Collective Memory in the Civic Commons
“The city is changing every moment”: this is what inspires an urban photographer in Connection, one of the films drawn from SF Urban Film Fest’s new international call for submissions. We live in a world where our public spaces are constantly developing, or being “redeveloped.” And one person’s gain can be another’s loss — of utility, memory, and meaning. SF Urban Film Fest and Shaping SF presented an afternoon of films and discussion about how cities might strike a balance between progress and preservation, and the role of media as a backup when we’ve lost our physical links to the past.
Connection, a film by Alisha Pashkova about the Chinese city of Chongqing, depicts a vast and complex city that has nevertheless successfully held the thread of its collective story. Historical reminders, such as murals depicting bygone ways of life, create bridges through time, while a system of cableways, ferries, and light rail literally bridges the city’s two rivers. Connections seem to spring up organically; the light rail at one point appears to travel straight through an apartment building. The vibrant public life we’re shown in Chongqing might be the result of urban design that has built on the past without eradicating it, cumulatively reinforcing what panelist LisaRuth Elliott called “desire pathways,” the routes that people naturally want to make in a space.
In Iceberg — Perestello 3.0, by the architecture studio Orizzontale, we’re introduced to a public square in Rome’s underserved Maranelle neighborhood that lacks structures, facilities, or even an official name. “This is the roof of a below-ground parking structure,” a resident says glumly, “this isn’t a real square.” Iceberg, a grassroots urban exploration and construction project, has stepped into this vacuum of meaning by inviting the local community to shape the future of the square. It should be “a place for sharing,” one resident suggests, “where people can confront and try to find a common ground.”
Currently, the square in Iceberg is “a place where kids are playing, drinking until 2am, 3am,” desire pathways that are not, perhaps, so desirable. Redemption Square drew parallels with its story of Pershing Square in LA. In the 1950s, what had been LA’s “Working Man’s Park” was demolished and a parking structure built underneath; as the downtown changed, drug addicts moved in. In the 90s, new investment in the area meant the square got an expensive redesign. It’s apparently a lovely, welcoming place now, but since it was treated as a blank slate, a lot of its history got wiped out. Filmmaker John Moody, for whom Redemption Square was initially a thesis project for a master’s in planning, joined the panel and explained that the developers “were proud of the work they did for what people wanted to see. But it seems like people don’t go in and talk to people who are already using [a space]. Why are they using it now?”
Redemption Square shares the personal journey of Lorraine Morland, a musician, healer, and activist who was once among the homeless taking refuge in the square, and now comes there to walk her dog (she likes the new design, remembering the square in the 80s as part shelter, part nightmare). Morland joined the afternoon’s panel and described the effect of reliving her transformation through the film: “I just cried, I thought — God, I’m alive. It’s like these stepping stones that I need to see.”
According to panelist LisaRuth Elliott, the co-director of Shaping San Francisco, one problem with redevelopment is that it often removes our physical “touchstones.” Without these reminders — when change is frequent, and total — we can suffer from collective memory loss, making us more likely to become disengaged and isolated from the social, local impact of our lives and work. The afternoon left audiences pondering more democratic, historically responsible ways to strengthen our public spaces; it also demonstrated of the power of film and photography to restore our memories and in doing so, change our minds.
“It’s like these stepping stones I needed to see.” — Lorraine Morland
“Physical and spatial transformation is a theme we see in all three of these films, and it really provokes the question as to whether or not that also means that memory itself is lost,” concluded festival producer and panel moderrator Robin Abad Ocubillo. The challenge for artists, historians, and urban designers becomes, “How is that carried forward when the physical container no longer looks like it once did? How do you document that, how do you convey that, how do you narrate those past experiences?”
Dive into the panel discussion:
Those wanting to make more connections with San Francisco’s history are encouraged to explore Found SF, a digital archive.
This event took place on November 15, 2018 at SPUR in San Francisco, and was co-presented by Shaping SF. For more information about SF Urban Film Fest, visit their website.
