Film Screening: From Hutong to Highrise: The Transformation of Beijing, a documentary by Jasper Goldman and Beatrice Chen
Friday Dec 4 6pm
. (20 minute film). Here’s an event Flyer—help us spread the word.
In the summer of 2001, urban planning students Beatrice Chen and Jasper Goldman, traveled to China to document the rapidly disappearing urban fabric of historic Old Beijing. Amidst observations in the hutongs (narrow lanes) and the siheyuans (courtyard houses) that are unique to Beijing and conversations with Beijing residents, they discovered an escalating debate about the endangered fate of these historic neighborhoods that extended beyond the technical issues of architecture. The people, the community, the lifestyle, the culture, the politics and economics were all central to the debate that could easily tip the scale between the preservation of a neighborhood and the demolition of a neighborhood.
About the filmmakers:
Jasper Goldman is an urban planner and film-maker based in New York City. He graduated with a Master’s in City Planning from MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning in 2003. ‘From Hutong to High Rise’ is his third film; his previous film ‘The Truck’ screened at London’s Electric Cinema in 2001. Beatrice Chen currently works at the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City. ‘From Hutong to Highrise’ is her first film that she co-produced and co-directed as a graduate student at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.