''Urbanized'' is a

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

directed by

Gary Hustwit Gary Hustwit is an American independent filmmaker and photographer. He is best known for his design documentaries, which examine the impact of trends in graphic design, typography, industrial design, architecture, and urban planning. He told '' ...

and released on 26 October 2011. It is considered the third of a three-part series on design known as the Design Trilogy; the first being ''

Helvetica Helvetica, also known by its original name Neue Haas Grotesk, is a widely-used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann. Helvetica is a neo-grotesque design, one influenced by the f ...

'', about the typeface, and the second being '' Objectified'', about

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in adva ...

. The documentary discusses how cities are designed, and it features interviews with urban planners and architects, such as

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was b ...

and

Jan Gehl Jan Gehl Hon. FAIA (born 17 September 1936, Copenhagen) is a Danish architect and urban design consultant based in Copenhagen whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city design towards the pedestrian an ...

Marketing

To promote the documentary, Hustwit commissioned a set of four limited edition posters based on four themes related to urban design.

Reception

The film was well received by critics.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...

gave the film three out of four stars, calling it "an undertaking on an impressive scale" while suggesting that the documentary could have used more interviews of ordinary people. Writing for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', A.O. Scott compared the film to "a really good class taught by a team of enthusiastic professors," although he noted "a distinct bias in favor of ane Jacobsinfluenced new urbanism and against other approaches to city planning." '' TimeOut'', meanwhile, called ''Urbanized'' "gorgeously photographed" while praising the film's interviews and Hustwit's ability "to make even the most banal of cityscapes appear appealingly utopian."

References

External links

* * 2011 documentary films 2011 films American documentary films American independent films Documentary films about urban studies Documentary films about the visual arts Films directed by Gary Hustwit Kickstarter-funded documentaries 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films {{arts-documentary-film-stub