A Filmmaker’s World
A series of fascinating documentaries about some of the world’s most renowned directors who created distinctive types of architecture and design for their film sets. In film, more than anywhere else, the set becomes an inseparable part of how filmmakers imagine worlds, characters and lifestyles.
With Fellinopolis (Silvia Giulietti, 2020), about how Studio 5 of Cinecitta became the universe where Fellini created his worlds; Jacques Tati, tombé de la lune (Jean-Baptiste Péretié, 2021) and his obsession with modernism and how he distilled that into the set for Playtime – an almost full-scale architecture production – which brought Tati fame, and almost made him bankrupt; and Being a Human Person (Fred Scott, 2022), in which Swedish author Roy Andersson makes his last film, which shows set design as a craft where even the smallest details matter.
Family Affairs
An architecture film seems to gain in intensity if it is made by family members or focuses on the personal relationships between people involved in the design process. With a long history of films in this category, AFFR 2022 proudly presents four fascinating new titles.
Crooked Lines of Beauty (Sven Blume, 2021), a warm story about a filmmaker discovering the amazing work of his grandfather, Swedish architect Carl Nyrén. The Restless Hungarian (Tom Weidlinger, 2021), a fascinating portrait of the filmmaker’s father, architect and engineer Paul Weidlinger, in which world history, secrets and disturbing family histories come together. Kanade (Karishma Rao & Vishwesh Shiva Prasad, 2021), the story of two architect brothers, Shankar and Navnath Kanade, and their works. A Gentle Pressure: Lode Janssens (Bertrand Lafontaine, 2022), an amazing account of a family building their own inflatable house in the Belgian woods.
Brutalist Legacies
Three buildings, each provoking local debate about its architectural, structural and social merits, warmly portrayed in three films that explore their fate: restoration or demolition.
Battleship Berlin (Nathan Eddy, 2021) covers the debate about demolishing or repurposing the famous Mäusebunker in Berlin, in an honest account of what is at stake for the owner, the architects and society, and with an introduction by Ludwig Heimbach. Paradise Lost, History in the Unmaking (Andy Howlet, 2021) examines the demolition of the Brutalist Birmingham Library and the political reasons behind it. Robin Hood Gardens (Adrian Dorschner & Thomas Beyer, 2022), world premiere of the film about the most famous of the three buildings: the celebrated, idealist housing complex by Peter and Alison Smithson (1972).
The Future of Food
In the face of climate change, soil degradation, unsustainable agriculture practices and disruptions to global supply chains, food insecurity is quickly becoming an increasingly urgent issue.
Presenting The Automat (Lisa Hurwitz, 2021) on the rise and fall of the Horn&Hardart restaurant chain in the USA, most famous for its Automats – still familiar to people in the Netherlands – with an introduction by culinary journalist Hiske Versprille; AFFR shorts programme The Future of Food with an introduction and four shorts on the crisis in agriculture and food production; Kadir van Lohuizen presents excerpts from his latest film and talks to Jord den Hollander.
The Rise of the Private Museum
Two remarkable new films that look at the growing impact of private art collections and private art museums. Since private collectors have larger acquisition budgets and faster decision-making processes than public art institutions, they are gradually becoming major influencers in what constitutes ‘high culture’, building on a long history of patronage but from a contemporary angle.
The Museum and The Millionaire (Olivier Lemaire, 2021) looks at Tadao Ando’s transformation of the Bourse de Commerce in Paris into a museum for the Pinault Collection, including a talk with Ninke Happel and Wim Pijbes. GES-2 (Nastia Korkia, 2021) is a fascinating film about the making of a museum by Renzo Piano in a former electricity station next to the Kremlin.