
The story of the gigantic apartment complexes, known as Bloki, built in Poland under communist rule. These reviled blocks were home to thousands of people. The architects of these buildings talk about how the blocks came about, while residents explain how they shaped their lives. The government set the architects a clear task, but they did not always submit without signs of frustration. A wonderful story about a past that, despite the depressing Bloki, is not reviled by everyone.
0.0Under Dorchester Square in Montreal lies the cemetery where 55,000 people were buried in the 19th century. The square is still at the heart of social conflicts in Quebec, 150 years later.
0.0A short documentary that takes a look at Pratt Institute's Architecture program and how the first years handle the rigorous workload.
5.6Gaudi's Sagrada Familia has been continuously under construction since 1882.
0.0Ladies of good families and social standing come to have their afternoon tea with their daughters who will someday follow in the same tradition. A charming portrait of a time that is slowly disappearing.
7.3Behind the iconic Eiffel Tower lies the story of an incredible challenge to erect a thousand-foot tower that went far beyond a design competition, and marked a major turning point in engineering history. It was the beginning of radical transformation where iron was pitted against stone, engineering against architecture, and modern design against ancients. Press campaigns, lobbying, public conferences, denigration of opposing projects, bragging about big names - all participants engaged in a fierce battle without concession. Using 3D recreations, official sources (reports, letters, drawings...) and intimate archives obtained from their descendants, this film will bring to life this vertical race through a fresh and visual way to mark the centenary of Eiffel death.
0.0Sonia Guggisberg presents the documentary Subsolo, about the work interrupted in the 1970s below Avenida Paulista.
10.0Making a documentary on Le Corbusier is not easy, because he is undoubtedly the architect most familiar to the general public but also the most unknown. If most people know his great achievements, such as the Cité radieuse of Marseille, the pavilions of the Cité universitaire de Paris or the Tourettes convent, many are unaware of his works in Moscow, Rio de Janeiro or Chandigarh. Roy Oppenheim pays a vibrant tribute to Corbusier, dismissing the criticisms and darker facets of the character. It presents the career of this pioneering architect, as well as his thinking, the essential principle of which was aimed at the development of human beings and the balance of society. Light, space and greenery are integrated into his large futuristic cities, because according to him the eyes of the inhabitants should be drawn into the distance and not into their neighbor's bathroom.
0.0Viva El Vedado presents the history of the Havana neighborhood of El Vedado from the last quarter of the 19th century through the Cuban Revolution and highlights its varied and outstanding architecture. Known as a cultural center of Havana, Vedado is particularly notable for its unique collection of Cuban architecture of the 20th century. The film’s goal is to introduce its audiences to the neighborhood’s remarkable architecture, its vibrant life, and the need for preserving Vedado as part of Havana’s heritage. It is a glimpse beyond tourist fantasies and stereotypes, a rare view of one of Havana’s most important neighborhoods.
0.0Coventry prepares to rise from the ashes of WWII in this docu-drama written by Dylan Thomas.
6.3A look at how mall producers design malls in order to maximise traffic and sales.
6.4An extraordinary journey through the material that makes up our habitat: concrete and its ancestor, stone. Victor Kossakovsky raises a fundamental question: how do we inhabit the world of tomorrow?
0.0Immigrant workers build a shopping mall for the upcoming 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. In 2016, nine people with migrant backgrounds are killed in a racist attack at the same mall.
6.5Having previously investigated the architecture of Hitler and Stalin's regimes, Jonathan Meades turns his attention to another notorious 20th-century European dictator, Mussolini. His travels take him to Rome, Milan, Genoa, the new town of Sabaudia and the vast military memorials of Redipuglia and Monte Grappa. When it comes to the buildings of the fascist era, Meades discovers a dictator who couldn't dictate, with Mussolini caught between the contending forces of modernism and a revivalism that harked back to ancient Rome. The result was a variety of styles that still influence architecture today. Along the way, Meades ponders on the nature of fascism, the influence of the Futurists, and Mussolini's love of a fancy uniform.
0.0Accentuating the effects of space, light and structure, glass has become an architectural staple that encourages transparency and visibility throughout a variety of landscapes. After its role in the last century's call to a radical new architecture and urban life, glass architecture is today more ubiquitous than ever.
6.5In 2015, in Damascus, the Basateen al-Razi district and its orchards were razed to the ground as punishment for the population's uprising against the regime. Having lost everything, two former residents recall their neighborhood.
7.0A fictional letter from a daughter, Olivia, to her mother in Dominica is the narrative thread connecting interviews from (predominantly) black and Asian cultural critics, historians and journalists. The choice of occupation for the daughter, a researcher, perhaps strains the narrative conceit too far. Nevertheless, for an avowedly political documentary the result is absorbing.
6.3The testimony of an artist who continues to believe in the socialist ideal. The story of a man who loves women.
0.0Finding their place between the forest and the sea, the Japanese have always felt awe and gratitude toward Nature. Since ancient times, they have negotiated their own unique relationship with their natural surroundings. Acclaimed photographer Masa-aki Miyazawa discovered the essence of that ancient way of living in Ise Jingu, Japan’s holiest Shinto shrine. Inspired by the idea of sending a message to the future in the same way this ancient shrine keeps alive the traditions of the past, Miyazawa used an ultra-high resolution 4K camera to create a breathtaking visual journey linking the Ise forest with other forests throughout Japan.
