Filmmaker Gerard Smyth has spent the last 10 years documenting Christchurch's recovery from the devastating earthquakes.
When A City Rises - The People's Story premiered Wednesday at the restored Isaac Theatre Royal.
Gerard Smyth. Photo: Facebook
Smyth made a film When a City Falls in the immediate aftermath of the quakes which was a much more guerrilla operation, he told Jesse Mulligan.
“My camera had broken in half and I jammed it back together and ran into the city.
“It was a pretty grass roots look at what the people were going through at the time.”
That film ran for months Christchurch, he says.
“It was a pretty hard watch, but most people who saw it thought it was more comforting than not.”
This film is more about what the city might become now, he says.
“We had to come to an understanding of what the film might be about, because there were so many stories from EQC to the red zone to the cathedrals to the schools.
“We set about making a film about the central city, how do you rebuild the central city and how do the people within that recover? They are the two narratives that run alongside each other.”
The first phase of the rebuild happened quickly, he says.
“When the government in a hurry tried to protect land values and worry that the city might become of no use, it designed a city in 100 days and very quickly got the sort of retail version of it up and running.
“And some would say that they modelled that on the old city, where the CBD in the middle was where everyone came to do all their shopping.”
In his childhood, the CBD was the hub of the wheel. Smyth says, but not so much now.
“But in the ‘60s that sort of stopped with the malls growing around the city, people no longer needed to come in to buy a bed or whatever so the city lost its purpose to be.
“So right through America they call it the doughnut with the hole in the middle. The city that has no reason to be and the solution to that is to bring people in, to live in the city, in the heart of the city.
With 70 percent of the CBD pulled down it is a chance to think about rebuilding a modern city, he says.
“Any town planner would give his eye tooth to be part of to redesign a futuristic city.”
The film hopes to spark debate about what that city might be, he says.
“That first Government-led stage has happened now, and it’s gone a bit quiet in the last three years or so, especially with minister Brownlee no longer being in front who was very good at getting media, good or bad, around him.
“I reckon we need to consider the second half of the rebuild and that’s what the film is trying to talk about.”
Smyth travelled to American cities to look at how they had regenerated their inner city precincts.
“It is invariably people coming to live in the centre of the city
“It’s not the traditional way we might like to live in New Zealand with our quarter acre and fruit trees, but you can live a pretty healthy life, and pretty happy life and not a lonely suburban life in the heart of the city.”
