It's darker and more elegiac than Citizen Jane; less triumphant, more mournful about what was lost.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Stalker1979

Both explore the tension between the planner's vision and the lived reality of inhabitants; between what a place is supposed to be and what it becomes.

Andrei Tarkovsky's film about a guide leading people through a mysterious zone is a meditation on desire, vision, and how power operates in a space. Nothing like Citizen Jane on the surface, but both ask: who gets to decide what a place is for?

But It's 163 minutes of slow, meditative cinema. If you watched Citizen Jane's brisk 92 minutes expecting more pace, this will test your patience.

Stalker poster

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Cutie and the Boxer, Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist