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Now free for download: New in the City

With regards to its position on the internet, the VPRO has always been one of the pioneers in Dutch broadcasting. Now, we’re taking this even further by making available for download four of the documentaries on urbanization made for the ‘Century of the City’. These files are available under the Creative Commons-license.

One of these documentaries is Metropolis: New in the City.

Click here to download this film.

Or click here to download some of the other documentaries made for the ‘Century of the City’.

After the documentary Metropolis: Coming to the city was aired many viewers wondered how the 4 newcomers were doing now.

So how are things with Andala, our newcomer from Lusaka?

Our Zambian correspondent Cleopatra informs us Andala is still doing fine. Although he lost his job in construction because the building was finished, he says he is making more money being a carpenter because he has been improving his skills of the trade. Also, his colleagues love him and consider him a real television star ever since the Metropolis-team followed him.

Andala’s wife also seems to be happy with her new life in the city, and they are saving money so she can start selling things at the market. She does consider the city to be noisy and she isn’t really used to have such noisy neighbours: when she’s preparing food, they’ll inquire what she’s cooking and they notice everytime she has a new dress. That’s why she is desperate to find something to do during the day, so she won’t have to deal with her neigbours.

In regards to his former girlfriend Harriet: althoug he doesn’t think about her anymore, he doesn’t want to take his wife to the places he visited with Harriet. He isn’t sure she’ll like it there, and he’s also afraid that his wife will get angry because he used to take his city girlfriends there.

It seems everything is going fine and Andala is a happy man. Yet he still has the ambition to go back to school one day: he wants to get a better position at his current workplace. Also, if he is ever to start his own carpenter’s workshop, Andala says he will have to study for it.

In the week after airing of our feature-length documentary Metropolis: New in the citythe website of Metropolis continues where the broadcast ended.

So, how is Maria doing, the 29-year old mother of two from Colombia?

It seems things have taken a turn for the worse for Maria. Correspondents Alejandro en Leo contacted her after airing of the episode, and they found her in horrible conditions.

Maria hasn’t worked as a prostitute for two months; even doing that she didn’t make enough money to support her kids and pay the rent. She had to leave the house she was living in and now she lives in one of the worst neighborhoods in Bogota, crime-ridden and drug infested. There she lives in the basement of the ‘Old Red Cross’, once a relief station for refugees in the center of Bogota. Deserted by the aid organizations, it is now a hiding place for Maria and the many other displaced persons who live there packed together in small rooms.

This august, the police riot unit have tried to evacuate the terrain, partly to put the many children living at the site under the supervision of Family Welfare, an institution that is supposed to watch over the rights of families and children. The displaced tried to hide their children and used stones and sticks to resist the authorities coming in. Alejandro describes Maria as in shock, and very worried for her kids and what they have had to be through at their young age. To buy food, Maria takes her children to the market every day to beg.

Right now, Maria isn’t very optimistical about the future. but she still hopes there will be a day on which she will have a house again for her and her children.

Our youngest newcomer Dong Bing is forced to leave his hometown in the Henan province when his employer shuts down his business due to the economic crisis.

Attracted by television images of luxury and wealth, Dong Bing decides to try his luck in Shanghai. He is determined to make it in this big city. Somewhat naive, Dong Bing has great expectations.

Will he be able to show the city what he’s got, or will he go under in this fast growing metropole? Whatever the outcome, his perseverence will be put to the test in Shanghai.

Dong Bing is followed by correspondent Sunny and director Bas Roeterink. Click hereto view Sunny’s profile and reports.

Shanghai

This major Chinese port has more skyscrapers than New York and twice its population: more than eighteen million people. Parts of the city that were farmland just twenty years ago, have now been annexed by large constructions in the most modern design. Obviously, such a fast growing city with a large port attracts many job seekers from all over China. Most of these are not very educated and sell recycled garbage in the streets or work in the construction of the many tall new buildings dotting the city.

Young and relatively well-educated newcomers like Dong Bing don’t settle for such jobs anymore. They seek employment in catering, electronics sales, real estate or the insurance business. Sadly enough for these newcomers, these sectors of the Chinese economy are the most hard-hit by the economic crisis, and many migrants to Shanghai find themselves remigrating to the countryside.

New York. In the words of Frank Sinatra: “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.” This promise offered by the city that never sleeps attracts new people from all over the world to this metropolis every day. One of these people is Nick from California.

Ever since he finished acting school, Nick has been avoiding the ‘real life’. He rather spends his time surfing and working part-time in his fathers real estate firm, sometimes playing a minor role in a semiprofessional play.
Panic strikes as he turns thirty. He knows it’s now or never, and leaves for New York determined to achieve his dream: making it as a musical star on Broadway.

Despite his youthful charm and broad repertoire – he easily quotes Shakespeare, Moliere and Marlow – things are looking grim for him. He has no house, no money, little connections and no agent: a classical story that could easily be made into a Broadway musical itself.

Nick is followed by correspondents Kel O’Neill and Eline Jongsma Click here to view their profile and reports.

New York

The thrill of big the city is easily felt on Broadway, or anywhere else in New York for that matter. A metropolis of 8 million people with 150 different nationalities, New York is perhaps the most cosmopolitan city in the world. Because of the many illegal immigrants, it is said that determining statistics for New York is as hard as nailing water to a wall.

The stalled economy has made it tough for newcomers to find a job. While working as a waiter was always an option for a newly arrived actor, even such jobs are now becoming hard to find. The pool of opportunities that gives New York its magical attraction seems to be drying up in the current economic hardships.

Will Nick make it in this bustling metropolis or will he end up losing his dreams to the harsh reality of the city?

28 year old drop-out Andala leaves his village in the countryside to make a living in the capital of Zambia, Lusaka. He needs the money to finish his education. Having come to the city with great expectations, Andala expects to find a job as a carpenter or bricklayer soon.

Since he’s always been accustomed to a very basic lifestyle with no electricity whatsoever, the big city seems to offer unimaginable luxuries. Never having visited the city before, Andala finds himself not knowing where to start.

When even finding a place to sleep at the bus station turns out to be a rat race, what could ever become of his hopes of a better life in Zambia’s capital?

Andala is followed by correspondent Cleopatra. Click here to view her profile and reports.

Lusaka

Africa is the most rapidly urbanising continent in the world today. And Lusaka is one of the fastest growing cities on the continent. According to the latest statistics the city has 1.2 million inhabitants, their number increasing with an average of a hundred new arrivers every day.

Because of the stark contrasts between the countryside and cities in Africa, newcomers like Andala often face a culture shock when first setting foot in the city. In addition, finding work, food and good housing can be extremely difficult. Affordable housing is scarce and swindlers are higly active on the real estate market. Seeing recently arrived persons spending the night at the bus station is quite a common sight in Lusaka.

A better life: for most newcomers this is the most important reason to move to the city. For Colombian single mother Maria, leaving her village is the only option. It is simply too dangerous for her and her two young children Wendy and Brian.

Her village lies in the notoriously dangerous Urabá district, that has been the stage of armed conflict between army, guerillas and paramilitary groups for years. 29 year-old Maria is one of the estimated three million Colombian displaced persons, people who were forced to leave their home because of the violence in Colombia’s interior. Her life isn’t easy. The father of her children has left them and she is now raising them by herself.

In Bogotá she hopes to better guarantee the safety of her children, and also to find some source of income that can ensure a better future for her children.

Maria is followed by correspondents Leo and Alejandro. Click here to view Leo’s profile and reports.

Bogotá

The capital of Colombia lies high in the Andes mountains and is home to more than six million people. Bogotá is notorious for its violence: murders averaged eight a day until recently, but investments in public space, infrastructure, public transportatation, schools and libraries have changed the face of the city. Yet it’s still a city of contrasts, where luxury sports cars drive past mules on busy intersections.

Bogota is one of the most rapidly growing urban areas in South America. The many displaced persons, like Maria, who have fled the violence in their home regions, can be seen living in the streets, begging, and working as street vendors. 98 percent of these people live in poverty and only five percent eventually finds a permanent home.