Watching the Train Wreck or Looking for the Brake?

Abstract

In this article I critique several recent films that speak to our current urban malaise, and take stock of their political substance—how well each frames the city, the causes of contemporary crises, and potential solutions. The anarcho-liberal politics that define Beinh Zeitlin's acclaimed fantasy film, Beasts of the Southern Wild are cynical and offer little hope for addressing the broad ecological and social challenges we face. The liberal documentarian approach of Jonathan Demme's I'm Carolyn Parker and Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's Detropia rely on a strategy of exposé that may inspire empathy among some audiences, but lacks the kind of historical and critical analyses that might spur citizens to act in effective ways to solve the contemporary problems of poverty and underdevelopment. Chad Friedrichs's The Pruitt-Igoe Myth and Luisa Dantas's Land of Opportunity, however, provide grounded accounts of contemporary urban disasters, framing the massive dispossession, hellish environs, and new forms of vulnerability that define many cities as consequences of poorly crafted public policy. These latter films encourage the revitalization of a progressive left politics that might begin with the most pressing needs of urban dwellers and through democratic planning, create more just forms of city life.