The Human Scale(2012)

Sólstafir

7/10

This documentary reimagines our public spaces and tries the bring the human at the center of it. It has amused me in the past, that how on the roads, the first citizen has become the cars which is an invention of the humans, but the humans themselves are relegated to the sidelines and have to look all around you before stepping out in the main road. As someone living in India where the traffic can be cacophonic and chaotic, documentaries like these may reset our focus on what matters. I remember reading some time ago a comment on the development we call progress. We do get progress all around, but has that improved our lifestyle in a fulfilling sense? I can't answer positively to this. We have transitioned from one set of societal problems to other. I wonder if this is because we do not have the right target we are striving to work towards. While it may appear reasonable to do in cities which are major tourist attractions where it is profitable to create spaces for leisure, it will actually help all of the cities to be more decentralised and have better work-life balance. This is just one step towards reducing mega cities and actually create decentralised hubs where the population is less and self sufficient. None of these ideas come up in this documentary, but I do see this as a building block of a more sustainable future from a mental health perspective as well.