Searching for the City: Cinema and the Critique of Urban Space in the Films of Keiller, Cohen, and Steinmetz and Chanan (original) (raw)

The chapter explores the portrayal of urban spaces in cinema through the lens of absence, focusing on three films: Patrick Keiller's "London" (1994), Jem Cohen's "Chain" (2004), and George Steinmetz and Michael Chanan's "Detroit: Ruin of a City" (2006). These films critique the loss of local identities, the disempowerment of communities, and the decline of urban environments. By employing various narrative and visual techniques, each film examines the precariousness of urbanity and challenges traditional representations of the city, ultimately suggesting new ways to perceive and reimagine urban space.