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The City for Poor People: The Image of Poverty American and British Documentaries of the 1930s-40s

Narrated Space-Represented Space

April / 2014

• Dr. Cecilia Mouat

Slide 0

1 The City for Poor People: The Image of Poverty American and British Documentaries of the 1930s-40s This research aims to identify the dominant discourses of urban spaces and architectonic models that were distributed through films. Based on Michel Foucault’s definition of discourses, as systems of thoughts and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds from which they speak, this study analyzes rhetorical practices and film techniques used in documentaries that helped to create a specific knowledge, shaping our perception of urban spaces and operating as tacit conventions that influence both designers and people that consume the designs. Since the invention of cinema, cities, neighborhoods, and domestic spaces that appear in films are not only backdrops in where stories take place; spaces in films are relevant actors, able to communicate discourses and create meanings. During the 1930s-40s, American and British authorities took advantage of the popularity of cinema, using documentary films to promote radical changes in towns and housing models. In these films, we can see urban planners and politicians presenting slum clearance programs or promoting the construction of new neighborhoods to relocate slum dwellers. Documentaries of the 1930s-40s also helped to introduce the new aesthetic of the Modern Movement in architecture, providing rationalistic explanations about the convenience of new materials, new techniques of construction, and reinforcing the idea that the new architecture was conceived for the health improvement of the population. However, the distinctive modernist image of social housing projects, with their multistory buildings and open collective spaces, which strongly contrasted with the single-family homes and low-dense neighborhoods of the middle-class, also served to position the modernist aesthetics as the new image of urban poverty. The American documentary Cities, Why they grow? Illustrates the main arguments used, especially by American films, to describe the problems of big cities: contaminated and unhealthy spaces, crowded streets that stimulate fights between people, which are also a bad influence for kids. If kids are in the streets, they can act as juvenile delinquents. The American Institute of Planners produced the documentary The City, screened in 1939. This 44-minutes film discusses the problems of industrial cities, showing chaotic and crowded environments that stimulates disorder, fights and juvenile

• delinquency. In the same way, other American and British documentaries produced in the 1930s-40s started to include

recurrent images to describe big cities, such as smokestacks, narrow streets with cloth lines, close-ups of innocent children

2 that live in urban environments, in where streets are their playgrounds. If they stay in the streets, children have no options that become juvenile delinquents. We can see the recurrent inclusion of kids smoking and gambling. All documentaries also included the solution. In the American documentary The City, the solution was a decentralized Greenbelt community that combines open spaces of village life with the conveniences of modern engineering and planning. In fact, the solution for the middle class was based on the politics of dispersion, on the creation of new towns and low-dense suburbs close to nature, in where children could have sunlight, fresh air and open spaces to play. The notions of open space, sunlight and fresh air became a sort of medicine to cure all the illness of big cities. Commentators, urban planners, and politicians systematically repeated this discourse, which I call “the green ideal”. The green ideal emerged as a clear opposition to the overcrowded and dense big cities, and documentaries of the 1930s-40s always include natural landscapes to describe how they are the medicine to combat the evils of the overcrowded and unhealthy city. However this solution was and is for the middle-upper classes. Social housing was planned with a complete different approach, in which modernist buildings, and high-dense neighborhoods located in inner zones of cities dominated the solutions for the poorest sectors of the population. The notions of nature, sunlight, and open spaces were solved in social housing by the inclusion of playgrounds surrounded by apartment buildings. In documentary films, authorities and urban planners, providing rationalistic and convincing arguments, supported these modernist solutions. Documentaries of the 1930s-40s placed the planner as the only expert, trained to scientifically solve the complex problems of the city. HOW FICTION FILMS DISTRIBUTED THE GREEN IDEAL? In family films and romantic comedies produced between the 1930s-60s, family values, honest people, and married people were always set in low dense communities, close to the countryside, or suburban neighborhoods with single family homes, never in apartments buildings or in big cities. On the other hand, metropolitan spaces were presented as dangerous places that need disciplinary institutions; so dense urban spaces and multistory buildings were used and are still used to set stories about crime and illegal activities, such as the American urban dramas of the 1930s, in which kids of the streets were presented as troubled youth, always involved in fights.

3 In these films the only option to evade the reformatory school was the pastoral power of nature, as it is presented in the film Boys Town. Probably the most interesting example is the modernist project Gerard Gardens in Liverpool. It was built as social housing in the 1930s, and used in documentaries of the 1930s-40s to illustrate the best solution for former slum dwellers. In 1958, when British films started to use real locations, the film Violent Playground, a detective story, used the Gerald Gardens buildings to set a band of juvenile delinquents and arsonists. As a conclusion, documentaries of the 1930s-40s were the only film genre that celebrated modernist housing solutions and presented this kind of architecture linked with social housing. Doing that they showed not only the image of the urban poverty

• f the 20th century, they also help to stigmatize people who inhabited these buildings, as well as, helped to stigmatize the living

in metropolitan spaces.

1 SLIDE 1 This research aims to identify the dominant discourses of urban spaces and architectonic models that were distributed through films. Based on Michel Foucault’s definition of discourses, as systems of thoughts and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds from which they speak, this study aims to identify rhetorical practices and film techniques used in documentaries that helped to create a specific knowledge, shaping our perception of urban spaces and

• perating as tacit conventions that influence both designers and people that consume the designs.

SLIDE 2 Since the invention of cinema, cities, neighborhoods, and domestic spaces that appear in films are not only backdrops in where stories take place; spaces in films are relevant actors, able to communicate discourses and create meanings. During the 1930s-40s, American and British authorities took advantage of the popularity of cinema, using documentary films to promote radical changes in towns and housing models. In these films, we can see urban planners and politicians presenting the slum clearance program or promoting the construction of new neighborhoods to relocate slum dwellers. SLIDE 3 Documentaries of the 1930s-40s also helped to introduce the new aesthetic of the Modern Movement in architecture, providing rationalistic explanations about the convenience of new materials, new techniques of construction, and reinforcing the idea that the new architecture was conceived for the health improvement of the population. SLIDE 4 However, the distinctive modernist image of social housing projects, with their multistory buildings and open collective spaces, which strongly contrasted with the single-family homes and low-dense neighborhoods of the middle-class, also served to position the modernist aesthetics as the new image of urban poverty. SLIDE 5 I want to show a clip of an American documentary “Cities, Why they grow?” in order to illustrate what were the main arguments used, especially in American films, to describe the problems of big cities. SLIDE 6

2 The main ideas we can see in this clip are: In big cities we will find crowded spaces that are not positive, and even can stimulate fights between people; There are urban slums that create environments that are bad influences, especially for kids. If they are in the streets, they can act as juvenile delinquents; and spaces are contaminated and unhealthy. SLIDE 7 The American Institute of Planners produced the documentary The City, screened in 1939. This 44-minutes film discusses the problems of industrial cities, showing chaotic and crowded environments that stimulates disorder, fights and juvenile

• delinquency. The word that is systematically repeated is the idea of ORDER and Disorder.

SLIDE 8 In the same way, other American and British documentaries produced in the 1930s-40s started to include recurrent images to describe big cities. They always included Smokestacks. SLIDE 9 Narrow streets with cloth lines. SLIDE 10 Used close-ups of innocent children that live in urban environments SLIDE 11 who use streets as playgrounds, and always the inclusion of these images are used to support the idea that our children deserve a better place to live. SLIDE 12 Because if they stay in the streets, there are no option that becoming juvenile delinquents. We could see the kids smoking and gambling, in other words, without discipline. SLIDE 13 All documentaries also included the solution,

3 the following clip of the American documentary The City, presented a decentralized Greenbelt community that combines open spaces of village life with the conveniences of modern engineering and planning. SLIDE 14 In fact, the solution for the middle class was based on the politics of dispersion, on the creation of new towns and low-dense suburbs close to nature, in where children could have sun light, fresh air and open spaces to play. The notions of open space, sun light and fresh air became a sort of medicine to cure the illness of big cities. This discourse, which I call “the green ideal” was systematically repeated by commentators, urban planners, and politicians. SLIDE 15 The green ideal discourse, which celebrates nature, emerged as a clear opposition to the overcrowded and dense big cities. SLIDE 16 For this reason, documentaries of the 1930s-40s always include natural landscapes to describe how fresh air, sun light, and

• pen spaces are necessary to combat the evils of the overcrowded and unhealthy city.

SLIDE 17 However this solution was and is for the middle-upper classes. Social housing was planned with a complete different approach, in which modernist solutions, and high-dense neighborhoods located in inner zones of cities dominated the solutions for the poorest sectors of the population. Slide 18 Then the notions of nature, sunlight, and open spaces was solved in social housing by the inclusion of playgrounds surrounded by apartment buildings. Slide 19 and supported by authorities and urban planners, who provided rationalistic and convincing arguments. Documentaries of the 1930s-40s placed the planner as the only expert that was trained to scientifically solve the complex problems of the city.

4 Slide 20 HOW THE GREEN IDEAL WAS DISTRIBUTED BY FICTION FILMS? Slide 21 In family films and romantic comedies produced between the 1930s-60s, family values, honest people, and married people were set in low dense communities, close to the countryside, or suburban neighborhoods with single family homes. Slide 22 Never in apartments Slide 23 Or in big cities Slide 24 On the other hand, metropolitan spaces were presented as dangerous places that need disciplinary institutions, so dense urban spaces and multistory buildings were used and are still used to set stories about crime and illegal activities. Slide 25 Such as the American urban dramas of the 1930s Slide 26 In which kids of the streets were presented as conflictive and always involved in fights Slide 27 Presenting as only option to evade the reformatory school, the pastoral power of nature, as the film Boys Town shows Slide 28 Probably the most interesting example is the modernist project Gerard Gardens in Liverpool. It was built as social housing in the 1930s, and used in documentaries of the 1930s-40s to illustrate the best solution for former slum dwellers. In 1958, when

5 British films started to use real locations, the film Violent Playground, which is a detective story, used the Gerald Gardens buildings to set a band of juvenile delinquents and arsonists. As a conclusion, documentaries of the 1930s-40s were the only film genre that celebrated modernist housing solutions and presented this kind of architecture linked with social housing. Doing that they showed not only the image of the urban poverty

• f the 20th century, they also help to stigmatize people who inhabited these buildings, as well as, help to stigmatize the living in

metropolitan spaces.