Decline and Reimagination in Cinematic New York examines the cinematic representation of New York from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s, placing the dominant discourse of urban decline in dialogue with marginal perspectives that reimagine the city along alternative paths as a resilient, adaptive, and endlessly inspiring place.
Drawing on mainstream, independent, documentary, and experimental films, the book offers a multifaceted account of the power of film to imagine the city’s decline and reimagine its potential. The book analyzes how filmmakers mobilized derelict space and various articulations of “nature” as settings and signifiers that decenter traditional understandings of the city to represent New York alternately as a desolate wasteland, a hostile wilderness, a refuge and playground for outcasts, a home to resilient and resourceful communities, a studio for artistic experimentation, an arcadia conducive to alternative social arrangements, and a complex ecosystem.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students of film studies, media studies, urban cinema, urban studies, and eco-cinema.
Author(s): Cortland Rankin
Series: Routledge Advances in Film Studies
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 259
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Notes
Works Cited
Chapter 1: Broken Windows, Broken People: The City in Decline as Wasteland
Free-Fire Zones: Disused Industrial Sites as Arenas for Action and Violence
Den of Thieves: Abandoned Buildings and Vacant Lots as Criminogenic Sites
Going to Pieces: Expressing Trauma and Failure through Derelict Space
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Chapter 2: It’s a Jungle Out There: The City in Decline as Wilderness
Hostile Environments: The Wild Side of Urban Parks
Us and Them: The Rhetoric of Animality, Savagery, and Monstrosity
Taming the Urban Frontier: The Western Hero in the City
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Chapter 3: At Home and at Play: Reimagining the Social Uses of Derelict Spaces
A Place for Misfits: Derelict Spaces as Refuges and Playgrounds for Outcasts
We’re Still Here!: Derelict Space and Community, from Resilience to Resistance
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Chapter 4: From Studio to Street: Derelict Spaces and the Artistic Reimagination of the City
Room to Move: The Vacant City as Performance Stage
Beauty in the Breakdown: Reframing Detritus, Dereliction, and Destruction
Writing Over the Ruins: Graffiti’s Response to the Derelict City
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Chapter 5: Greening the City: Reimagining the Nature of New York
Alternative Arcadias: Parks and the Reimagination of Urban Life
Eco-NYC: Reimagining the City as an Ecosystem
Conclusion
Notes
Works Cited
Epilogue: Legacies of Decline and Reimagination in Cinematic New York
Note
Works Cited
Filmography
Index
