Los Angeles Plays Itself at the Barbican

To accompany their exhibition on photography and architecture in the modern age, Constructing Worlds, the Barbican is running a series of films, talks and debates exploring cinema’s relationship to the city. Sponsored by the Brazilian Embassy and partner with Guardian Cities, the wide-ranging programme offers international perspectives on the urban experience.
One of the highlights of the season is Los Angeles Plays Itself at the Barbican. What could be more appropriate for the Barbican's City Visions season, a programme of events examining the nature of contemporary urban life, than a film about the archetypical post-modern city – Los Angeles. L.A. is a city of contradictions, in which real social problems – high crime rates, widespread poverty and racial tensions – rub shoulders with the dazzling unreality of Hollywood cinema. Thom Andersen's film-essay Los Angeles Plays Itself examines the way in which the film industry has distorted the social reality of life in Los Angeles, and guides us through the city's iconic locations as well as its ghettos and back streets in order to demystify what it's like to live in the city of dreams.
The city has flourished since the birth of industrialisation. From the satanic mills of Victorian Manchester to the unbounded favelas sprouting up around São Paulo, the story of the city has been an inexorable rise. With half of the world’s populace now living in urbanised communities, a figure predicted to increase to 75% within the next half century, there has never been a more apt time to look into the changing face of metropolitan life.