Northwest Film Forum

From the gargantuan metropolises of the East Coast to the anywherescapes of small-town Mid-West and further to the low-rise, sunburnt valleys of California, American cities have defined our cultural landscape.  We love ambition, creativity, concrete and steel; the architecture of Gropius and Mies and SOM; Venturi’s Main Street; the engineered beauty of the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges; the unexpected openness of the gridiron street patterns where vistas appear between blocks revealing open skies and views far into the distance. Yet, across the Nation, recession, urban renewal and a changing industrial landscape are shaping cities in interesting ways — often leaving decay and displacement in their wake. This series presents three films that focus on the rise and decline of the great American city (to take Jane Jacobs’s phrase). With Battle For Brooklyn, filmmakers Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley examine Bloomberg’s newly minted "Millionaires Playground" of New York City; French filmmaker Florent Tillon explores the detritus of Detroit in Detroit Wild City; and Chad Freidrichs documentary, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is an analysis of the massive impact of the national urban renewal program of the 1950s and 1960s as seen from a single development in St. Louis, MO.

Series pass available: $15 Members / $25 General