Radiant City

Part of the "Real to Reel" series, Radiant City is a Canadian documentary that explores the social and cultural repercussions of urban sprawl. Focusing on the lives of a young family this film documents their angst at foolishly choosing a bigger house with a lawn over a smaller urban dwelling in a "real neighbourhood". The family's two children serve as our hilarious tour guides around their little slice of suburbia. The vignettes of family life are peppered with the narrative of a number of experts detailing the utter failure of suburban residential planning in North America.

About 3/4s of the way through, we find out that the family we have been spying on is not really a family but a group of actors. I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed - I KNEW those kids were too funny!! However, that's just a testament to how well written and relevant these family scenes were. As one of the directors put it during the Q&A - "we didn't have the time or the budget to follow a family around for 2 years only to edit all the footage down to the dysfunctional parts we just showed you anyway". I guess this could be considered cheating. It definitely tests the boundaries of how a documentary is typically defined. In the end, I felt that it was an effective tool to illustrate what could have otherwise been a very dry subject matter.

The film's message was sobering - one's journey to own a piece of "paradise" in suburbia is also the road to personal isolation, the repercussion of which is only beginning to be felt in society at large. However, this message was brought to the viewer in an engaging and entertaining way. The 86 minutes this film is listed at flew by. I came away entertained and with much food for thought. I'd have to judge the film a success on that basis alone.

I don't know where you'd be able to watch Radiant City. The movie was co-produced by the National Film Board and the CBC. So, it might turn up on the Passionate Eye at some point. Or, more likely, it'll be made available through the NFB library. If the topic interests you at all I would recommend the movie (actually *we* recommend it - Linda enjoyed it as well).

ADDED BONUS: A kick-ass original soundtrack by Joey Santiago of Pixies fame.

NB: In an ironic twist, of the two directors (Gary Burns, Jim Brown) only Burns was present at the screening. Jim Brown was absent because his employer wouldn't give him time off work. His employer? The CBC. What a world.