Structural Analysis THE A-SCHOOL DECONSTRUCTS "GHETTOS AND GATED COMMUNITIES" by Marco Marraccini photo courtesy of Abigail Child In the Spring of 1997, the Drama Department offered a Film Festival Seminar course (Drama 388) taught by Festival director Richard Herskowitz in order to involve students with the Virginia Film Festival. I enrolled in the course without understanding the role we students would play in the Festival's organization. Throughout the semester, we learned all the components that go into the making of a film festival, such as locating films, arranging venues, and fundraising. We also explored different aspects of this year's Caged! theme through various readings, guest speakers, and film screenings. A topic of particular interest was the architectural elements of encagement in today's cities and suburbs -- more specifically, the manner in which American ghettos are becoming more like cages. Jose Vergara's book, The New American Ghetto, focuses on this theme through a series of photographs of American ghettos taken over the last 12 years. Vergara uses comparative photos to emphasize that ghettos in America are becoming, if possible, even worse living environments than they have been. The chapter "Our Fortified Ghettos" best relates the deterioration of ghetto architecture, beginning with a discussion of children trapped and burned to death inside of their barred homes. The bars designed to keep criminals out ended up keeping the children from escaping the burning house. Vergara explains the fortified ghetto: "Buildings grow claws and spikes; their entrances acquire metal plates; their roofs get fenced in; and any additional openings are sealed, cutting down on light and ventilation." I contacted faculty in the departments of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture in order to explore further the architectural aspects of ghettos and walled communities and to contact possible speakers for the festival. I had enlightening discussions with both Richard Collins of the Planning department and city councilman Maurice Cox, a member of the Architecture department. However, the most productive outcome of this search came from Peter Waldman and Earl Mark, both members of the Architecture department who wanted to set up an Architecture School subset of the Virginia Film Festival. A meeting was set up to discuss the proposed mini-festival. The meeting led to the creation of the Architecture School's program, "Ghettos and Gated Communities." During the summer, the program was developed more thoroughly through the collaboration of Richard Herskowitz, Earl Mark, and Peter Waldman. The discovery of Mike Davis' book City of Quartz led to an increased understanding of the "contention that American society is increasingly walling off both sides of the social spectrum, while eliminating the public spaces in which social classes might combine." It then became the program's goal to investigate films that deal with the issue of societal encagement through walls of architecture. The program was also developed as a means to study the different ways in which filmmakers, architects, and planners obtain knowledge about and intervene in contemporary life. Earl Mark elaborates on the point: "Architects and planners are interested in improving the quality of life in the city. Different attempts have been made to improve elements of security and community; in possibly contradicting ways, the elements have influenced the design of houses. Films have treated the issues of living in gated communities through various means. Filmmakers have a certain freedom from having to think in the practical conventions of architects and planners. Thus, varying views of urban life are shown in the work of architects, planners, and filmmakers." The program's focus developed into studying films that represent the societal encagement created by the architecture of ghettos and gated communities and examining the conflicting means by which architects, planners, and filmmakers study these communities. The goal of the films selected this year is to stimulate discussion of the ghettos and gated communities. The panel consisting of Waldman, Mark, and Herskowitz will present a variety of documentary films that approach the topic in a variety of styles. These styles range from the participatory documentary style of South Central Los Angeles to the classic photographic style of In the Street. South Central L.A. is a 1994 Maxi Cohen film featuring Korean Americans, Latinos, and Caucasians living and working in the areas most affected by the L.A. riots, telling their stories with the aid of Hi-8 video cameras. Director Helen Levit shot most of In the Street, on East 103rd Street in New York City's East Harlem in 1944. In the UFSC Newsletter, Giesela Hoeld writes: "As the camera surveys the cityscape of a tough neighborhood filled with crazy kids and sad adults, the blues-like track ... blends with the non-lyrical ups and downs of street life." The program , which takes place in Campbell Hall 158 and 160 on November 1, is divided into three parts. It will be complemented by a special Friday screening of Frederick Wiseman's documentary Public Housing. The eight films are organized by the region in which they take place -- the West coast and the East coast. Earl Mark will moderate a panel discussion between architects, planners, and filmmakers as they discuss the disparate manners in which they comment upon and attempt to effect contemporary urban work. Participants include filmmakers and critics Frederick Wiseman, Abigail Child, DeeDee Halleck, Scott MacDonald, and planners and architects Peter Waldman, Maurice Cox, and Rich Collins. Filmmaker Abigail Child is the special guest presenting her new experimental documentary, B/Side, on the "Dinkinsville" homeless community in New York. Dan Bischoff writes, "Constructed from archival footage, documentary shots and scripted performances, all quick-cut together and tacked with open mike sound, B/Side weaves a narrative around a homeless black woman, played by actress Sheila Dabney, as she gets through what appears to be a single day ..." By providing a discursive forum for films exploring the architechtural encagement of urban America, "Ghettos and Gated Communities" hopes to examine the interaction of unlikely partners: architects, planners, and filmmakers.

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