THE URBAN WORLD

My films are often centered on issues of human rights, civil rights, and the representation of those marginalized by mainstream culture. The Urban World follows the eviction and relocation of a family at the crossroads of two of the most important urban developments in India today: the revitalization of city centers implemented by local governments, and the investment of massive amounts of capital and energy by India’s national government in constructing subsidized low income housing. The film documents good intentions, imperfect implementation, and mixed results. It situates the viewer with the direct experiences of how these initiatives affect the poor while looking at the situation in its complexity and giving voice to multiple perspectives: the principle planner of the massive renewal project, the legal advocate for those displaced, and the people themselves. The Urban World is both a portrait of a family at a moment of crisis, an ethnography of a culture moved from a horizontal communal society to mid-rise facilities, and a case-study that raises multiple questions regarding public policy and social justice in solving the plight of the world’s urban poor.

I am the film’s writer, director, cinematographer and editor; my wife Zilan Munas (who is South Asian) is line producer, my daughter Zana Bass is field recordist, and historian Howard Spodek is subject specialist. The project is the culmination of 4 ½ years of work: three trips to India from 2010 to 2014 for research and filming on location; fund raising; months of translating and subtitling 80 hours of Urdu, Hindi and Gujarati into English; culling footage; evolving the script and concept; and a two year period of final editing.