FIVE PLACES L.A. is a living documentary of the city produced by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. In each episode, we ask one inhabitant of Los Angeles about the five places that define the city for them. In turn, each interviewee is invited to choose someone to ask about their five places, creating “plus one” episodes. As the project grows and the city evolves, its past and present, real and remembered places are mapped.
Emmanuelle Bourlier
Creator, Host, Executive Producer
I grew up with a love for exploring new places. Just before I was born, my parents moved from Paris to Toronto to teach at a newly opened French school, and each year they saved up for airfare so we could spend the summer visiting family throughout France and England. These travel adventures thrilled me, and as I got older, I seized every opportunity to move to other cities for school or work.
Viewing places that I’ve called home (Toronto, San Francisco, New York, Paris, Los Angeles…) instinctively through the lens of a visitor, I’m fascinated by their history, their evolution, and by how people experience them. Los Angeles has been home for twenty-four years now, the longest I’ve ever stayed in one place, but it doesn’t feel like one place. I love it for being so full of possibility, so elusive, contradictory, and different for everyone.
FIVE PLACES L.A. was born from my deep curiosity about how people experience the cities they inhabit and my belief that sharing stories is a simple but profound way to increase understanding, connection, and joy.
Quynh Nguyen
Co-producer
My thirty years in LA has been like an on-again, off-again relationship. I’ve left for extended periods and come back, each time overwhelmed and comforted by the sight of her vastness from the plane. I love seeing the freeways, the stadiums, the mountains, the ocean, and downtown; then, there’s trying to spot smaller landmarks that only Angelenos would look for--like the Silver Lake Reservoir. But then, I know, to feel this for the city, I’d have to leave again.
Big thanks to our collaborators:
Monica Llamela Blazquez for her wonderful and tireless video editing support.
Anne Swett-Predock for her brilliant visual identity guidance, especially on the defining aspects of our headshot graphics.
Jessica Fleischmann of Still Room for designing our logo.
Bee Murphy for animating our logo and video intro and outro.
Nina Briggs for her inspiration and leadership at the L.A. Forum and her consistent support of the Five Places L.A. project.
Anali Gharakhani for her two years’ collaboration as a key member of the initial production team, for contributions to our website design, and for beautifully rendering our headshot graphics through Episode 13.
Souris Hong and Jayna Zweiman for their early and enthusiastic participation and support.
Mitchell deJarnett, Kian Goh, Wendy Gilmartin, and Aaron Vaden-Youmans for their wholehearted encouragement at the start of the project.
Land Acknowledgement:
We recognize that we record on the unceded traditional territory and homelands of the Chumash and Tongva people. We honor and pay respect to their elders and descendants — past, present, and emerging — as they continue their stewardship of these lands and waters.
FIVE PLACES L.A. is produced by
and sponsored by
