21.1.12

Urbanized


On Thursday night we went to see a screening of the Gary Hustwit film documentary, Urbanized. I haven't (yet) seen his other two films, Helvetic and Objectified, but having read reviews about this one and seen the trailer, I was really keen to go. The film presents case studies of different cities who have input different ideas to solve the problems caused by the mass urbanisation of our planet. 
The mayor of Bogota was fantastic, so enthusiastic having taken his position in office to bring in a super bus ways and ignore cars to focus on cycle and pedestrian networks. My ears pricked up about Detroit, who's population has decreased from 2 million to 700,000 in recent years, as the communities have started up urban gardens in the plots of lands where houses have been abandoned.
In a debate after these issues were discussed in relation to Manchester and what I concluded is that it is all about deeds not words. We, the individuals, need to get of our bottoms and make a different.
All in all it was a truly inspiring film.
Trailer from urbanizedfilm.com

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