The New York Times Opinion Pages today announced a new multiplatform interactive series of Op-Docs in collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) as part of its ongoing HIGHRISE project. ‘A Short History of the Highrise’ will premiere this summer on NYTimes.com and subsequently on NFB.ca/highrise.
The series, an interactive project comprised of four short documentaries, explores the history and future of high-rise buildings and their relationship to issues of equity, segregation and social responsibility in cities around the world.
The films are directed by Katerina Cizek and produced by the NFB in collaboration with The Times. The interactive elements are produced by The Times graphics team, under the direction of Cizek and The Times’s Jacqueline Myint. While the first three parts will draw on The Times’s extensive photography archive, the fourth chapter of the project will be comprised solely of images submitted by the public. The public can submit a photograph that illustrates an experience of living in or around high-rise buildings. Complete submission guidelines are available at: http://submit.nytimes.com/high-rise.
To create this documentary project, The New York Times has opened up its collection of undigitized photographs to the International Digital Emmy Award-winning team behind the National Film Board of Canada’s HIGHRISE project. Many of the images, portraying the rise of the city in the 20th century, have not been seen for decades.
About the HIGHRISE project
HIGHRISE explores vertical living in the global suburbs. It’s a multi-year, many-media collaborative documentary experiment at the National Film Board of Canada, directed by Katerina Cizek and produced by Gerry Flahive. Since launching in 2009, HIGHRISE has generated many projects, including mixed media, interactive documentaries, mobile productions, live presentations, installations and films. Collectively, the projects will both shape and realize the HIGHRISE vision: to see how the documentary process can drive and participate in social innovation rather than just to document it; and to help re-invent what it means to be an urban species in the 21st century. You can read more about Kat here in our exclusive interview with her from 2011.
About The National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada creates groundbreaking interactive works, social-issue documentaries and auteur animation. The NFB’s award-winning content can be seen at NFB.ca and on apps for smartphones, tablets and connected TV. Canada’s public producer and distributor since 1939, the NFB has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 6 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies.
About The New York Times Company
The New York Times Company, a leading global, multimedia news and information company with 2012 revenues of $2.0 billion, includes The New York Times, the International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe, NYTimes.com, BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com and related properties. The Company’s core purpose is to enhance society by creating, collecting and distributing high-quality news and information.