"We can’t deny that there is a before and after María. But there is also a before and after the people’s victory."

The Art Of Placemaking

1. LANDFALL is a placemaking film, with Puerto Rico starring as the central character. Through the film’s lens, what are the elements that personify the island? Why do you think the filmmaker chose this “shard-like” approach to reveal daily life in Puerto Rico post-Hurricane María?
2. Juxtapositions of environmental portraiture—the contrasting of two very different scenes—are important in the film. For example, one scene jumps from Orocovis, where Hurricane debris is cleared from the roof of a modest home, to the sterile aesthetics of a new luxury mansion in Dorado. What other visual juxtapositions did you notice presented in LANDFALL? How does the approach offer another layer of information to viewers?
3. As a group of friends break bread over a shared meal, one explains that the hurricane “took so much out of us. The process of recovery is so tiring. There hasn’t been time to think.” With this in mind, consider the filmmaking style. Many moments linger on wordless, meditative images of Puerto Rico, such as the long lobster catching scene. What do these moments evoke? What does this technique offer the viewer?

Engage And Create: Practicing Creative Placemaking

ARTPLACE AMERICA defines creative placemaking as “the intentional integration of arts, culture, and community-engaged design strategies into the process of equitable community planning and development.” “What Is Placemaking” from the Project For Public Spaces offers keywords for what the placemaking process is and is not:

PLACEMAKING IS

• Community-driven
• Visionary
• Function before form
• Adaptable
• Inclusive
• Focused on creating destinations
• Context-specific
• Dynamic
• Trans-disciplinary
• Transformative
• Flexible Collaborative Sociable

PLACEMAKING IS NOT

• Top-down
• Reactionary
• Design-driven
• A blanket solution or quick fix
• Exclusionary
• Car-centric
• One-size-fits-all
• Static
• Discipline-driven
• One-dimensional
• Dependent on regulatory controls
• A cost/benefit analysis
• Project-focused

The film LANDFALL is a placemaking film in both content—it shows various community processes for rebuilding Puerto Rico—and in practice. How does the film use placemaking techniques that mirror the community planning and development process?

Using the concepts of placemaking, imagine you are creating a placemaking portrait film that describes your hometown or city at this present moment in history.

In your mapping, consider the following:

• What current issues and challenges would need to be highlighted to tell the story of your home?
• What history would need to be presented in order to fully examine the present moment?
• What local culture and positive contributions would you want to highlight?
• What sub-neighborhoods would you feature and why?
• What local community stakeholders/ characters would you feature and why?
• How would you research the local community? Who would you work with when planning the portrait?
• What would be your keywords and terms to guide the research of the film?
• What emotional meaning would you seek to create with the film, and what are some ways you could imagine achieving that?