The Experimental City
Join Docomomo US/MN for it's 2019 Film Screening: The Experimental City, by Chad Freidrichs (The Pruitt-Igoe Myth).
Urban planner, utopia enthusiast and comic-book author Athelstan Spilhaus had a vision: a plan for a city of the future, decades ahead of its time. He called it the Minnesota Experimental City (MXC). A futuristic attempt to solve noise, pollution and population challenges, MXC was a prototype enthusiastically embraced by some, and disdained by others. In his documentary film The Experimental City, Chad Freidrichs (The Pruitt-Igoe Myth) explores Spilhaus’ futuristic attempt to solve urban issues by creating a full-size city—from scratch—in Minnesota’s northern woods. Using retro film clips and archival material from the Northwest Architectural Archives, Freidrichs’ film takes viewers back to the 1960s, when Spilhaus’ predictions of home computers and remote banking seemed more fantasy than reality.
Watch the trailer:
The Experimental City from Unicorn Stencil Doc Films can also be rented or purchsed through Vimeo.
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The original text of Experimental City is available to read online for free through Jstor.
"Experimental City: The Sci-Fi Utopia That Never Was," Zach Mortice, CityLab.com, October 17, 2017.
