Richard Meier

Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs(en)

Southern California’s Coachella Valley, including the communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, boasts hundreds of extraordinary midcentury modern homes, public buildings and commercial structures. Modern designers such as William F. Cody, Albert Frey, William Krisel, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams left their collective mark on this desert paradise. Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs traces the history of modern architecture in Palm Springs from the first bold forays into modernist design to the preservation challenges facing the region today. Director Jake Gorst’s film features rare archival images and footage as well as interviews with historians, homeowners and the architects who helped create this mecca of modernism.

The Infinite Happiness(en)

Copenhagen’s “8 House,” an ultramodern loop of apartments created by architect Bjarke Ingels, reinvents the concept of “home.” Its 500 residents can traverse all nine floors by bike while their kids attend kindergarten on the ground floor. This exuberant documentary profiles the (mostly) happy residents, including a group of children who experience the best scavenger hunt ever, offering a hopeful, inspired picture of communal living by design.

Concrete Forms of Resistance(en)

Filmed in Tripoli, Lebanon, Concrete Forms of Resistance is a documentary centred upon the city’s abandoned ‘Permanent International Fair’, designed by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer in the mid-1960s. Progress and crisis, labour and capital, material and memory, are reflected through a very intelligent rhyme between image and sound. The touching voice and words of Niemeyer as a call for life, and the beautiful camerawork as a weaving of ghosts in the present landscapes.

Strange and Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island(en)

Architect Todd Saunders’s buildings on Fogo Island, Newfoundland embrace the excitement of being on the edge of nature and contemporary design while fulfilling the goal of doing ‘new things with old ways’. Saunders and commissioner, Zita Cobb, provide a personal account of the ideas and traditions that inspire this bold and socially ambitious architectural venture. Gorgeously photographed over the Island’s seven seasons, the film is a flowing, visual narrative that unfolds over time as the principal stage of the project, the Fogo Island Inn, approaches completion.

Miz Cracker's Favorite Haunts(en)

World-renowned Drag Queen Miz Cracker helps a Texas family that’s experiencing strange occurrences after renovating their 1892 home. As a lover of the paranormal, can Miz Cracker solve their ghost problem and help them coexist peacefully with the spirits?

How Do We Live Healthily and Economically?(de)

Nine part documentary series on the advantages of the Neues Bauen architectural movement, particularly in addressing housing shortages.

The Importance of Being an Architect(it)

A documentary film conceived as a virtual dialogue and musical journey in four acts, which investigates the responsibility of architects in building the society of tomorrow.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh: A Modern Man(en)

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, architect, designer and artist is celebrated around the world as one of the most significant talents to have emerged in the period from the mid 1890s to the late 1920s. He was one of the greatest, most original talents of this time and has been judged a precursor of firstly the modernist style and subsequently of the Art Deco movement. His legacy lives on all around us in his instantly recognisable style. A MODERN MAN takes a critical look at Mackintosh’s life and artistic career and the importance of the friends and patrons who provided him with regular work when it mattered most.

Mackintosh: Glasgow's Neglected Genius(en)

The film examines Mackintosh's iconic buildings, notably the Glasgow School of Art. Interwoven with his architecture, design and watercolours is the personal story of Mackintosh. Little known at home, his work found favour on the continent. In later years he struggled for work, and came to endure real poverty, but continued to create remarkable pieces of art.

Silver Memories(en)

Heralded as a palace among minor and major league baseball stadiums, Silver Stadium set a standard of excellence from opening day. From May 1929 through the 1990s Silver Stadium served as home to Rochester's historic baseball team, The Rochester Red Wings, as well as many other sporting teams. When not being used as a baseball stadium, the space served as center stage for a variety of traveling acts. Hear from the people closest to the history of this magnificent facility as they take you on a journey through The Memories of Silver.

Le bled (Buildings in a Field)(en)

A collaboration between Jem Cohen with writer Luc Sante made in Tangier, Morocco, a city where neither of us had ever been. En route from the airport to the city center, we found ourselves amazed by the landscape outside of the car windows; a massive construction project under way in all directions. While not in itself unusual, we were by struck dumb by the epic scale and seemingly incomprehensible plan of the development and were drawn to return together to this puzzling zone. This project was commissioned by TAMAAS, a small foundation based in Paris, as part of their Tangier project, The 8.

Building the Gherkin(en)

Can a single building impact the career of an architect, the image of a global company and even the skyline of a big city? Just a month and a day after the disastrous attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the first steel beam of a new tower is erected in London. One question is on everybody’s mind: is it the right decision to build a new iconic tower in the midst of London’s financial district, on a site that has already been bombed before? The 40-storey steel and glass tower sparks further controversy. Norman Foster, one of Britain’s most visionary architects, calls his design for the new Swiss Re London headquarters ‘radial – socially, technically, architecturally and spatially’. In fact, its size and shape are so radical that it is almost immediately nicknamed ‘the erotic gherkin’. Will the Gherkin become the landmark they all dream of?

Naissance d'un hôpital(fr)

Fernand Pouillon: France's Most Wanted Architect(fr)

The work of Fernand Pouillon, "France's most wanted" architect after being imprisoned and mysteriously escaping in the 1960s, now seems to have faded into the background. However, in 50 years he has built more than 5 million square meters, mainly between France and Algeria, at a frantic pace, traveling tens of thousands of kilometers per week, by propeller plane, to go to construction sites. at night or at dawn between Marseille, Paris, Algiers or in the middle of the desert, until you burn your wings. Among others, Fernand Pouillon decided to build houses for the most modest.

Fernand Pouillon, Une architecture habitée(fr)

In this documentary, Marie-Claire Rubinstein reveals to us, through the testimonies of the inhabitants who live there, the architectural achievements of the French urban planner Fernand Pouillon in Algiers. In particular the vast complexes of hundreds of social housing units, including the most famous Diar E Saâd (1953), Diar El Mahçoul (1954) and Climat de France (1957). The historical context, during the war of independence is related by the historian Benjamin Stora and Nadir Boumaza. This documentary also evokes the personality of Fernand Pouillon in a post-colonial context.

La Grande Dame(fr)

This film is an in-camera portrait of the place Ville Marie Royal Bank Building in Montréal.

Chairs for Lovers(en)

Architect Stanley King involves the local Vancouver community in urban design.

Vzácný klenot města Prahy(cs)

Vilanova Artigas: The Architect and the Light(pt)

The documentary rebuilds the life of the Brazilian architect João Batista Vilanova Artigas. His relatives, friends, students and six of his major works tell the history of this iconic Latin-American modernist.

A Very English Genius(en)

The work and unexplained death of Michael Ventris, the English architect, classicist, and philologist who deciphered the ancient Mycenaean Greek script Linear B, are portrayed.