"The Industiral City", Pittsburgh, sequence from The City (1939) [3-film compliation].

Format:

Video

Series:

Academic Video Online

UNSEEN CINEMA 5: Picturing a Metropolis: New York City Unveiled

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

1930s.

Local Subjects:

1930s.

Genre:

Documentary

Physical Description:

1 online resource (17 minutes)

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Filmmakers Showcase, [date of publication note identified]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

PICTURING A METROPOLIS is part of the film retrospective UNSEEN CINEMA that explores long-forgotten American experimental cinema. The poetic commentary addresses the social problems of modern life circa 1939 in three distinct urban environments: Pittsburgh steel mills, Manhattan city streets, and a New York/New Jersey weekend traffic jam. The exquisite cinematography and editing are greatly enhanced by Aaron Copland's original score. "The City" played exclussively at the 1939-40 World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York to become one of the mostt widley seen and discussed documenatry films before the advent of television. -BRUCE POSNER Ralph Steiner, educated at Dartmouth, became a successful commercial and much honored fine art photographer. He made perhaps the first American abstract film, "H2O" (1929), following it with other experiments, some political in nature, some in Hollywood. Steiner also photographed with Paul Strand "The Plow That Broke the Plains" (1936) and co-directed and photographed "The City" (1939) with Willard Van Dyke and Henwar Rodakiewicz. -ROBERT A. HALLERWillard Van Dyke, a photographer by age 12, formed in 1932 with Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Imogen Cunningham the pivotal West Coast photography group f/64. Moving East, he became a noted documentary film-maker working closely with Pare Lorentz and Ralph Steiner among others. Hands may be his first completed film. - ROBERT A. HALLERHenwar Rodakiewicz, from the mid-1920s when he made "Portrait of a Young Man" until his innovative experiments in TV documentary, remained in the forefront of independent American filmmaking. As a writer, editor, and director, he was celebrated for exploiting the beauty inherent in his material and for his uncompromising honesty. -IRVING JACOBYAaron Copland, one of America's most beloved and accomplished composers, played a crucial role in the coming of age of American music. A conductor, music critic, and teacher who wrote clearly about music, Copland composed some of the twentieth century's most familiar works, "Billy the Kid", "Rodeo", "Appalachian Sprin"g, and "Fanfare for the Common Man". -JOHN ROCKWELL SEQUENCES FROM THE CITY (1939) - 3 FILM COMPILATION109 00:00 "THE INDUSTIRAL CITY", PITTSBURGH (3:26 minutes)110 04:31 "THE METROPOLIS", NEW YORK CITY (9:35 minutes)111 14:06 "THE HIGHWAY", NEW JERSEY (2:23 minutes) 35mm 1.37:1 black and white sound 16:34 minutes. Production: American Documentary Films, Inc.

Notes:

Title from resource description page (viewed March 22, 2021).