Big Cities | KCET
"Big Cities" explores innovative solutions for some of the most important urban challenges around the world. National broadcasters from more than two dozen countries have contributed to this collection of documentaries showcasing the citizens who are bringing about significant change in urban planning, infrastructure, and social issues. Each segment explores ways to improve living conditions in the growing number of mega-cities around the globe. Watch the series, exclusively on Link TV.
Full Episodes
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Big Cities
Big Cities
E1: Sustainable Urban Farming
Episode 1
Maintaining a sustainable way of life through organic farming is possible — even in big cities.
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Big Cities
Big Cities
E2: Heart of the City
Episode 2
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Big Cities
Big Cities
Episode 3: Bringing Life to Public Spaces
Episode 3
Two groups strive to reinvigorate public spaces amid blocky apartment structures and rigid urban development.
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Big Cities
Big Cities
Episode 4: Cooperative Housing
Episode 4
Many people are ditching the confines of traditional apartment life and opting for communal living instead.
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Big Cities
Big Cities
Episode 5: Immigrant Support Systems
Episode 5
Big cities attract dreamers from all over the world. This episode features the people building communities of inclusion for immigrants.
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Clips & Segments
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Big Cities
A government plan to rebuild a large public housing estate has raised the flags because the redevelopment site would include an old dairy farm built among a verdant valley in 1886.
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Big Cities
"La Memoria Del Sonido" builds an arc of experiences and connections between noise and the sounds in San Jose, Costa Rica.
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Big Cities
Community members have been preserving the cultural heritage of the Q’eswachaka bridge, the last living legacy of Inca architecture, by using ancestral techniques, creativity and solidarity.
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Big Cities
Rice and Roses in Malaysia is dedicated to feeding the rising number of homeless individuals who are being displaced by the rapid development in the city of George Town.
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Upcoming Airdates
Historical Preservation
Episode 8
From the depths of a volcano to the density of a forest, people around the world are preserving natural wonders in their home cities. A docent at Mount Vesuvius shares why he has devoted his life to the volcano that destroyed much of the area in previous generations. A man in Hong Kong leads neighbors in a fight to preserve a historic forest that has become polluted.
Videos produced by RAI in Naples, Italy and RTHK in Hong Kong.
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2019-12-19T18:00:00-08:00KCETLINK
Living With Water
Episode 9
Great water demands require greater water solutions to keep big cities afloat.
Water activists combat climate change and illegal wetland development that is causing towns to flood in Argentina. Graciela Capodoglio founded the Natural Reserve of Pilar to preserve the floodplain ecosystem in the province of Buenos Aires.
In Mexico City, citizens formed an organization using innovative education models and technologies to address the city’s water shortage issues.
Videos produced by Construir TV in Argentina and SPR in Mexico.
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2019-12-26T18:00:00-08:00KCETLINK
Traffic Alternatives
Episode 10
Urban planners and average citizens around the world are working to improve transportation in congested cities. In Bangkok, an architect fed up with his daily commute studies the combination of traditional boats and modern trains to beat traffic. In Bogota, a professor and his students develop a citywide electric car sharing system to ease congestion in dense urban areas.
Videos by Thai PBS in Thailand and TAL in Colombia.
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2020-01-02T18:00:00-08:00KCETLINK
Sustainable Urban Farming
Episode 1
Maintaining a sustainable way of life through organic farming is possible — even in big cities. In this episode, a woman in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro shows us how to maximize every last bit of local produce, while urban dwellers and beekeepers in Paris are developing a culture of sharing in rooftop gardens.
Videos produced by TAL in Brazil and QLM in France.
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2020-01-09T18:00:00-08:00KCETLINK
Articles
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Big Cities
Having suffered great climatic, social, and political changes for centuries, the people native to Peru's Quehue region have learned to face change armed only with their ancestral knowledge.
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Big Cities
In a Hong Kong where enormous banyan trees shade the ruins of one of the world’s first industrial dairy farms, citizens are taking a greater stance in protecting their cultural heritage and endangered wildlife.
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Big Cities
Colin Boyd Shafer took on the challenge to photograph one person from every country of the world to showcase the beauty of diversity. The catch? They all had to be people who now call Toronto home.
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Big Cities
By immersing themselves in local cultures, the members of an artist collective known are changing the world one mural at a time.
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Big Cities
Women living in large cities are turning to farming to regain control of their food. Hear their stories and recommendations on how you can grow your own urban garden.
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Big Cities
The concept developers of "Big Cities" tell us how they built a worldwide television and cross-media collection of stories about innovative ways to improve living conditions in major urban areas.
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