Educational Media Reviews Online

Remember growing up in the city or the suburbs and on Sunday everyone would pile into the car and go for a drive in the “country”?

The Nature of Cities shows how the feeling of those Sunday drives can be experienced every day by changing how cities and neighborhoods are designed. Through creating green spaces and incorporating green thinking, the “country” feeling can be realized in an urban oasis.

The viewer is taken on a worldwide tour of eco projects such as living walls in France, green roofs in Sweden and car-free or car-limited communities in Amsterdam and Germany. In the United States, there are bat bridges in Texas and Sierra Club groups that take care of the canyons in San Diego. When cities and towns are “greened up,” they produce energy savings but also contribute to the quality of life. Quotes are dispersed throughout providing the viewer an opportunity for further learning.

The photography of locations across the globe is excellent and the viewer can almost feel the atmosphere. The piece is extremely well put together and includes interviews with professionals and citizens. This combination integrates theory and practice with an outstanding outcome. The viewer hears the theory behind it but also experiences the real life application of that theory. The musical score fits perfectly with the green theme of the film.

This film presents a good starting point to encourage conversations on how to incorporate nature into neighborhoods, towns and cities across the world.

This film is highly recommended for the intended audience. Libraries serving programs in environmental science and ecology as well architecture would benefit by having this in their collections. Sr. high school students will be inspired to future action after seeing this.