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ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL (ADFF) – the nation’s
largest film festival devoted to the subject of architecture and design,
returns to New York September 28 - October 2 with a special lineup of
over 30 curated films from around the world. This year’s festival boasts
an impressive panel of
distinguished speakers and lively Q&A’s. Here are some of the highlights:
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| A Journey Around the Moon Directed by Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine
2015 / 76 min / France / US Premiere From one side of the river to the other, Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine tell us about the identity of a public space which has deeply changed in the collective mind of the city. Using cinematic language, the film takes us along the tumultuous river's ebbs and flows, and drifts into the intimate turmoils of the people during the journey. It's a rare example of a film in which a city is portrayed through a collection of personal stories. |
| Amare Gio PontiDirected by Francesca Molteni 2015 / 34 min / Italy / US Premiere A
picture of the man, the architect, aspiring painter and Italian
designer who, over 50 years, has tried it all with untiring energy— from
the design of a handle to the formulation of a town plan. “Architecture
is an interpretation of life”, he wrote. A popularizer of the modern
who ran the risk of indifference and being completely forgotten. Sept 29 @ 7:15 with Q&A Tickets & Oct 1 @ 3:00 Tickets
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| BowlingtreffDirected by Thomas Beyer and Adrian Dorschner
2015 / 60 min / Germany / US Premiere Bowlingtreff
tells the story of the first bowling alley in the city of Leipzig and
an architectural portrait of one the only postmodern buildings in former
East Germany. Postmodernism icon and 2016 AIA Gold Medal winner
Architect Denise Scott Brown evaluates Bowlingtreff
as a remarkable sign of the time anticipating the Zeitgeist of 1989
when people had the bravery to claim freedom through peaceful revolution
started in Leipzig. |
| Design that HealsDirected by Thatcher Bean Can a building help stem the tide of large epidemics? Haitian infectious disease specialist Dr. Jean-William Pape
has dedicated much of his life to combating diseases . In the midst of the world’s worst cholera outbreak
in over a century, Dr. Pape
challenged MASS Design Group to design a cholera treatment center where
the construction process, as well as the finished building, could
address the underlying structural and social conditions. |
| Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who
Saw the Future
68 min / 2016 / USA
Directed by Peter Rosen
ADFF
will kick off this
year's festival with Eero Saarinen: The Architect Who Saw
the Future, a film
that examines the life and work of Finnish-American
architectural giant Eero Saarinen. The film follows Director
of Photography Eric Saarinen on a cathartic journey as he
visits his father's visionary buildings from the St. Louis Gateway Arch to the
TWA Flight Center. |
| Facing Up to MackintoshDirected by Louise Lockwood 2014 / 60 min / UK / US Premiere Charles Rennie Mackintosh's design for The Glasgow School of Art is renowned worldwide. New York-based Steven Holl Architects was given the daunting task of creating a new building to sit opposite Mackintosh's masterpiece. Facing up to Mackintosh was completed just weeks before a tragic fire destroyed parts of the Mackintosh building including the iconic library, which was the inspiration for the Reid Building. 29 @ 7:00 & Special AIA Screening RSVP & Saturday Oct 1 @ 6:00 RSVP |
| Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall Directed by Tom Piper
2016 / 70 min / USA / Sneak Preview Piet Oudolf,
the most influential garden designer in a generation, has radically
redefined what gardens can be, moving them well into the realm of art.
This immersive documentary gives viewers a rare and poetic look at the
creative process of this revolutionary figure, including intimate
discussions across all fours seasons in his own private garden, and on
visits to his signature public works in New York, Chicago, and the
Netherlands, as well as to the far-flung locations that inspire his
genius, including desert wildflowers in West Texas and post-industrial
forests in Pennsylvania. Threaded throughout the film, Oudolf designs, installs and then opens a major new garden at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, a work Piet himself calls his best yet.
Sunday Oct 2 @ 6:15 with Q&A Tickets |
| Pedro E. Guerrero: A Photographer’s Journey The remarkable life and work of Pedro E. Guerrero (September 5, 1917—September 13, 2012), a Mexican American, born and raised in segregated Mesa, Arizona, who had an extraordinary international photography career. The film explores his collaborations with three of the most iconic American artists of the 20th century: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Sculptors Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson. Using his outsider’s eye to produce insightful portraits of important modernist architecture, Guerrero became one of the most sought-after photographers of the “Mad Men” era, yet his poignant story is largely unknown. This film is a special co-presentation of VOCES and American Masters. Sept 29 @ 7:15 with Q&A Tickets & Oct 1 @ 3:00 with Q&A Tickets
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| Peter Behrens - A Pioneer in Architecture Directed by Alexander Lorenz 2015 / 33 min / Germany / NY Premiere Peter
Behrens was a versatile universal artist at the beginning of the 20th
century, who was successful as a painter, architect, product designer
and a pioneer for the development of New Objectivity and the emergence
of world-famous Bauhaus movement. Although self-taught, he became one of
the most important representatives of industrial architecture during
that time. The film portrays Behrens' development from the ornamentation
of art nouveau to the objectivity of industrial architecture and shows
many innovative creations and future-oriented approaches.
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| Some Kind of Joy: The Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings Directed by Sam Hobkinson Some Kind of Joy: The Inside Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings, directed by Sam Hobkinson, revisits key projects from Grimshaw Architects, From Sir Nicholas Grimshaw’s
first scheme in 1967 through Bath Spa, Southern Cross Station, Eden
Project and Fulton Center, we hear first-hand from the people who bring
these buildings to life, and show the inspiration, design, and
occasional trials and tribulations of delivering out-of-the-ordinary
buildings.
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| Talking House: Eileen Gray & Jean Badovici Directed by Elizabeth Lennard 2016 / 44 min / France-USA
Panel to follow with Juliet Kinchin, Curator of
Modern Design at MoMA, Elle Decor's Joseph Giovannini, and Artist/Director
Elizabeth Lennard.
Talking House is a
44-minute montage of Villa E-1027, the iconic modernist villa built by Eileen
Gray and Jean Badovici on the Cote d’Azur in 1929. Filmed today, and using
Eileen Gray’s 1929 photographs of the villa and recently restored Le Corbusier
film footage, the camera takes us through E-1027 as the couple talks and argues
off screen about the design philosophy behind the breakthrough layout,
interiors and furniture. Heated correspondence between Corbu (Le Corbusier) and
Bado (Badovici) adds a bit of controversy over the later addition of Corbu’s
wall paintings.
Friday Sept 30 @ 6:45 with Q&A Tickets
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| The Architects: A Story of Loss, Memory and Real Estate 2016 / 70 min / USA / Sneak Preview Director Tom Jennings' new film The Architects: A Story of Loss, Memory and Real Estate
follows the international competition to rebuild the site of The World
Trade Center after 9/11. Focused on the unrealized design proposal from
United Architects, the film sheds light on the importance of this public
competition, delicately considering the site’s history, symbolism and
future. United Architects was a collaboration between Greg Lynn of Greg
Lynn FORM, Kevin Kennon of Kevin Kennon Architects, Ben van Berkel of UNStudio, Peter Frankfurt of Imaginary Forces, Jesse Reiser & Nanako Umemoto of Reiser+Umemoto Architects, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo & Farshid Moussavi of Foreign Office Architects.
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| The Happy Film Directed by Stefan Sagmeister, Ben Nabors and Hilman Curtis 2016 / 95 min / USA
Q&A with Stefan Sagmeister and Ben Nabors
Austrian Graphic Designer Stefan Sagmeister
is doing well. He lives in New York, the city of his dreams, and he has
success in his work, designing album covers for the Rolling Stones,
Jay-Z and Talking Heads. But in the back of his mind he suspects there
must be something more. He decides to turn himself into a design
project. Can he redesign his personality to become a better person? Is
it possible to train his mind to get happier? He pursues three
controlled experiments of meditation, therapy and drugs, grading himself
along the way. But real life creeps in and confounds the process: art,
sex, love and death prove impossible to disentangle. His unique designs
and painfully personal experiences mark a journey that travels closer to
himself than ever intended.
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| The Novgorod Spaceship 2015/ 46 min / USA / US Premiere Like an abandoned alien spaceship, the building of Dostoevsky's Drama Theater stands on the bank of the Volkhov River, only a kilometer away from the walls of famous Novgorod Kremlin. An architecture freak, unloved and uncared for, it sails high above the comforting provinciality of Novgorod the Great.
Erected during the final years of Soviet rule, this remarkable example
of modernist architecture has, for many decades, continued to mock the
ancient heritage of the city, as well as the mediocre tastes of its
populace.
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| The Storyteller. After Walter BenjaminDirected by Nathaniel Knop 2016 / 61 min / Germany / World Premiere Storytelling
is a way of sharing experiences. Walter Benjamin expressed the
vanishing of the verbal form of storytelling in his 1936 essay, The
Storyteller. Still, the desire to exchange experiences exists. This film
investigates the visual form of storytelling in today's society.
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| Where Architects Live Directed by Francesca Molteni 2014 / 78 min / Italy / US Premiere Where Architects Live gives an intriguing insight into the daily lives of some of the world’s leading designers: Shigeru Ban, Mario Bellini, David Chipperfield, Massimiliano And Doriana Fuksas, Zaha Hadid, Marcio Kogan, Daniel Libeskind and Bijoy Jain/Studio Mumbai. The film intimately reveals the homes of these eight architects, broadening visions of domestic architecture and interior design, and suggesting that this discipline is most suited to evolution and experimentation.
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| Windshield : A Vanished Memory 2016 / 46 min / USA / NY Premiere Windshield: A Vanished Vision
lands us in the 1930’s to reveal an intimate portrait of a patrician
couple, a leading modern architect, and the story of the ill-fated house
they create. John Nicholas Brown's fascination with modernism,
innovation and the rapidly-evolving American building scene spurs him to
commission what he hopes will be a “distinguished monument in the
history of architecture.” Brown and his wife Anne select the young and ambitious Richard Neutra
to build them a house that they name “Windshield.” Then, just weeks after the Browns move in, tragedy
strikes. Windshield: A Vanished Vision explores the pivotal impact of the house on Neutra’s
career and takes us on a journey with a couple caught between the
values of their upbringings and their evolving social ideals.
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| Workplace 2016 / 77 min / USA / US Premiere Workplace is
a documentary about the past, present and future of the
office. Hundreds of millions of human beings spend billions of hours in
offices every day. How can we make them better places for people to work
and collaborate? What’s the next wave of digital tools to connect the
office, the city and the planet? How has the office evolved over the
last 100 years? And do we even need offices anymore? Filmmaker Gary Hustwit (Helvetica, Objectified, Urbanized)
follows the design and construction of the New York headquarters of
R/GA, Workplace is a look at the thinking and experimentation involved in trying to create the next evolution of what the office could be.
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| YarnMeet
the artists who are redefining the tradition of knit and crochet,
bringing yarn out of the house and into the world. Reinventing our
relationship with this colorful tradition, YARN
weaves together wool graffiti artists, circus performers and structural
designers into a visually striking look at the women who are making a
creative stance .
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