A young boy who had been abandoned as a child and raised by wild dogs is taken to a university where a team attempts to teach him civilized behavior.
Arriving in the US with a background in abstract art, opera, and film—including work with German director Werner Schroeter—Vogl began making Super8 films in New York that stripped away the stylistic markers of Hollywood, New Wave cinema of the 1960s and ’70s, and classic avant-garde film, leaving only traces of their generic conventions. For the first hour of OK Today Tomorrow, he stages a series of fraught encounters around the city between four gentrified New Yorkers before abandoning his vague narrative of youthful angst altogether in favor of documenting the urban landscape itself. The dusk-to-dawn “city symphony” that ends the film resembles similar Super8 social studies by Vogl’s uptown contemporary John Ahearn; both recorded the daily lives of working-class black and immigrant communities on the streets of a city on the verge of the corporate takeover and sweeping gentrification that followed in the 1980s and ’90s. Preserved by The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The Fall of the I-Hotel brings to life the battle for housing in San Francisco. The brutal eviction of the International Hotel's tenants culminated a decade of spirited resistance to the razing of Manilatown. The Fall of the I-Hotel works on several levels. It not only documents the struggle to save the I-Hotel, but also gives an overview of Filipino American history.
On the occasion of his last regulars’ table in his old neighbourhood of Schwabing, the laconic pensioner Schorsch gets paid a cab drive to his new home in Neuperlach in the outskirts of the city by his pals. But Schorsch rather wants to take one last look at his old downtown apartment which he had renovated himself after the war, and where he had lived for almost forty years until his landlord bullied him out of there as the latter wanted to use the space for expensive luxury apartments. Because Schorsch’s wife wanted to move to “the countryside”, they thereupon moved to the Neuperlach development site in the outskirts of Munich. But amongst the uniformly looking housing blocks, Schorsch can’t even find his new apartment, and so, the grumpy cabdriver Gustl becomes his companion on a nightly odyssey.
A film essay contrasting the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks. The film explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.
In a violent, near-apocalyptic Detroit, evil corporation Omni Consumer Products wins a contract from the city government to privatize the police force. To test their crime-eradicating cyborgs, the company leads street cop Alex Murphy into an armed confrontation with crime lord Boddicker so they can use his body to support their untested RoboCop prototype. But when RoboCop learns of the company's nefarious plans, he turns on his masters.
A documentary focusing on the rebuilding projects in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
An author spends a year and a half filming what happens as a new apartment building is built in a neighborhood of Barcelona.
Residents struggle to pay their rapidly rising rents on Wellington Street in Montreal.
Filmed over four years, this documentary focuses on the impacts of gentrification as gay white professionals move into a largely black working-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio.
The continuing adventures of the barbers at Calvin's Barbershop. Gina, a stylist at the beauty shop next door, is now trying to cut in on his business. Calvin is again struggling to keep his father's shop and traditions alive--this time against urban developers looking to replace mom & pop establishments with name-brand chains. The world changes, but some things never go out of style--from current events and politics to relationships and love, you can still say anything you want at the barbershop.
In one single shot, Obras offers a poetic journey through time and space, exploring Barcelona's wild irreversible destruction.
Victor works in a real estate agency in the well-known Chueca neighborhood of Madrid. He hides a terrible secret: he makes apartments available for sale by murdering the old ladies owners that live in them. Then, refurbishes and decorates the apartments to sell them to gay couples with high purchasing power. His ultimate objective is to transform Chueca into a kind of London Soho area.
An unlikely band of misfits has made their home on a roof between a feed mill and the municipal waste treatment plant. But life is good, away from society and living of this leftovers. Lisbeth, Herbert and Walther have created their own self-sufficient little paradise. While Herbert is hunting cats, Lisbeth tends to the self-grown vegetables and Walther angles for usable scrap from the dump down below. One morning though, the peace is disrupted: A nameless, suit wearing stranger has appeared overnight and set up his tent among their huts. He does not speak, but obviously he intents to stay. The rooftop dwellers are anxious. Will he destroy their perfect little society? Or can he be part of it… incorporated so to speak... ?
The Oven Sky (2011) is set in a quickly gentrifying neighborhood where newcomers pressure a longtime resident to turn her yard filled with lawn ornaments into a dog park. This animation features music by Rachel Mason.
In 1989, together with a group of female friends, Su Friedrich rented and renovated an old loft in Williamsburg, an unassuming working-class district of Brooklyn. In 2005 this former industrial zone was designated a residential area and the factories, manufacturers and artists’lofts were priced out by property speculators lured by tax breaks. Friedrich spent five years documenting with her camera the changes in the area. She shows the demolition of industrial buildings and the construction of trendy new apartments for wealthy clients, watching old tenants leave and new inhabitants arrive. As she keeps meticulous record of developments, the extent and speed of the upheaval becomes clear. Her own tenancy agreement expires too and so her documentary images and trenchant commentary become the tools of her growing anger. A documentary of small changes evolves into an historical record of New York, a case study of the rapid gentrification of our cities.
Director Kelly Anderson's personal journey as a Brooklyn 'gentrifier' to understand the forces reshaping her neighborhood along lines of race and class. The film reframes the gentrification debate to expose the corporate actors and government policies driving displacement and neighborhood change.
Right to Wynwood is an investigative documentary that explores the causes and effects of gentrification in Wynwood. Through interviews with developers, gallerists, artists, community leaders, and members of the local Puerto Rican population, we seek to tell the story of how Wynwood went from Miami's oldest Puerto Rican community to its largest art district, and what that means for the future of the neighborhood.
Facing eviction the oldest black-owned gay bar in Brooklyn relies on a passionate community in its fight for survival.