Megacities

  • 9.1 10
  • 1998
  • 89min

Megacities is a documentary about the slums of four different metropolitan cities: Bombay, Mexico City, Moscow and New York. The film is a tale in twelve episodes about people struggling to survive with resourcefulness, humor, and dignity.

Awards
AWARDS: Best Documentary. São Paulo International Documentary Festival/ Vienna Film Awards. Viennale/ Golden Spire Award. San Francisco International Film Festival/ NFB Award for Best Documentary. International Film Festival Vancouver/ Award for Best Director. Arsenal Film Festival/ Environmental Anthropology Award and Best Documentary Award. CineEco International Environmental Film and Video Festival  
OFFICIAL SELECTIONS: Sunny Side of the Doc/ Locarno International Film Festival/ Toronto International Film Festival/ San Sebastian International Film Festival/ Pusan International Film Festival/ Sao Paulo International Film Festival/ Viena Viennale/ HOF Internationale Filmtage/ Duisburg Filmwoche/  IDFA/ Max Ophuels Preis Film Festival/ Sundance Film Festival/Goterborg Film Festival/ Ghent Documentary Film Festival “Viewpoint: Documentary Now”/ Santa Barbara International Film Festival/ Cinéma du Réel International Documentary Film Festival/ Ales Festival Cinéma – Itinérances/ Thessaloniki Documentary Festival/ Hong Kong International Film Festival/ Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente/ Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival/ Barcelona Goethe Institute/ San Francisco International Film Festival/ Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema/ Cannes Academie du Documentaire/ Emdem Internationales Filmfest/ Sydney Film Festival/ Karlovy Vary International Film Festival/ Moscow International Film Festival/ Melbourne International Film Festival/ Copenhagen European Film College/ Helsinki International Film Festival “Love & Anarchy”/ Vancouver  International Film Festival/ Aarhus Festival of Festivals/ Odivelas International Documentary Film Festival “Amascultura”/ Montreal Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire/ Bratislava TOURFILM Festival/ Cranberra Multicultural Festival/ Stockholm Documentary Film Festival/ Thessaloniki “The City”/ Parnu Doc Film Festival/ Rome MEDFilmfestival/ Riga Arsenal Film Festival/ Taiwan TIDF/ Singapore European Film Week/ Torino CinemAmbiente/ Jihlava Doc Film Festival/ London Reel Time/ Istanbul TÜRSAK International Meeting of Cinema/ Washington Environmental Film Festival/ Serra Da Estrela Festival Internacional de Cinema de Ambiente/ Bilbao Filmfestival ZINEBI/ Lisbon Indielisboa – Retrospective/ Transilvania International Film Festival (TIFF)

Megacities, human souls under urban fierceness

What do the inhabitants of New York, Mumbai, Moscow and Mexico City have in common? Michael Glawogger takes us to the depths of the periphery of these huge urban centers to show us the lives of a series of unforgettable characters with his characteristic exotic aesthetic.

The portraits unite these territories with the most human marginality that arise from the intense metabolism of these megacities connected only through the antipodes of planet Earth.

In Megacities, Wolfgang Thaler's photography frames with psychedelia and crudeness the picturesque spaces of characters that resist the fierceness of the urban environment.

A fraudster addicted to heroin, a group of young people living in the sewers, a mother of three children working in a red district bar, a garbage man whose dream is to become a successful football player. They are some of the protagonists of this award-winning documentary.

With an episodic narrative composed of twelve chapters, a sober rhythm of montage and an irreverent mise en scene, Megacities is a trapping documentary from beginning to end.

The film is the first of a trilogy about the realities of the social margin at a planetary level. In his work, Michael Glawogger manages to dig into the soul of those who are displaced by the prevailing system and live hour after hour an endearing and hard struggle for the survival of both their bodies and their most desired dreams.

Wolfgang Thaler
Wolfgang Thaler Director of Photography
Erich Lackner
Erich Lackner Producer
Rolf Schmid
Rolf Schmid Producer

Production Companies

Lotus Films

Fama Film AG


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