Cidades Fantasmas

On Three Rivers

December 1954 •

A historical overview of Sisak, the city on three rivers, from the Roman era to the post-WWII industrialization.

Sylvia Kristel – Paris

February 2003 •English

Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.

Babylone, la cité des merveilles

February 2021 •French

A New Environment Heinrich Klotz on Architecture and New Media

October 2019 •German

The old world is gone. Our landscape bears scars. Entire cities have been levelled. Is it possible to regenerate the city without covering over the warnings of war’s aggressions? Or can these ruins provide a unique chance to reinvent the city thoroughly? The art historian Heinrich Klotz took precisely these questions, concerning the reconstruction of Germany’s historical districts after World War II, as the departure point of his practice.

Ramses II : La Vérité sur le plus grand des pharaons

September 2024 •French

Rotterdam 2040

May 2013 •English

Rotterdam 2040 is a film about the city’s future, departing from the principle of Gyz La Rivière that you can’t look ahead without considering your past (something that hasn’t always been Rotterdam’s strongest feature). At high speed, La Rivière reconstructs the history of Rotterdam from the time before the bombings until now, and expands the developments to the year 2040 (100 years after the bombing and the 700th anniversary of the city). La Rivière made a specific choice to expose his personal vision, which is sometimes radical or a little absurd. So no experts and no talking heads, but an assault of old and new imagery, held together by La Rivière as the narrator of the film. Although Rotterdam 2040 deals with architecture and urban renewal, it is actually a film about people. The subjective experience of the city by its (future) occupants mainly determines the parade of architectural blunders and suggestions for the future. All tongue-in-cheek of course.

Room

April 2005 •English

A Texan begins a cross-country journey in hope of finding the empty loft she keeps seeing in visions.

Bikes vs Cars

March 2015 •English

Bikes vs Cars depicts a global crisis that we all deep down know we need to talk about: Climate, earth's resources, cities where the entire surface is consumed by the car. An ever-growing, dirty, noisy traffic chaos. The bike is a great tool for change, but the powerful interests who gain from the private car invest billions each year on lobbying and advertising to protect their business. In the film we meet activists and thinkers who are fighting for better cities, who refuse to stop riding despite the increasing number killed in traffic.

Zagreb in a Metropolitan Light

January 1934 •

A documentary about Croatia's capital aspirations of becoming metropolis. Camera follows everyday life of random city-goers. Title cards bring interesting plot twists, indeed making this film a mockumentary. One of the earliest preserved pieces of cinema in Croatia.

¡Vivan las Antipodas!

November 2011 •Spanish

What would be the shortest route between Entre Rios in Argentina and the Chinese metropolis Shanghai? Simply a straight line through the center of the earth, since the two places are antipodes: they are located diametrically opposite to each other on the earth's surface. During his visits to four such antipodal pairs, the award-winning documentary filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky captured images that turn our view of the world upside down.

Father of the City

June 2001 •Swedish

A film about "the father" of Malmö Eric Svenning and how the city has developed during his time.

Jetman Dubai : Young Feathers

May 2015 •English

We mark a new milestone in the chapter of human flight. Join Jetman Yves Rossy and his protege, Jetman Vince Reffet as they explore the limits in the city of dreams. "The real dream is to be completely free"

Oyler

October 2015 •English

A Cincinnati public school fights to break the cycle of poverty in its Urban Appalachian neighborhood, where senior Raven Gribbins aims to become the first in her troubled family to graduate and go to college. When Principal Craig Hockenberry's job is threatened, it becomes clear it's a make-or-break year for both of them.

Urbanized

September 2011 •English

A documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world's foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Wild Amsterdam

March 2018 •Dutch

The city from the unique perspective of the many wild animals and plants that inhabit it. Seen through the eyes of the adventurous urban cat, Abatutu.

Hidden Cities

April 2010 •German

"The theme of the film HIDDEN CITIES is personal urban perceptions, which we call 'the city'. The city, as a living organism, reflecting social processes and interactions, economic relations, political conditions and private matters. In the city, human memories, desires and tragedies find expression in the form of designations and marks engraved in house walls and paving slabs. But what the city really is under this thick layer of signs, what it contains or conceals, is what we are researching in the HIDDEN CITIES project. The source material for the film are 9 sequential photo works created by Gusztáv Hámos between 1975 and 2010. Each of these 'city perceptions' depicts essential situations of urban experiences containing human and inhuman acts in a compact form. The cities in which the photo sequences have been made are Berlin, Budapest and New York – places with a traumatised past: Wars, dictatorships, terrorist catastrophes."

Será tu tierra

October 1965 •Spanish

All These Sleepless Nights

November 2016 •Polish

What does it mean to be awake in a world that seems satisfied to be asleep? Kris and Michal push their experiences of life and love to a breaking point as they restlessly roam the city streets in search of answers, adrift in the euphoria and uncertainty of youth.

Twenty-Four Dollar Island

December 1927 •English

A visual celebration of Manhattan and its waterways on the 300th anniversary of purchase from the local Native Americans.

Buddy

August 2005 •English

The story of the often contradictory and always audacious public figure, Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci, the former Mayor of Providence, RI. The film tracks Cianci's entanglements with city council opposition, union skirmishes, personal scandals, and criminal indictments. The result is a fascinating study of American local politics and a surprising tale of a man who, in the words of one commentator, "has a city as his mistress."