Table Of ContentEcocinema and the City
“In an era of increasing dispute about the effects of climate and science in our
daily lives, Murray and Heumann offer a carefully nuanced addition to the field
of ecocinema studies. The city, for them, is not just a dangerous space, but also a
site of possible relationships between humans and nonhuman nature. Few scholars
have the record of Murray and Heumann for serious engagement with the topic of
ecology in cinema over such a broad range of critical works.”
—Charles J. Stivale, Wayne State University, USA
“Our environmental imagination often frames cities as doomed spaces, removed
from nonhuman nature. Instead of replicating this view, Ecocinema and the City
reverses the perspective: highlighting the transformative power of nature in urban
settings explored in film, it offers a timely and innovative take on urban environ-
ments. With engaging close readings and cultural examples off the beaten path,
the book addresses a whole array of relevant themes, from urban biodiversity to
urban farming to questions of sustainability, and is required reading for environ-
mentalists across disciplines.”
—Christopher Schliephake, University of Augsburg, Germany
In Ecocinema in the City, Murray and Heumann argue that urban ecocinema
both reveals and critiques visions of urban environmentalism. The book empha-
sizes the increasingly transformative power of nature in urban settings, explored
in both documentaries and fictional films such as Children Underground, White
God, Hatari! and Lives Worth Living. The first two sections—“Evolutionary
Myths Under the City” and “Urban Eco-trauma”—take more traditional eco-
cinema approaches and emphasize the city as a dangerous constructed space.
The last two sections—“Urban Nature and Interdependence” and “The Sus-
tainable 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.
Robin L. Murray is Professor of English at Eastern Illinois University, USA
where she teaches film and literature courses and coordinates the film studies
minor.
Joseph K. Heumann is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Eastern
Illinois University, USA and continues to teach film courses.
They have co-authored six books exploring ecocinema.
Routledge Advances in Film Studies
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.
48 India’s New Independent Cinema
Rise of the Hybrid
Ashvin Immanuel Devasundaram
49 Early Race Filmmaking in America
Edited by Barbara Tepa Lupack
50 Film Text Analysis
New Perspectives on the Analysis of Filmic Meaning
Edited by Janina Wildfeuer and John A. Bateman
51 The Camera-Eye Metaphor in Cinema
Christian Quendler
52 Surveillance in Asian Cinema
Under Eastern Eyes
Edited by Karen Fang
53 US Youth Films and Popular Music
Identity, Genre, and Musical Agency
Tim McNelis
54 The Cinematic Eighteenth Century
History, Culture, and Adaptation
Edited by Srividhya Swaminathan and Steven W. Thomas
55 The Contemporary Femme Fatale
Gender, Genre and American Cinema
Katherine Farrimond
56 Film Comedy and the American Dream
Zach Sands
57 Ecocinema and the City
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann
Ecocinema and the City
Robin L. Murray and
Joseph K. Heumann
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann to be
identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
CIP data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-30384-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-73070-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
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Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Urban Nature on Film 1
PART I
Evolutionary Myths under the City 15
1 The City, The Sewers, The Underground:
Reconstructing Urban Space in Film Noir 17
2 Documenting Environmental Adaptation under the
City: Children Underground (2001) 30
PART II
Urban Eco-Trauma 47
3 Girls in the Hood: An Eco-Trauma of Girlhood 49
4 Dogs and Eco-Trauma: The Making of a Monster
in White God 68
PART III
Urban Nature and Interdependence 85
5 Hatari Means Danger: Filmic Representations of
Animal Welfare and Environmentalism at the Zoo 87
6 Eco-Therapy in Central Park: Documenting Urban
Birdwatching 106
vi Contents
7 Green Lungs: Partnering with Nature in the Urban
Garden Film 123
PART IV
The Sustainable City 141
8 Urban Farming on Film: Moving Toward
Environmental Justice in the City 143
9 Lives Worth Living and the Sustainable
(and Accessible) City 159
Conclusion: The “Absent City” of the Future 175
Filmography 189
Works Cited 199
Index 209
List of Figures
I.1 Bye Bye, Brasil 2
1.1 He Walked by Night 18
1.2 He Walked by Night 29
2.1 Children Underground 31
2.2 Born into Brothels 45
3.1 Fish Tank 50
3.2 Girlhood 67
4.1 White God 69
4.2 Amores Perros 83
5.1 Zoo 88
5.2 We Bought a Zoo 104
6.1 Pale Male 107
6.2 The Legend of Pale Male 122
7.1 Mr. Bug Goes to Town 124
7.2 The Milk of Sorrow 140
8.1 Voices of Transition 144
8.2 Growing Cities 158
9.1 Lives Worth Living 160
9.2 Lives Worth Living 174
c.1 Under the Dome 176
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our editorial assistant Christina Kowalski and
the Routledge Press staff for supporting this project. We appreciate
the professional climate Routledge provided us. Most importantly, we
would like to thank our family and friends for their encouragement and
understanding during this project.
Parts of Chapter 5, “Hatari Means Danger: Filmic Representations
of Animal Welfare and Environmentalism at the Zoo” were published
in Quarterly Review of Film and Video in Fall 2015 and are used with
permission.
