City of Progress

"A city could start like this drawing:
first there`s an empty space
and then an event: a dot on the paper."

The animated film ’City of Progress’ traces the growth of an imaginary city as it expands from a single dot into a proliferation of lines and geometric forms, representing the physical development of a city. As Bennett points out in the accompanying voice-over commentary, organic urban growth is soon curbed by laws and regulations, reshaped by project developers or armed conflicts. The creative act of drawing, as well as that of founding a city, is put under the magnifying glass - resulting in a reflection on the inexorable expansion of our urban areas. ’City of Progress’ embodies our quest for utopia, while attesting to the difficulty of attaining it.