?Citzen Jane: Battle for the City? opens on April 21 Citizen Jane: Battle for the City, the new documentary from award-winning journalist and filmmaker Matt Tyrnauer, is as much about Jane Jacobs, the urban activist, as it is a blueprint for taking action in the current age. Published in 1961, Jacobs?s influential book The Death and Life of Great American Cities changed the way we think and talk about cities, putting people at the center of what makes a community vibrant. Jacobs also believed?and practiced?that real power comes from the bottom up.
We spoke to Tyrnauer about Jacobs?s pioneering work, her role as an activist and public intellectual, and why her ideas are still so relevant today. Citizen Jane opens theatrically and on demand on April 21. What led you to make this documentary" You have a very diverse career, so what drew you to Jane Jacobs"
Matt Tyrnauer: I've always been interested in architecture and cities, and part of what I wrote about, mostly for Vanity Fair and other places, too, was design and architecture. So I've had an interest in the broader subject, and in New York history, and public intellectuals. The Jane Jacobs story?and the Robert Moses aspect?touches on all of those things.
Also, Jacobs is a subject who really hasn't been given, until now, the full-dress documentary treatment. She's been a part of other stories. So I saw a major figure, great thinker, public intellectual, and activist who I wanted to bring to a wider audien...