Our City Dreams (2008)
Filmed over the course of two years, Our City Dreams is the story of a woman's struggles and successes as an artist in New York City. Told through five women artists, from youngest to oldest, the film features Swoon, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, Marina Abramovic, and Nancy Spero. From the studio to the streets of New York, from the canals of Venice to the alleys of Cairo and the beaches of Phuket, Our City Dreams takes us deep into the artists' worlds.
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Sick Product of a Sick System
Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
The documentary "Our City Dreams" profiles five visual and performance artists - Swoon, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, Marina Abramovic and Nancy Spero - who have their homes and studios in New York City. Each of them comes from a different part of the world and each is at a different stage of her career and life. Director Chiara Clemente spends not much more than a few moments with each of the women as they dabble in their work and chat about their backgrounds, the struggles they've had to overcome as women artists, and their individual views on art."Our City Dreams" is probably of greatest interest to those who already have a degree of familiarity with some or all of the movie's subjects. For the run-of-the-mill disinterested observer, on the other hand, the movie will likely hold far less fascination. The problem may lie in the overreaching nature of the film which doesn't allow us to get to know as much about these women as we would if the film featured only one or two of them, say, instead of all five. Individually, they certainly seem like lovely people but they tend to subtract from - rather than add to - one another when lumped together as a group. That's not to say that there aren't some lyrical and poignant moments woven throughout the film; it's just that we don't feel we learn all that much about their art - or the influences on their art - in the short time we get to spend with them. In fact, the movie doesn't even really explore how New York City itself inspired or informed much of their output as artists, which is, we presume - at least judging from the title - the intended purpose and goal of the film.
The focus here is five women artists who live & work in New York (but were not born there),obviously seeking out an environment that is conducive to being creative. Three of the artists are American (Kiki Smith,Swoon & Nancy Spero),while the other two are respectively from Egypt (Ghada Amer),and Serbia (Marina Abramovic). Director Chiara Clemente takes her time with each artist,uncovering at least some secrets of their creative energies. We are treated to footage of opening night exhibits of works by each artist & the medium they work in (oil on canvas,mixed media,performance art,etc.). If you get your proverbial groove on documentaries dealing with art & artists,you owe it to yourself to seek this one out. As this is a documentary shot on video,rather than film stock,distribution will be somewhat limited.No MPAA rating,but contains a bit of rude language,and depictions of some rather sexually explicit artworks. Okay for older teens that are a bit more mature about things like these.