13 Portraits of Highrise Life, From Around the World

For the past two weeks, CityLab has had a special focus on the past, present, and future of highrises across the globe, thanks to a unique collaboration with the National Film Board of Canada. Along with a series of original stories, the centerpiece of our Highrise Report is the new NFB-produced interactive documentary Universe Within: Digital Lives in the Global Highrise. If you haven’t yet explored Universe Within, we encourage you to take the time to do so this weekend. It’s a truly immersive storytelling experience that offers a multitude of perspectives on how technology is changing the lives of global tower-dwellers.

CityLab jumped at the chance to host the U.S. premiere of Universe Within because we’re big fans of the larger NFB-produced HIGHRISE project, the years-long, many-media exploration of highrises directed by the filmmaker Katerina Cizek. In addition to Universe Within, which serves as the conclusion to HIGHRISE, the series includes the interactive films Out My Window (2010), One Millionth Tower (2011) and A Short History of the Highrise (2013).