Each separate film is viewable on the gallery’s website for only 10 days before they all reprise in mid-June. In some cases, the material’s archival graininess makes its limited availability feel esthetically apropos. But what really makes the whole thing work is the effect of their sequence. Starting with snippets of 1930s New York and ending on a sci-fi fantasy about the rewilding of Japan’s cities following a future demographic collapse, the full program coheres into a powerful portrait of modern urban living and its surprising mutability. Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke’s 1939 documentary, “The City,” is a tendentious but sometimes thrilling paean to the emerging suburbs, and their humane open spaces, somewhat undermined by shots of modern urban marvels like an automatic pancake flipping machine.

Source: New York Times May 28, 2020 13:07 UTC