The Urban Landscape - screening seriesMain MenuLandscape Theorysome general thoughtsThe City SymphonyOrganism (Hilary Harris, 1975, 19m) Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1983, 85m)Rivers and DamsThe River (Pare Lorentz, 1938, 31 min) Up the Yangtzee (Yung Chang, 2008, 90 min)OilOil: A symphony in Motion (Artkino, 1933, 8m) Petropolis (Mettler, 2009, 42m) Deep Weather (Ursula Biemann, 2013, 10m)LaborWorkers Leaving the Factory (Harun Farocki, 1995, 36m) Maquilapolis (Sergio De La Torre & Vicky Funari, 2006, 69m) Workers leaving the GooglePlex (Andrew Norman Wilson, 2011, 11m)PollutionRed Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)Space & PlacePowers of Ten (Ray & Charles Eames, 1977, 9m) Space is the Place (John Corney, 1972, 85m)NostalgiaThe Royal Road (Jenni Olson, 2015, 64m)The Urban CommonsStyle Wars: The Original Hip Hop Documentary (Tony Silver, USA, 1983, 70m)SurveillanceHow Not to be Seen (Monty Python, 1970, 3min) How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .Mov File (Hito Steyerl, 2013, 15 min) Nostalgia for the Light (Patricio Guzman, 2011, 90m)Topiary Landbergcfb350d468ec5c2054ab0b7ea98b3e2b63e3e296
1media/1-Subway-graffiti-WtC.jpgmedia/1-Subway-graffiti-WtC.jpg2015-11-13T01:12:54-08:00The Urban Commons14Style Wars: The Original Hip Hop Documentary (Tony Silver, USA, 1983, 70m)image_header5313302017-10-31T17:19:39-07:00Produced in collaboration with renowned graffiti photographer Henry Chalfant, Style Wars is an indispensable document of New York Street culture of the early 1980s: afilmic record of the golden age of graffiti and hip hop — youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in economic crisis.
Portraying New York City’s ramshackle subway system as both a public canvas and public policy battleground, the film portrays a number of the young artists at work, juxtaposed against the official positions of Mayor Koch, the police and other city officials contending that graffiti is vandalism.A loving portrait of street culture and the spatial politics informing this early 1980s culture, the film ultimately leads to a climactic head when graffiti is “discovered” by the art market and moved inside to galleries.Providing a visceral, visual and auditory chronicle of the first wave of NYC gentrification and the forces of economic “revitalization” which rocked the city and transformed its cultural landscape, Style Wars won the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983 Sundance Film Festival.