Set appeal: film space and urban redevelopment

Abstract

The film industry plays an important and largely under-theorized role in processes of urban change shaping the physical and cultural renderings of place in material and imaginative ways. In this paper, I examine the relationship between film and urban redevelopment at the Distillery District in Toronto, Canada. I argue that the film industry functioned as an important intermediary tenant at the site following its closure as an operating industrial plant in 1990, and prior to its redevelopment as an arts, culture, and entertainment centre in the early 2000s. By weaving together a set of interviews conducted with current tenants, planning material and media reports, and an analysis of feature films shot on location at the site, I map the inception of film production at the Distillery in the context of site planning, and the ways in which the memory of film practice is drawn into a contemporary strategy for place differentiation.

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