Week 2: Cinema in Cities

             Week two of Professor Sanchez’s Urban Public Issues class brought up some very interesting topics and discussions pertaining to people’s differing views of the city; people’s outlooks were most directly impacted by the media or a different social/birthplace background. Movies and television shows do an excellent job of portraying areas to fit their movie specifically. What I mean by this is that instead of worrying about portraying a city or place accurately, they worry about making it out to be what fits their movie or show the best. They make scenes and locations to be anything that will make their movie or show more interesting and exciting.  http://www.theiacp.org/PoliceServices/ExecutiveServices/ProfessionalAssistance/ThePublicImageofthePolice/tabid/198/Default.aspx#ch2.
             To expand on this, movies and television do not normally focus on a city as a whole, but “zoom in” on specific parts. For example, a movie about violence and drugs, will set their movie in the slums of a city, showing only negative aspects, when in reality most cities have areas that are spectacular. Showing movies and television shows in this manner affect societies’ opinions on places, because they are not allowed to see the whole city as it really is, but only certain parts, and even then those parts are being portrayed only in a way to best fit a scene or point that the media is trying to make. A particularly striking example of this is Law and Order: SVU. It portrays the city as a place filled with rape, drugs, homicide, and human deprivation, without really focusing on the good aspects of the city. Look here; even celebrities get angered by Law and Order SVU’s frightening portrayal of cities: (http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1550333,00.html). Elizabeth Hasselback is furious that her name was used in Law and Order: SVU. And rightfully so! Because there are most definitely not 10,000+ other people with that name as well..... 

In my search for more articles relating to how Cinema’s depict cities in today’s culture, I stumbled upon a website that writes of society’s view of the police. In the “Entertainment Media Influences” section, it speaks of how society views the “good” police jobs as those that break the rules and go against codes to save the world, as opposed to in reality when the police should be viewed as a respectable agency of honorable and honest men. Check it out! This article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/mar/10/filmic-visions-of-the-future.)is about different movies that have depicted different scenarios our world could end up in. One movie (mentioned in class) Children of Men is about a world where people have lost the ability to reproduce. Also, other movies have depicted an apocalyptic type future such as Mad Max where people fight over gasoline. They’re even movies that depict a zombie apocalypse (Dawn of the Dead). It is strange to see that most "futuristic" movies are showing cities with destruction and chaos. Sadly, these movies are somewhat correct. Look at the way we carelessly deplete natural resources now: http://flowingdata.com/2009/04/24/how-long-will-the-worlds-natural-resources-last/. This data essentially predicts when we are expected to run out of natural resources if we keep exhausting them at our current rate; take a look... its interesting! On that note, I would like to talk about the idea of a sustainable city; because honestly, THERE IS NOTHING THAT GETS ME MORE EXCITED IN LIFE THAN THAT.
Masdar City, in Abu Dhabi, is predicted to be completely sustainable by 2025 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/masdar-abu-dhabi-planned-city_n_1229311.html) because they are slowly but surely making the switch to solar, wind, and geothermal (from the ground essentially) energy. And, I understand this city only is expected to house 40,000 people, but this is a huge step in the right direction!This also means that they will not rely on ANY non-renewable resources to run their city; no oil, no coal, etc. The only resource they need to acquire is water... which is easier said than done in Abu Dhabi. Anyways, this is surprisingly spectacular because Abu Dhabi is home to 8% of the worlds crude oil reserves, so they are looking to make a particularly large profit if they keep this sustainable living thing up throughout a larger portion of their country. USA... Please take note!!!!