“Architecture reflects who we are,” Mina Chow says in her new documentary, Face of a Nation, which premiers at Washington D.C.’s inaugural Architecture & Design Film Festival this week. The film, which makes connections between world fair architecture and national identity, examines the implications of the United States’ waning role in international expositions.
For Chow, who is an architect, the film is in many ways a personal investigation. Having been inspired to practice by photographs of her immigrant parents in front of the grand Unisphere at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Chow posits that, historically, the United States has seized expos as opportunities to showcase technological prowess and artistic talent. She asserts that through these architectural displays, the international scene had come to view the U.S. as a land of hopeful opportunity.
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