Cities, Future Cities, and Film

Cities, Future Cities, and Film

Season

Please note : this season finished in Oct 2019

Festival of the Future City takes place every two years in Bristol celebrating and debating the future of cities with talks, walks, debates, arts projects and new books. The 2019 festival includes classic utopian films about cities; cities in silent cinema; documentaries on New Towns, democracy, the housing crisis and the anthropocene.

Festival of the Future City is an initiative of Festival of Ideas. Find out more about Festival of the Future City 2019 here.

With thanks to:

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Previous screenings in this season

Au Bonheur des Dames

classified PG Cities, Future Cities, and Film
Au Bonheur des Dames
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

Set within the glamourous world of a Parisian department store, Julien Duvivier’s long-forgotten masterpiece was one of the last silent films to be made in France and is ripe for rediscovery thanks to this brand new restoration.

What is Democracy?

classified PG Cities, Future Cities, and Film
What is Democracy?
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

Democracy is a word we often take for granted. Should we be complacent in a time of political and social crisis? Director Astra Taylor provides a philosophical journey about democracy which spans millennia and continents.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

classified 15 Cities, Future Cities, and Film
1984
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

There have been many film, stage and radio versions of George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four - the best version was released in 1984, starring John Hurt as Winston Smith.

The Experimental City

classified 12A Cities, Future Cities, and Film
The Experimental City
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

The Minnesota Experimental City (MXC) project was a futuristic attempt to solve urban problems by creating a full-size city from scratch in the isolated woods of northern Minnesota.

The Dilapidated Dwelling

classified PG Cities, Future Cities, and Film
The Dilapidated Dwelling
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

A fictional researcher (voiced by Tilda Swinton) returns from a 20-year absence in the Arctic to find that, though the UK is one of the most advanced economies technologically, its houses are the most dilapidated in western Europe.

New Town Utopia

classified 15 Cities, Future Cities, and Film
New Town Utopia
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

A documentary about utopian dreams and concrete realities… the challenging, funny, and sometimes tragic story of the British 'New Town' of Basildon, Essex.

New Towns, Our Town: Stories on Screen

classified U Cities, Future Cities, and Film
New Towns, Our Town: Stories on Screen
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

A collection of rare archive films that shed light on the New Towns movement and the experiences of their early pioneers.

They Came to a City

classified U Cities, Future Cities, and Film
They Came to a City
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

Adapted from a J B Priestley stage play, a group of disparate characters discuss their hopes for an ideal city.

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

classified 12A Cities, Future Cities, and Film
Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
Please note: This was screened in Oct 2019
Film

A feature documentary film, four years in the making, on humanity’s massive reengineering of the planet.

Push

classified 12A S Cities, Future Cities, and Film
Push
Please note: This was screened in Sept 2019
Film

PUSH examines one of today’s most urgent issues – the epic transformation of cities into financial instruments – to reveal with devastating clarity the shadowy operations and forces that threaten the very foundations of urban life.

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