Ecocinema and the City

In Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book emphasizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White Dog, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections―"Evolutionary Myths Under the City" and "Urban Eco-trauma"―take more traditional ecocinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space. The last two sections―"Urban Nature and Interdependence" and "The Sustainable City"―however, bring to life the vibrant relationships between human and nonhuman nature. Ecocinema in the City provides a space to explore these relationships, revealing how ecocinema shows that both human and nonhuman nature can interact sustainably and thrive.