Many Words for Modern

The Real Thing(fr)

A smaller scale Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Elysées can be found just outside Shanghai; a copy of St. Peter’s in Rome can be found in Yamoussoukro, in the Ivory Coast: a journey over three continents to see the architecture of imitation, the uncanny world of the fake.

Le Corbusier(fr)

Making 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.

Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm(en)

"What we were trying to do was the ultimate form of architecture, which was predicting how society would use space, land and time." Curtis Schreier, ANT FARM Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm is the first film to consider the work of the renegade 1970s art/architecture collective Ant Farm, best known for its iconic land-art piece Cadillac Ranch. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive multidisciplinary work that questioned the boundaries of architecture and everything else in the process. Incorporating breathtaking archival video, new footage shot over ten years and animation based on zany period sketches, this film is about the joy of creation in a time when there were no limits. —Beth Federici

Mamani in El Alto(de)

His buildings are garish, colorful and completely overloaded. Columns and glittering chandeliers everywhere, and way too much of everything. The Bolivian civil engineer and architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre (*1971) builds houses in El Alto for a nouveau riche upper class of the Aymara, the largest indigenous ethnic group in Bolivia.

Talking Architecture, City: Hall(ko)

A documentary film about Seoul City Hall Construction. The construction project has a hard going in every way. A city plan, excessive administrative notions, a design and all got mingled up. Can the project sail, yes?

New Towns for Old(en)

Sheffield stands in as 'Smokedale', an industrial Everytown, in this stirring call for "new schools, new hospitals, new roads, new life", after WWII.

A City Reborn(en)

Coventry prepares to rise from the ashes of WWII in this docu-drama written by Dylan Thomas.

Bâtir(fr)

After filming the construction site of the Berlitz Palace (2nd), Pierre Chenal shows us in contrast other contemporary architectural achievements which, using the same technical processes, do not sacrifice the structure of iron and concrete for decoration. A documentary to the glory of the modern designs of Mallet-Stevens and Le Corbusier.

The Arch(en)

A modern explorer leads us on a global journey to discover how nine of the world's greatest architects are shaping our future.

The Architects(en)

Amie Siegel’s film installations often reveal the hidden narratives behind architecture and design, investigating the mechanisms by which objects, materials, and spaces accrue meaning and value. The Architects examines the processes of architectural creation, using the artist’s signature slow, parallel tracking shots to offer insight into the inner workings of multiple architecture firms, slicing through them laterally like an architect’s section plan... Siegel not only punctures the myth of the singular “master architect” but also poses questions around creative autonomy, the sociopolitics of labor, and the circulation of capital. (Source: MoMA)

O Arquitecto e a Cidade Velha(pt)

A documentary about Álvaro Siza Vieira in Cape Verde and his project to restore the old town of Ribeira Grande, the first city to be built by the Portuguese in Cape Verde on the island of Santiago in 1462.

Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move(en)

With the participation of famed architects such as Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind and Zaha Hadid, Peter Eisenman: Making Architecture Move provides an intimate look into the work of the daring and controversial creator. Filmed in the U.S. and Germany, Eisenman takes the viewer through several of his buildings, including the Wexner Center in Columbus, Ohio, while explaining his upcoming projects such as the Rebstockpark community in Frankfurt and the Max Reinhardt monument in Berlin. His predecessors and contemporaries offer praise and commentary on Eisenman's complex body of work including their own thoughts and theories surrounding his unique style.

Wings Over the Serengeti(en)

Any unlucky carcass is dispatched in a matter of minutes by a feeding frenzy that attracts jackals and hyenas along with vultures. Scavenging insects swarm over the remaining bones and horns. While this film focuses primarily on the griffin vulture (“nature’s undertaker”), it considers the role of all scavengers in this harsh ecosystem. Generally despised as harbingers of death, they actually help maintain the health of the savannah by disposing of waste and returning nutrients to the soil.

Serengeti Symphony(en)

Serengeti Symphony is a breathtaking look at the astounding landscape and exotic animals that make up the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. The film accounts the daily lives and intricacies of animals such as giraffe, flamingos, leopards and cheetahs, each vivid scene flawlessly paired with a musical score written by Laurens van Rooyen. Serengeti Symphony brings the beauty of Africa to life like never before, with close up colourful images of the terrain and unimaginable glimpses of the wildlife, allowing the true character of the landscape, and the grace and spirit of every animal, to shine through.

Tapavica(sr)

A story about the first Serbian Olympian who won bronze medal at the first Olympic games in 1896, also a world class architect.

Secrets of the Parthenon(en)

For 25 centuries the Parthenon has been shot at, set on fire, rocked by earthquakes, looted for its sculptures, and disfigured by catastrophic renovations. To save it from collapse, the modern restoration team must uncover the secrets of how the ancient Greeks built this icon of western civilization in less than nine years without anything resembling an architectural plan.

The New Apartment(de)

A commissioned film for Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB), Die neue Wohnung was produced for the Basel architectural and interior design exhibition, WOBA, to demonstrate innovative aspects of modern architecture and highlight their differences from the event’s highly conservative approach. Despite its ad campaign roots, Richter's touch is not absent; The surviving version, aimed at a "bourgeois" Swiss public, presents decluttered, functional architecture and decor as superior to the traditional and luxurious "ancient" ways of living.

Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud(en)

Filmmakers Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon profile Richard Buckminster Fuller, architect and inventor of the geodesic dome.

Ekodomy aneb Život v rovnováze(cs)

Diller Scofidio + Renfro: Reimagining Lincoln Center and the High Line(en)

Diller Scofidio + Renfro has long been at the forefront of design with provocative exhibitions that blurred the boundaries between art and architecture. This film captures their extraordinary evolution and unique process in reimagining the public identities of Lincoln Center and the once derelict High Line railroad tracks.