Citizen Jane, Battle for the City - Urban Walking Festival

Coinciding with Urban Walking Festival, this fascinating documentary about urban planning will inspire people to celebrate their city and the places and people who surround it.

Based on activist, Jane Jacob’s book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the documentary film explores Jacobs’ fight to stop powerbroker and developer, Robert Moses from demolishing established housing areas in 1960’s New York with high-rise buildings and superhighways.

Take a stroll on the Urban Walking Festival then relax your feet with a free screening of Citizen Jane: Battle for the City kicking off at 6pm. Please note, we recommend bringing blankets and chairs to sit on to ensure the ultimate cosy experience!

Author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jacobs had a vision of urban life that involved people, neighbourhoods, heritage and habitation on a human scale, qualities Lower Manhattan enjoyed in abundance. Director Matt Tyrnauer (Valentino: The Last Emperor) has fashioned a lively documentary about the enduring issues enunciated so clearly in their clash.

“Tyrnauer transforms what could be a staid profile film into an urgent story about the dangers of ‘urban renewal,’ something Jacobs herself would admire… How do we retain neighborhood diversity amid rapid gentrification? Can a metropolis retain its humanity when everyone’s living in high-rises?” — April Wolfe, Village Voice

Directed by Matt Tyrnauer.
2016
92 minutes

This event is part of the Urban Walking Festival 2021, 22 April - 16 May 2021. From 25 March, visit urbanwalkingfestival.nz for the full list of events and details. For festival updates follow us on Facebook @urbanwalkingfestival.

Presented with the support of Panuku Auckland Development and Auckland Transport.