Film: Slums – Cities of Tomorrow / Bidonville: architecture de la ville future (2014)
Film: Excellent
Transfer: n/a Extras: n/a
Label: n/a
Region: n/a
Released: n/a
Genre: Documentary / Hot Docs 2014
Synopsis: Somewhat persuasive documentary on the natural evolution of modern urban centres from boom town slums.
Special Features: n/a
Review:
Although its title suggests a cinematic document of human misery seething in the poorest, filthiest, most overcrowded tracts of human civilization, Canadian director Jean-Nicolas Orhon attempts to clarify the very definition of slums, and using interwoven interviews with Robert Neuwirth and Jeremy Seabrook, he argues that urban civilizations have a natural and logical history of growing from what began as shantytowns set up on the edges of industrial centres during a heady economic boom.
Orhon globe-trots from Quebec to Morocco, New Jersey to India, and the nomadic groups seemingly abandoned by the French government to illustrate the natural civility of the communities who live in structures which are themselves reflective of vernacular architecture that fosters human interaction. The film may seem to support a return to a commune culture, but Orhon’s experts and the inhabitants of slums argue that a chunk of society’s ills stem from governments imposing a housing plan that is innately unnatural and counter-productive to urban evolution and tolerance. Provocative, uplifting, and beautifully photographed.
© 2014 Mark R. Hasan
External References:
IMDB — Hot Docs 2014 Listing
Vendor Search Links:
Amazon.ca
Category: Uncategorized
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