The City

The City (1939)

A prescient documentary about city planning, which presents idyllic suburbs and nuclear families as a solution to the chaos, poverty and social decay of industrialized inner cities.

Date of release
1939-05-26
TMDB
6.0 / 10 (14)
Runtime
44m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Willard Van Dyke, Ralph Steiner

Casting

Interesting facts

The City is a pioneering short documentary film from 1939 that contrasts the problems of the contemporary urban environment with the superior social and physical conditions that can be provided in a planned community. It was directed and photographed by Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke based on a treatment by Lewis Mumford, which was in turn based on an outline by Pare Lorentz. Aaron Copland wrote the musical score, and Morris Carnovsky provided the narration.

Production

The film was the idea of Catherine Bauer, an urban planner and public housing advocate. It was produced for the American Institute of Planners (predecessor of the APA) to be shown at the 1939 New York World's Fair as part of the "City of Tomorrow" exhibit. Bauer's original idea was to commission a full-scale mini-neighborhood on a 10-acre (4.0 ha) site to showcase innovative housing design and community planning.

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