''Urbanized'' is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

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 (originally 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 famous 19th century (1890s) ...

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

Objectified ''Objectified'' is a feature-length documentary film examining the role of everyday non-living objects, and the people who design them, in our daily lives. The film is directed by Gary Hustwit. ''Objectified'' premiered at the South By Southwest ...

'', about industrial design. 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 ...

and Jan Gehl.

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 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'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'',

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

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 {{arts-documentary-film-stub