Skyscraper

director: Shirley Clarke

original title: Skyscraper

country: United States

year: 1960

running time: 21 min.

synopsis

A black-and-white film documents a construction of an impressive skyscraper on the 5th Avenue, from the architectural designs to laying the foundations and the final construction. The whole construction process is accompanied by the construction workersʼ dialogues and anecdotes. Thus the camera transforms the hard work into a poetic image of the 1950s New York.

“While I was editing Skyscraper, I would be sitting at my moviola putting a sequence together when I would suddenly come across ashot of reflections in the skyscraper windows, and I thought that would make agood sequence. So one of the filmmakers would go out with a roll of film and make some reflections, and if he still had some film left, he would take something else. I would look at that, and I'd say, ‚Oh, that's great.‘ It was really handmade movies, made in the editing process of bits and pieces.“ — Shirley Clarke

biography

Shirley Clarke (1919–1997) was an American director and university teacher, initially a dancer and a choreographer. In the 1950s she made short films and later she directed various documentaries and feature films. She was active in the feminist movement and her work is often included in the New American Cinema.

more about film

director:

Shirley Clarke

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