The Ailing City: Spaces of Urban Emergency Care in Code Black

Cities are modernity's ever-changing hubs of people, architectures and culture. Time and time again, the intense urban environment has been perceived as causing sickness or influencing the experiences of illness. The metaphorical rhetoric of disease has also been applied to unwanted transformations of city architecture and culture.

Organised by the Ephemeral Cities Research Group, the screening series "The Ailing City" explores how film engages with (and reflects) illness and perceptions of sickness and health in urban space. Over the course of five Thursday evenings in May and June 2016, we will explore bodily illness, states of mind, and urban decay and rejuvenation through film. 

The documentary Code Black (U.S.A., 2013) explores the emergency room of the Los Angeles County hospital between 2008 and 2012, coinciding with the current of change brought about by so-called ObamaCare. The look at this long-standing urban emergency department invites viewers to reflect on bodily illness in relation to the ills of both city space and the American healthcare system. The ER staff, whose perspective the film takes on, discloses some problematic views, for example regarding their drive for self-fulfilment or regarding ethnicity. Yet the doctors also strive to better this hotspot of pain that urban and national conditions have shaped.

The film contains explicit depictions of ill and injured bodies, which viewers might find upsetting.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Dr Ruksha Bhadresha. A wine reception will follow the discussion. The series is generously supported by the IAS-Octagon Research fund.

Further links:

• RSVP on Eventbrite
• The Ailing City series page