Join us for a free screening of Citizen Jane: Battle for the City at 38 Hurstmere, Takapuna
This fascinating documentary about urban planning will inspire people to celebrate their city and the places and people who surround it.
Based on activist, Jane Jacob’s book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the documentary film explores Jacobs’ fight to stop powerbroker and developer, Robert Moses from demolishing established housing areas in 1960’s New York with high-rise buildings and superhighways.
Take a stroll on the Urban Walking Festival then relax your feet with a free screening of Citizen Jane: Battle for the City kicking off at 4pm. Please note, we recommend bringing blankets and chairs to sit on to ensure the ultimate cosy experience!
At his most powerful in the years after World War II, powerbroker and developer Robert Moses was determined to modernise New York and speed up the traffic. He demolished great swathes of housing to build high-rise accommodation and construct superhighways the length of Manhattan. David to his Goliath, Jane Jacobs led a grass-roots campaign to thwart his plan to plough an expressway across town, right through Lower Manhattan.
Author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs had a vision of urban life that involved people, neighbourhoods, heritage and habitation on a human scale, qualities Lower Manhattan enjoyed in abundance. Director Matt Tyrnauer (Valentino: The Last Emperor) has fashioned a lively documentary about the enduring issues enunciated so clearly in their clash.
“Tyrnauer transforms what could be a staid profile film into an urgent story about the dangers of ‘urban renewal,’ something Jacobs herself would admire… How do we retain neighborhood diversity amid rapid gentrification? Can a metropolis retain its humanity when everyone’s living in high-rises?” — April Wolfe, Village Voice
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer.
2016
92 minutes
