Manhatta

Director: Charles Sheeler, Paul Strand | USA 1921 | 11 min | 16mm | silent

“Manhatta” is considered the first “city symphony” film and captures a glimpse of Manhattan in the early 20th century. Charles Sheeler and Paul Strand, both with backgrounds in photography, loosely string together 65 shots—from the Staten Island Ferry to a sunset viewed from a skyscraper. The intertitles quote Walt Whitman. Fritz Lang is said to have seen the film before he shot *Metropolis*.