Film and Urbanism

Film and Urbanism contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship by investigating the complex and multidimensional relationship between the city and film as a practice. Moving beyond the idea of a recording and representation method alone, film is approached here as a critical spatial practice that contains elements of design, with a capacity to reveal, interrogate and interact with the shifting social and political dimensions of urban life. By engaging with current debates on global urbanisation, the volume investigates how film traverses and reconfigures urban terrains across infrastructures, peripheries and informal everyday spaces that go beyond conventional urban frameworks. Bringing together scholars and practitioners from architecture, urban studies, film theory, anthropology, visual culture and social sciences, it assembles a diverse range of examples and practices across multiple geographies. The chapters address themes including socio-spatial inequality, political tension, and the sensory conditions that shape urban environments. Film and filmmaking operate as an experimental practice, foregrounding a methodological shift that looks beyond cinematic representation. In this context, the material and infrastructural entanglements between film and the city, including labour, technology and production networks, are observed as integral to the formation of urban space. Positioning film as both a mode of inquiry and a tool for analysis of the spatio-temporal dynamics of urban life, Film and Urbanism bridges theory with practice and experimentation and offers a collection of expanded conceptual and methodological insights for scholars, architects, planners and filmmakers who seek to engage with the complexities of the contemporary city.