2017 Architecture & Design Film Festival’s Lineup Plays with Tradition and Form
A still from the Rem Koolhaus documentary, REM, directed by his son Tomas.
Photo © Tomas Koolhaus
The film Building Hope: The Maggie’s Centres, by Sarah Howitt, portrays how one woman’s cancer diagnosis sparked the transformation of treatment centers. The Frank Gehry-designed Maggie’s Centre in Dundee, Scotland, is among the projects featured in the film.
Photo courtesy ADFF
The festival opens with the documentary, Glenn Murcutt: Spirit of Place, which explores the life and work of Australia’s most internationally recognized architect, pictured here on the roof of his Australian Islamic Centre in Melbourne.
Photo © Jesse Marlow/Fairfax
SuperDesign, a new documentary by Francesca Molteni, retraces the history and heritage of Italian Radical Design, which rose to prominence in the 1960s and 1970s. The Superonda sofa, pictured here, was designed by Archizoom Associati and is an enduring symbol of the movement.
Photo © Dario Bartolini, courtesy of Centro Studi Poltronova
Actors Haley Lu Richardson and John Cho star in Koganada’s debut film, Columbus. The film will be the festival’s first screening of a narrative film.
Photo © Elisha Christian/Superlative Films/Depth of Field
The largest film festival in the U.S. devoted to architecture and design, the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) has announced the 30 films selected for screening at this year’s New York event.
Kicking off with an exploration of Australian Pritzker Prize–winner Glenn Murcutt’s “most ambitious project to date,” the 2017 lineup is peppered with big names and a notable break in tradition: the screening of debut director Kogonada’s Columbus will be the first fictional film shown at the festival.
Hotly anticipated documentaries include intimate portraits of Pritzker Prize–winner Rem Koolhaas in REM, which was made by the architect’s son Tomas; and of Belgian fashion designer Dries Van Noten, who allowed filmmaker Reiner Holzemer to shoot him at work and at home for a year for Dries.
The festival serves as launch pad for films including Francesca Molteni’s new documentary SUPERDESIGN, which promises to transport viewers into the “positive turbulence” of the Italian Radical Movement in the 1960s and 70s through a blend of in-depth interviews and archival historical images.
Others screening for the first time in front of a U.S. audience include Henrique Pina’s feature-length look at Aires Mateus in Aires Mateus: Matter in Reverse, and Sarah Howitt’s portrayal of how one woman’s cancer diagnosis sparked the transformation of treatment centers in Building Hope: The Maggie’s Centres.
Films tackling contemporary issues such as housing solutions for homeless populations, the relationship between drones and architecture, and four dancers’ quest for answers in a Bjarke Ingels Group building will also play out on the big screen.
The Architecture & Design Film Festival runs from November 1–5, 2017 at Cinépolis Chelsea in New York. Tickets go on sale next week.
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