Rediscovering the American landscape in this film Mangolte poses the questions: what is a home and what does it mean to live in one's private house, in a community and in a rapidly built city. Playing in the title with Italo Calvino’s Invisible Citiesand drawing on Mike Davis’s urban criticism, through the subjective perspective and the words of two invisible underprivileged women, we witness how the architectural construction imposed in the California desert degraded the natural landscape, how land usages changed, and how exclusive living in luxurious gated communities go hand in had with racial and gender segregations. The women dream of escape and of an ideal city.
Babette Mangolte (1941) is a French-American director, cinematographer, photographer and artist who has lived in New York since 1970. She has worked as a cinematographer with Chantal Akerman and Yvonne Rainer and has made important experimental films on the very act of looking about the American landscape, about contemporary dance and the art of performance. She is considered one of the most important artists of the American avant-garde and currently teaches at the University of San Diego in California.
Photos: Visible cities, Gated community card ©1991 Babette Mangolte, all rights of reproduction reserved
