Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

Like his previous film, Valentino: The Last Emperor, about the famous fashion designer, director Matt Tyrnauer takes on a fascinating subject yet mostly consolidates existing information without adding much to our knowledge base.

A timely warning against big-block buildings with empty ground-floor shop units, nonetheless.

Tyrnauer uses a ton of archival footage to tell his story, and brings it in at a brisk 92 minutes.

She was also one tough cookie who appreciated a good fight. A bit more internal tussle would have both better honored her spirit and made for a better documentary.

Most good documentaries are powered by conflict, and you couldn't ask for a struggle more elemental or relevant to our time than the one chronicled in Citizen Jane: Battle for the City.

A celebration of grassroots activism and a cry for community, this should appeal to those interested in the history and politics of urbanisation as well as architecture nerds.

For the engaged and interested, Citizen Jane is a worthy documentary about one of the twentieth century's least referenced activist struggles.

A film like Citizen Jane feels quite timely as an illustration of common sense and the truth winning out of unbridled abuse of power

I'm with her.

Building only anticlimactically, what it needed (ironically) was better planning. This film's message is vital; sadly the film itself isn't.