Future Cities in Film Endnotes

End Notes

[1]This perspective on sustainable architecture stresses the need to conserve resources throughout the urban development process, avoiding the exploitation showcased in documentaries such as Sand Wars (2013). Written and directed by Denis Delestrac and released by Green Planet Films, Sand Warstravels around the globe to examine the vital issue of the exploitation of sand. While many of us think of beach erosion when we consider the vital nature of sand, Delestrac makes clear that the need for silica drives the world's construction industries and has led to the planet's reserves of sand being dangerously depleted.

[1]Such a green architectural vision is explored in earlier documentaries, as well. See for example, Sustainable Architecture (2004) begins by providing a history of resource use around the world. To move towards inefficiency, the documentary argues that we must plan better, decrease embodied energy use, decrease energy and resources used during construction, and take a holistic approach that is fair and equitable.

[1]Changing Nature (2005) also highlights repercussions and responses to climate change around the globe. In Morocco, for example, woman-centered organizations help stop forest depletion and encourage education, family planning, and sustainable farming techniques. Sustainable development and family planning are stressed as solutions to environmental problems in the Ukraine, Mexico, and Vietnam.

[1]See for example The Thaw (2009), Snowpiercer (2013), The Colony (2013), and Into the Storm (2014), and Noah (2014) as cli-fi films exploring climate change primarily outside urban areas. Day After Tomorrow, Half-Life(2008), and Godzilla (2014), however, do integrate the city in their discussions of climate change. 

[1]Like The Hunger Games, Elysium (2013) separates rich and powerful from the poor providing their resources, but in Elysiuma population explosion has created a global slum on earth, forcing the privileged to build their utopian city above ground in a sky city. The Congress (2013) offers utopian urban visions only in an animated world that drug-addicted residents create for themselves. In the non-animated “real” world, animated heroes are revealed to be homeless and despairing victims. Only those living in large airships above the slums below provide hope in this dystopic future. The Neo-Seoul segment of Cloud Atlas (2012) highlights technology and genetic engineering in a Vice City. The Zero Theorem (2013) offers a dystopian Terry Gilliam vision like that of Brazil (1985). 

[1]Big Hero 6 (2014) also suggests technology can address racial, economic, and, perhaps, environmental conflicts in a Disneyfied fictional and animated San Fransokyo.