Decline and Reimagination in Cinematic New York

This book examines the cinematic representation of New York from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s It places the dominant discourse of urban decline in dialogue with marginal perspectives that reimagine the city along alternative paths as a resilient, adaptive, and endlessly inspiring place The book draws on mainstream, independent, documentary, and experimental films It offers a multifaceted account of the power of film to imagine the city’s decline and reimagine its potential The book analyzes how filmmakers mobilized derelict space and various articulations of nature as settings and signifiers that decenter traditional understandings of the city to represent New York alternately as a wasteland, a wilderness, a playground, a home, an art space, and an ecosystem This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of film studies, media studies, urban cinema, eco-cinema, and architectural theory