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5th
International Festival for Architecture in Video |
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introduction program - dates - authors - works - exhibitions partners credits previous editions mailto |
 Pablo Frasconi, Nancy Salzer Survival of a small city USA 2000, 58’ Filmed over a seven-year period, “Survival of a small city” is a documentary portrait of an old, run-down urban neighborhood ‘before and after’ gentrification. Through the words of the people involved, the film looks at one town’s attempt to create a commodity out of its turn-of-the-century architecture, its small artist-community lured by low rents, and the contemporary nostalgia for ‘neighborhood’ – in hopes this will reverse the town’s decline. Interviews with the inhabitants, merchants, and government officials convey the emotional, conflicting opinions as to what to do with the old neighborhood. These are juxtaposed with beautifully photographed images of the controversial buildings at the center of the city’s ‘revitalization’ plan. The film becomes a portrait of contemporary urban policy, implicitly posing the question: what is a city? The buildings? The economy by which it lives? Or the people who live and work there? Pablo Frasconi and Nancy Salzer directed and produced numerous documentary films together. Their films and videos have shown widely at theatres, museums, festivals and universities around the US and internationally. Their work is in the collections of universities and libraries around the USA and Canada. “Survival of a Small City” is used in urban and social studies programs, as well as by practicing urban planners, architects, municipalities and community groups. Productions by Frasconi-Salzer Films are funded by non-profits, including the AFI and NEA, among others. Nancy Salzer is currently a visiting scholar at Brandeis University, Women Studies Program, where she is working on a new video project. In addition, she teaches filmmaking and script-writing at Emerson and Wellesley Colleges in the Boston area. Nancy has been a recipient of a Bunting Fellowship at Harvard University, an Andrew S. Mellon Fellow at the California Institute of the Arts, and a Soros Foundation grant. In addition to his own filmmaking, Pablo Frasconi teaches film production at the University of Southern California. |
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