Tuesday, December 9, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Instructor: Jesse Pires, Executive Director, Lightbox Film Center
Whether it’s the iconic San Francisco locations of Vertigo and Bullitt or the gritty Parisian streets of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, the medium of film has often been used to capture city life. The “golden age” of cinema coincided with the 1920 census’ revelation that most Americans lived in metropolitan areas. Bastions of commerce and industrialization, 20th-century cities brought all walks of life together—for better and for worse—and became rich subject matter for filmmakers.
City symphonies are short poetic documentaries, generally depicting a “day in the life,” focusing on the human experience in an urban landscape. As cities began to change, most notably through the introduction of highways that divided and polluted, the genre became more critical of life in the city and its impact on human beings. This one-night seminar will present an overview of city symphony films, beginning with the quintessential example of the genre, Paul Strand and Charles Scheeler’s “Manhatta,” and concluding with Thom Andersen’s document of 21st-century Los Angeles, “Get Out of the Car.”
$30 for members, $40 for non-members
Schedule