City Symphony mediography
- Manhatta, 1921, Paul Strand & Charles Sheeler, 11 min - Walt Whitman celebratory song
- Rien que les heures, 1926, Alberto Cavalcanti, 46 min -“epitomizes the poverty, cynical realism & aesthetic freedom of France of 1920s” (MacDonald, 153)
- Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, 1927, Walter Ruttman - “reflects Germany’s postwar hunger for social order” (153) idea of “symphony” as ideal of European thinking & cultural evolution - coherent performance within which the individualities of contributions are subsumed (MacDonald, 152
- Études sur Paris, 1928, André Sauvage - silent movie travels from the outskirts of Paris to the Seine in the centre of the city, going along the Canal de l'Ourcq, showing human activity as it was happening in 1928, in particular the industrious 19th district.
- The Bridge (De Brug) 1927-8, Joris Ivens - an abstract study of a massive iron bridge in Rotterdam, with its stark black & white montages and fluid camera, was described in the British journal Closeup (1928) as a 'pure visual symphony'.
- Man With a Movie Camera, 1929, Dziga Vertov -“reflects new communist Russia’s excitement about the Revolution & advent of modern industrialization” (MacDonald, 153) > shot in 3 Ukrainian cities: Odessa, Kharkiv and Kiev
- Rain (Regen), 1929, Joris Ivens and Mannus Franken. "A day in the life of a rain-shower in Amsterdam.
- Skyscraper Symphony, 1929, Robert Florey, 9 min. - montage of the skyscrapers of Manhattan opens with a succession of stationary views of the upper portions of numerous buildings. This is followed by a wide variety of fluid shots, which also begin to show more and more of the surrounding city, in addition to the skyscrapers themselves.
- A propos de Nice, 1930, Jean Vigo - photographed by Boris Kaufman. "The film depicts life in Nice, France by documenting the people in the city, their daily routines, a carnival and social inequalities. Vigo described the film in an address to the Groupement des Spectateurs d'Avant-Garde: "In this film, by showing certain basic aspects of a city, a way of life is put on trial... the last gasps of a society so lost in its escapism that it sickens you and makes you sympathetic to a revolutionary solution." “Vigo offers a restructured perception of the world - not so much through a seamless, logical narrative, but rather a fast-paced collection of only tangentially related shots
- Bronx Morning, 1931, Jay Leyda - an experimental reworking of continental developments through American vernacular, infusing avant-guard with reality and the capacity for social criticism (MacDonald, 153) - pro-immigrant
- The City, 1939, Willard Van Dyke & Ralph Steiner, 43min - produced for American Institute of Planners for 1939 New York World’s Fair - problems of the city solved by American planned communities => celebrating suburbs
- Up and Down the Waterfront, 1946, Rudy Burckhard
- The Climate of New York, 1948, Rudy Burckhardt
- Under the Brooklyn Bridge, 1953, Rudy Burckhardt
- Jazz of Lights, 1954, Ian Hugo
- Ave. El, 1954, Carson Davidson (experimental)
- The Wonder Ring, 1955 - Stan Brakhage - commissioned by Joseph Cornell - parallel journey
- The Red Balloon, 1956, Albert Lamorisse
- NY, NY, 1957, Francis Thompson, 15min 25sec— wacky, wavy vision
- Weegee’s New York, 1952/55 - directed by Weegee (Arthur Fellig) & compiled by Amos Vogel (no longer exists?)
- Bridges-Go-Round, 1958, Shirley Clarke
- Empire, 1963, Andy Warhol, 8 hrs (JG also includes Wavelength, 1967 -Michael Snow —not so sure)
- Go, Go, Go!, 1964, Marie Menken, 11min., silent - use of time lapse for nearly whole film - effect of miniaturizing big events, normally awesome aspects of city life, likely inspired Jonas Mekas (MacDonald, 166-7)
- Jonas Mekas - Lost, Lost, Lost ?
- Organism, 1975, Hilary Harris
- NYC, 1976, Jeff Scher - animation
- Koyaanisqatsi, 1982, Godfrey Reggio - the nation as city
- Berlin/NY, 1984, Jack Waters
- The Making of Do The Right Thing, 1989, St. Clair Bourne, 60 min (MacDonald, 154)
- Elegy in the Streets, 1989, Jim Hubbard
- Side/Walk/Shuttle,1992, Ernie Gehr, 41 min
- Undercurrents, 1994, John Behrens, 8min
- The Movement of Light at Night, 1996, John Behrens, 6min
- B/Side, 1996, Abigail Child - Thompkins Square park, homelessness
- Fulton Fish Market, 2003, Mark Street
- Native New Yorker, 2005, Steve Bilich - immigration (pair w/ Bronx Morning?)
- NYC Weights and Measures, 2006, Jem Cohen
- Empire II, 2008, Amos Poe
- Gravity Hill Newsreels - Occupy Wall Street, 2011, Jem Cohen
- London Symphony, work-in-progress, Alex Barrett, http://www.londonsymphfilm.com/
Interactive City Symphony:
- Man with a Movie Camera: The Global Remake, 2007-present: http://dziga.perrybard.net/
Man With a Movie Camera: The Global Remake is a participatory video shot by people around the world who are invited to record images interpreting the original script of Vertov’s Man With A Movie Camera and upload them to this site. Software developed specifically for this project archives, sequences and streams the submissions as a film. Anyone can upload footage. When the work streams your contribution becomes part of a worldwide montage, in Vertov’s terms the “decoding of life as it is”. This website contains every shot in Vertov’s 1929 film along with thumbnails representing the beginning middle and end of each shot. You are invited to interpret Vertov and upload your footage to this site to become part of the database. You can contribute an entire scene or a shot or multiple shots from different scenes.
