Megacities

Mexico City has grown so enormous that no one knows where it ends. Bombay’s population is so dense it can’t be counted. Michael Glawogger takes us deep into these and the other “megacities,” Moscow and New York, telling stories of people struggling at the bottom of the urban food chain. These are the working poor, with jobs that keep them and their families barely alive—like Babu Khan, who sifts powdered paint, ending each day transformed into a blue or yellow specter; or Shankar Loutakke, who sews together strips of film and shows them on the street with his hand-cranked portable projector. Using techniques of cinema verité, Glawogger presents us with an unforgettable vision that is both epic in its scope and shockingly intimate in its details.