Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

Apr 21, 2017

1h 32m

★ 6.8

Overview

Writer and urban activist Jane Jacobs fights to save historic New York City during the ruthless redevelopment era of urban planner Robert Moses in the 1960s.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Altimeter Films

JustFilms / Ford Foundation

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City Trailers

Cast

Himself

Thomas Campanella

Herself

Mindy Fullilove

Himself

Alexander Garvin

Himself

Paul Goldberger

Himself

Steven Johnson

Himself

Max Page

Herself

Mary Rowe

Himself

Michael Sorkin

Jane Jacobs (voice)

Marisa Tomei

Robert Moses (voice)

Vincent D'Onofrio

Herself (uncredited, archival footage)

Jane Jacobs

In the town of Xoco, the spirit of an old villager awakens in search of its lost home. Along its journey, the ghost discovers that the town still celebrates its most important festivities, but also learns that the construction of a new commercial complex called Mítikah will threaten the existence of both the traditions and the town itself.

0.0

Legault's Place

Jan 1, 1964

Legault is an aging man who lived in a rural cabin, now a suburban cabin, as developments have popped up around him.

5.6

Douce France

Jun 16, 2021

Amina, Sami and Jennyfer are high school students in the Paris suburbs, in 93. At the initiative of 3 of their teachers, they embark on an unexpected investigation into a gigantic leisure park project which involves concreting agricultural land near their homes. But can we have the power to act on a territory when we are 17 years old? Funny and intrepid, these new citizens take us to meet residents of their neighborhood, property developers, farmers and even elected officials of the National Assembly. A joyful quest that challenges conventional wisdom and revives our connection to the land!

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Mobility

Jan 1, 1986

This short documentary examines the complex range of issues affecting urban transport in developing countries. After examining cost and available technology, as well as the different needs of the industrialized middle class and the urban poor, the film proposes some surprising solutions.

4.7

Operation: Jane Walk

Mar 15, 2018

The war zone of a dystopian multiplayer shooting game is used to embark some urban explorers on a winter walk, avoiding the combats whenever possible, as peaceful observers, inhabitants of a digital world, which is a detailed replica of Midtown Manhattan.

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10.0

Little Burgundy

Jan 1, 1968

"This film is one of the first French Unit productions of the “Société Nouvelle/Challenge for Change” program. When an old area of Montréal is to be demolished to make way for a new low-income housing development, is there anything the residents can do to protect their own interests? The film documents such a situation in the Little Burgundy district of Montréal and shows how the residents organized themselves into a committee that successfully influenced the city’s housing policy." - Anthology Film Archives

0.0

Farewell Oak Street

Jun 15, 1953

This documentary presents a before-and-after picture of people in a large-scale public housing project in Toronto. Due to a housing shortage, they were forced to live in squalid, dingy flats and ramshackle dwellings on a crowded street in Regent Park North; now they have access to new, modern housing developments designed to offer them privacy, light and space.

0.0

City Limits

Jan 1, 1971

Author and activist Jane Jacobs talks about the problems and virtues of North American cities.

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0.0

Alliances Terrestres

Jul 10, 2024

No overview available.

8.0

Ellas en la ciudad

May 22, 2025

"Ellas en la ciudad" (Them in the City) focuses on the first settlers of the neighborhoods on the outskirts of Seville. Through their stories, we discover that they have been the backbone of a city that has turned its back on them.

5.3

Amancio Williams

Nov 18, 2013

A biography documentary of the Argentine modernist architect Amancio Williams.

10.0

Le Corbusier, l'architecte du bonheur

Dec 31, 1957

Documentary devoted to the architectural and urban planning designs of Le Corbusier. The architect supports his in-depth reflection on the city and its necessary adaptation to modern life with plans, drawings and images, particularly Paris, whose revolutionary development dreamed of by Le Corbusier is exhibited here. Its first projects will remain at the stage of a model: the modernization plan for the city of Algiers. Some will be created by other architects: Ministry of Education in Rio de Janeiro, UN Palace in New York. From the post-war period in less than 10 years, Le Corbusier created large housing units in Marseille, Nantes, a chapel in Ronchamps, a factory in Saint-Dié, a town in Chandigarh in India. Through diagrams, the architect presents his theory of the "radiant city", the mathematical key modulor of his work as well as his project for reorganizing the countryside, industrial and urban cities into a grouping around a cooperative system.

0.0

La Alameda

Mar 13, 1978

Following a commission from the College of Architects of Seville, for the production of a documentary about the La Alameda de Hércules area of the Sevillian capital in a debate about its possible destiny and urban planning challenges, the filmmaker Juan Sebastián Bollaín, offers this visionary realistic and critical, at the same time experimental and iconoclastic, portrait of the problem of the transformation of historic centers in our cities.

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0.0

Urbanisme africain

Jan 1, 1962

Directed by Jean Rouch.

0.0

Snow Fighters

Jan 1, 1957

A close-up of a snow-bound city, and the men, money and machinery it takes to dig it out.

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The heart of Caracas

Nov 29, 2013

Caracas has been changing since the nineteenth century this is a story that tries to explain why the Venezuelan capital is complex, chaotic and fertile. In light of these new evidences, community experiments, social awareness and organization of people, seem to be the necessary ingredients to rescue a metropolis that is not yet completely lost.

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0.0

The Downtown Project

Jan 1, 2011

Just a stone’s throw from downtown Montreal is the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance have retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty, prostitution, drugs and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there? Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside the buildings and met the residents.