Ecocinema in the City II

Part II, “Urban Eco-trauma,” highlights the repercussions of eco-trauma in relation to race, gender, and species. For Tina Amorok, eco-trauma is “a traumatic loss of intimacy with the Earth and the cosmos” and “creates a deficit in the realm of eco-Being and is a core cause of human-upon-nature and human-upon human violence” (29). 

Films in these chapters reveal environmental injustice, racism, sexism, and speciesism associated with urban externalities, defined as “an economic choice or action by one actor that affects the welfare of others who are not involved in that choice or action” (Goodwin). According to the EPA, “Fair treatment means that no group of people should bear a disproportionate share of the negative environmental consequences resulting from industrial, governmental and commercial operations or policies.” In the films we explore in this section, people of color, women, and animals disproportionately bear negative environmental consequences.

Chapter 3, “Girls in the Hood: An Eco-Trauma of Girlhood” examines the impact of environmental racism and sexism on children and young adults in films about urban slums. Films addressing representations of girls living in slum-like conditions suggest they are especially vulnerable to a so-called “sick” environment (Ross 16). The documentaries Girlhood (2003) and Get Together Girls (2012) and the coming of age dramas Fish Tank (2009), All That Glitters (2010), and Girlhood (2014) demonstrate the pervasive social conflicts and eco-traumas young girls endure when they live in urban slums and housing projects.

Chapter 4, “Dogs and Eco-trauma: The Making of a Monster in White God ” reveals how our companion dogs may also experience and respond to eco-trauma. Our affiliation with dogs has been well documented and narrated in films as varied as the Charlie Chaplin short A Dog’s Life (1918), Umberto D (1952), and Frankenweenie (2012). This chapter explores the consequences of disrupting such bonds and exposing once tame house pets to toxic environments in documentaries such as One Nation Under Dog (2012), Out of the Pit (2013) and City of Dogs (2014) and fictional films such as White God (2015). White God illustrates the similarities between humans and dogs, highlighting how powerfully both species respond positively to love, and negatively to cruelty. This chapter suggests White God reveals how love may counter the environmental trauma humanity creates.