From JoshuaFenkel.com:
This film is growing into a new opera about Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs.
Plan of the City is an animated film, conceived and directed by Joshua Frankel, about the architecture of New York City blasting off into outer space and resettling on Mars. The film’s visuals are an animated collage combining live action footage, animated elements, illustrations and treated photographs, including photos taken by the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity made available to the public domain by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
A series of silkscreen prints based on imagery from Plan of the City can be viewed here.
Plan of the City was created in collaboration with composer Judd Greenstein and NOW Ensemble, an acclaimed “indie classical” chamber ensemble; the ensemble, including Greenstein, feature prominently in the film as live actors set inside the animated framework.
The audio of the film consists solely of Greenstein’s Change, performed by NOW Ensemble; Change and Plan of the City were created in parallel, each expressing its own artistic intention while simultaneously serving its “sibling”.Screencap from “Plan of the City”
The film has been presented with the music performed live, timed to the film, at the Library Of Congress’ On LOCation performing arts series, at the Crossing Brooklyn Ferry festival at BAM and at Le Poisson Rouge in New York City. It also exists as its own stand-alone entity, utilizing NOW Ensemble’s recent studio recording of Change(out on New Amsterdam Records).
Plan of the City has been made possible by a generous grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and is the winner of the Arch Film Lund award.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/23282730[/vimeo]