Citizen Jane: Battle for the City
2017
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer

This film will be introduced by Adelle Main, Assistant Director of the Community Design Resource Center at the University of Houston Hines College of Architecture & Design

In 1960 Jane Jacobs’s book The Death and Life of Great American Cities sent shockwaves through the architecture and planning worlds, with its exploration of the consequences of modern planners’ and architects’ reconfiguration of cities. Jacobs was also an activist, who was involved in many fights in mid-century New York, to stop “master builder” Robert Moses from running roughshod over the city. This film retraces the battles for the city as personified by Jacobs and Moses, as urbanization moves to the very front of the global agenda. Many of the clues for formulating solutions to the dizzying array of urban issues can be found in Jacobs’s prescient text, and a close second look at her thinking and writing about cities is very much in order. This film sets out to examine the city of today though the lens of one of its greatest champions.

Watch a trailer and learn more about the film online.

This film is presented in partnership with Preservation Houston and the Houston Cinema Arts Society as part of the Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

ArCH Film Festival Schedule

Friday, November 10th
5:00pm Happy Hour Kick-Off, Honeymoon Cafe
7:00pm If You Build It, Buffalo Bayou Partnership

Saturday, November 11th
10:00am Buffalo Bayou Walking Tour, 902 Commerce St
3:00pm Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, Rice Media Center

Sunday, November 12th
3:00pm I Look Up Film Challenge (shorts), Buffalo Bayou Partnership

Monday, November 13th
7:00pm Columbus, Rice Media Center