The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Jan 1, 1980

0h 58m

★ 10.0

Overview

This witty and original film is about the open spaces of cities and why some of them work for people while others don't. Beginning at New York's Seagram Plaza, one of the most used open areas in the city, the film proceeds to analyze why this space is so popular and how other urban oases, both in New York and elsewhere, measure up. Based on direct observation of what people actually do, the film presents a remarkably engaging and informative tour of the urban landscape and looks at how it can be made more hospitable to those who live in it.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

The Municipal Art Society of New York

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces Trailers

Cast

Self

William H. Whyte

Observations at Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal, which is one of the most fascinating stations for insiders. The documentary takes the completed renovation of the building as an occasion to bring the magnificent architecture to life; at the same time, it focuses on the countless momentary encounters when the paths of commuters and flâneurs cross.

3.4

Kristina Talking Pictures

Nov 2, 1976

Kristina, a self-named Hungarian female lion tamer, arrives in New York to become a dance choreographer. Kristina, now a middle-class NYC artist concerned about the environment, has a sailor lover named Raoul. The film, a collage work, an essay film, a fictional narrative and a documentary all rolled into one, is one of the most important independent American feminists films made during the 1970's.

6.4

Radiant City

May 30, 2007

Since the end of World War II, one of kind of urban residential development has dominate how cities in North America have grown, the suburbs. In these artificial neighborhoods, there is a sense of careless sprawl in an car dominated culture that ineffectually tries to create the more organically grown older communities. Interspersed with the comments of various experts about the nature of suburbia

0.0

Sunnyside

Invalid Date

Ninety-year-old sound artist and comedian Henry “Sandy” Jacobs lives a quirky existence at the end of Sunnyside Drive, a steep and winding dirt road washed by fog from the Pacific Ocean. Sixty feet down the hill lives his eccentric 84-year-old friend and neighbor, architect and former Frank Lloyd Wright collaborator Daniel Liebermann. These extraordinary old men, influential artists in the 1950s and ’60s, continue, each in their own way, to search the world for perfection. Sunnyside takes us to an extraordinary place, a microcosm with its own distinctive rhythm and remarkable inhabitants. It is a film about creativity, the capacity to dream and, ultimately, the transience of life.

7.0

Life After People

Jan 21, 2008

In this special documentary that inspired a two-season television series, scientists and other experts speculate about what the Earth, animal life, and plant life might be like if, suddenly, humanity no longer existed, as well as the effect humanity's disappearance might have on the artificial aspects of civilization.

7.1

Objectified

May 22, 2009

A feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

8.5

Get Rollin'

Apr 24, 1980

A documentary about Pat the Cat and other roller disco skaters who want to make it big doing what they do.

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0.0

Bardejov

Jan 4, 1952

No overview available.

6.6

The Stroll

Jan 23, 2023

The history of New York’s Meatpacking District, told from the perspective of transgender sex workers who lived and worked there. Filmmaker Kristen Lovell, who walked “The Stroll” for a decade, reunites her community to recount the violence, policing, homelessness, and gentrification they overcame to build a movement for transgender rights.

6.9

Kim's Video

Sep 27, 2023

Since 1987, and for almost three decades, New York cinephiles had access to a vast treasure trove of rare films thanks to Kim's Video, a small empire run by Yongman Kim, an enigmatic character who amassed more than fifty thousand VHS tapes.

6.7

Kokomo City

Jul 28, 2023

Four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York City break down the walls of their profession.

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0.0

I Will Dance

Jul 1, 2015

Follows the young people of Selma, Alabama's RATCo (Random Acts of Theatre Company) as they journey to New York City to share their story of hope, resilience, and overcoming.

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0.0

Die Menschenfischer

Oct 19, 2004

No overview available.

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7.0

The Vandals

Jan 23, 1972

Report on vandalism

6.8

Shine a Light

Apr 4, 2008

Martin Scorsese’s electrifying concert documentary captures The Rolling Stones live at New York’s Beacon Theatre during their A Bigger Bang tour. Filmed over two nights in 2006 with an all-star team of cinematographers, the film combines dynamic performances with archival footage and rare glimpses behind the scenes, offering a vibrant portrait of the band’s enduring energy and legacy.

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0.0

Paradise Circus

Sep 1, 1988

Mothers, architects, artists, shoppers and other women who live and work in Birmingham explore the contradictions of the city, its promises, frustrations and disappointments, and suggest that listening to the experiences of women may hold the answer to the impoverished 'concrete jungle' so familiar today.

8.0

Benny och kulturhuset

Feb 12, 2021

A portrait of Benny Fredriksson who for 16 years was CEO of Kulturhuset / Stadsteatern. He also had a background as an actor and director. In connection with a media hunt he resigned and later took his own life.

8.0

Paris Is Burning

Mar 13, 1991

Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.

0.0

Underground New York

Jan 1, 1968

A rare behind-the-scenes view of the exploding New York “underground” in the late sixities, a turbulent time and place that was to change American culture forever. A German TV crew, led by journalist Gideon Bachmann, explores the epicenter of the sixties revolution in art, music, poetry and film and interviews the main players in the “New American Cinema,” that was born on the streets of New York. Against a backdrop of cultural upheaval in all of the arts and growing political agitation against the Vietnam War, Bachman interviews the most prominent figures in “underground film,” including Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, the Kuchar Brothers and Bruce Connor, and visits the most notorious location in the New York art world of the era - Andy Warhol’s Factory - to conduct an interview with the genius of Pop Art himself.

0.0

This is an Address

Oct 23, 2020

Stonewall veterans (including prominent trans activist Sylvia Rivera) and HIV-positive New Yorkers take up residency on the Hudson River piers as cranes raze vacant buildings for a new skyline.

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces Trailers