A meditation on space, place, and finding yourself in a city. I made this short film about Melbourne’s hidden laneways, showing how a bit of clever design transformed old, overlooked corners into curious places of discovery.
A young Australian woman discovers Melbourne’s public spaces through the narration of a charismatic designer who helped transform these spaces from a dying wasteland into vibrant places for people. (11:22)
Role Director, Cinematographer
For City of Melbourne Urban Design
Date 2015
Service strategy, research, content
“A beautiful and engaging short film about the life of the Melbourne side streets”
Short Clips
How do you inspire people about creating a curious public realm in cities?
Before stepping foot into the laneways of Melbourne, Australia, I had no idea how much a city could awaken my sense of discovery. During a tour of these spaces with an urban designer, I was fascinated to learn about how they used design to simply augment what they had—a network of old laneways for services and utilities—to transform a dead downtown into a magical layering of history, people, and culture.
After a six-year hiatus from making any of my own films, and annoyed by the glut of DSLR- and Vimeo-fueled “city porn”—beautifully shot images of cities without any real substance or sense of lived experience—I decided to try and create an experience for people that I’d never seen before.
Film as meditation
With only a faint idea of a story, I learned to shape this film as a meditation: a curious flow of memories and encounters, revealing Melbourne’s quirky spaces through the humble insights of a city designer and the experiences of a young Australian woman.
Molding the city…
I still can’t believe the response and praise of the film. Most recently, the film screened at the UN World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, and in an actual laneway in San Francisco! The Melbourne city design crew has also used it in several presentations around the world to showcase their work.
“a fascinating look at urban design and understanding spaces”
“How do you make a doc about urban design that causes its viewers to CRY???”
“Here in Toronto I’ve heard people say that we’re not Melbourne and we shouldn’t expect to have similar kinds of urban spaces. Well guess what, neither was Melbourne in the 1980s and 1990s. It was a dying city. But they made it happen.”
Learn more
Design Anthology - Q&A with Rob Adams, Melbourne Director of City Design, 2018
THIS IS PUBLIC: FUTURE NEEDS - Discussion w/ Rob Adams & Christopher Hawthorne, 2019
Credits
Featuring Xiao Han Drummond & Ian Dryden
Original music Andrew Tuttle
Full Credits | Press Page