Neoliberal cartographies: the grid in independent New York film

Abstract

ABSTRACTCity Island (De Felita, 2009) and Shortbus (Mitchell, 2006), independent films produced around the 2008 economic crisis, characterize their titular New York locations as ‘off-the-grid,’ exclusive bastions of authentic individual and communal life exempted from the norms and pressures of neoliberal urban culture. At the same time, however, they extend this status to New York City as a whole by valorizing its rectilinear grid as a monumental structure that allows citizens to master their environment. In doing so, while these films advance provocative visions of counterpublics, they also reinscribe the neoliberal idealization of consumption as freedom, here producing the city itself, both periphery and center, built environment and residents, as an image to be consumed rather than a space to be remade as its residents choose.