My good friends over at Urban Capital recently released a short film about the making of their River City project here in Toronto. (If you can't see the embedded video above, click here.)

For those of you who aren't familiar, River City is a 4-phase development on the east side of downtown that was really the first project in what was known as the West Don Lands area. Urban Capital secured the right to develop the then government-owned lands in 2008 through a public tender process that was run by Waterfront Toronto.

It's a tricky and unobvious kind of site in that it's surrounded by infrastructure and it came with a whole host of development challenges, including flood risk. But the team figured it out and River City has gone on to win a number of awards including the Ontario Association of Architect's Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Design Excellence.

River City is an important project for Toronto in that it dared to be different. It's like no other project in the city, and I'm not just saying this because they're my friends. I'm saying it because I want our city to be a global leader in architecture, design, and development, and to continue to push the envelope.

River City did exactly that.

I started watching Parasite on a flight home this past weekend (I know, I'm behind). The first couple of scenes immediately hooked me and so I ended up watching the full movie over the weekend. It's one of the most creative movies I have seen in a long time. (To be fair, I don't watch a lot of movies these days.) I won't spoil it all for you here, but if you haven't seen it yet, I would highly recommend it. One of the principal themes is social inequality. And it's interesting to see how that gets told through the spaces within the film. The poor family lives in a "semi-basement" at the end of what appears to be a laneway. And the rich family lives, higher up, in a house designed by a famous architect. Naturally it has a big and perfectly manicured backyard. At one point in the film, you also get to see which housing type is more environmentally resilient.

I'll leave it there. But it's worth checking out if you are into award-winning Korean tragicomedies.

A friend of mine just sent out a group city builder email about My Piece of the City, which is a new documentary that is screening all weekend here in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

The film is a critique on the revitalization of Regent Park, told through local residents and their efforts to stage a community musical (which happened in real life).

The Daniels Corporation, in partnership with Toronto Community Housing, is the developer and builder for the entire 69 acre community. The Daniels Foundation also funded the musical and this documentary.

But, despite this backing, the Globe and Mail has said that it remains a “healthy critique” of this entire process. And the trailer certainly gives you that impression.

I am sure that this documentary will be of interest to many of you, so if you would like to grab tickets for this weekend, you can do that here.