Lovely Villa explores the relationship between architecture, everyday life, family, desire and the idea of ‘home’. Director Rohan Shivkumar grew up in the titular apartment block, located in Borivali —an affluent coastal suburb of Mumbai. The building was designed by Charles Correa to house different communities within one edifice, as an articulation of the ideal environment for the Indian middle classes. Rohan, whose parents lived in the colony for over 40 years, explores its architecture with the aid of found materials, including old photographs and drawings, as well as personal narratives both factual and semi-fictional.
Lovely Villa explores the relationship between architecture, everyday life, family, desire and the idea of ‘home’. Director Rohan Shivkumar grew up in the titular apartment block, located in Borivali —an affluent coastal suburb of Mumbai. The building was designed by Charles Correa to house different communities within one edifice, as an articulation of the ideal environment for the Indian middle classes. Rohan, whose parents lived in the colony for over 40 years, explores its architecture with the aid of found materials, including old photographs and drawings, as well as personal narratives both factual and semi-fictional.
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Comprising new and archival footage, this film observes rituals performed by the South Asian, African, and Caribbean diaspora in Britain, demonstrating an appreciation of land, community values, and the universe we share with other species and planets.
A lonely doctor who once occupied an unusual lakeside home begins exchanging love letters with its former resident, a frustrated architect. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.
In 1967, de Andrade was invited by the Italian company Olivetti to produce a documentary on the new Brazilian capital city of Brasília. Constructed during the latter half of the 1950s and founded in 1960, the city was part of an effort to populate Brazil’s vast interior region and was to be the embodiment of democratic urban planning, free from the class divisions and inequalities that characterize so many metropolises. Unsurprisingly, Brasília, Contradições de uma Cidade Nova (Brasília, Contradictions of a New City, 1968) revealed Brasília to be utopic only for the wealthy, replicating the same social problems present in every Brazilian city. (Senses of Cinema)
A film essay investigating the question of what “the West” means beyond the cardinal direction: a model of society inscribed itself in the Federal Republic of Germany’s postwar history and architecture. The narrator shifts among reflections on modern architecture and property relations, detailed scenes from childhood, and a passed-down memory of a “hemmed-in West Germany,” recalling the years of her parents’ membership in a 1970s communist splinter group.
Between two Thanksgivings, Hannah's husband falls in love with her sister Lee, while her hypochondriac ex-husband rekindles his relationship with her sister Holly.
An intimate portrait of Christopher Alexander, a critic of modern architecture on a lifelong quest to build harmonious, livable places in today’s world. The film tells the story of two projects – a spectacular high school in Japan and an innovative homeless shelter in California. For Alexander, feelings come first, users are deeply engaged and process is paramount. We discover what happens when an architect’s unconventional method collides with standard practices in his profession.
What started as a simple tomb became over a 2,000 years history the universal seat of Christendom and is today one of the most visited museum in the world with invaluable collections of Arts, Manuscripts, Maps. Using spectacular 3D modelisation and CGI to give viewers as never before a true understanding of the history of this architectural masterpiece and its extensions, the film will also use animation to tell relevant historical events. This heritage site reveals new untold secrets with the help of historians deciphering the Vatican’s rich archives and manuscripts collection and following the restorations at work (newly discovered frescoes by Raphael) and recent excavations. A story where Religion, Politics, Arts and Science meet to assert religious authority and serve as a spiritual benchmark.
An old hostel, located in the center of Porto, served for many years as a hostel for people with few possessions, prostitutes and people passing through who made that place a more or less prolonged residence.
Vladimir 518, uncompromising rapper, artist, stage designer and activist, is a rare phenomenon, who not only writes books, but publishes them as well. Today also a respected authority primarily on pre-1989 architecture, he has written not only a major publication on the subject, but also the story for two audiovisual works treating the same theme, which were shot by Jan Zajíček, renowned director of music videos. In addition to the recent TV series we have the eagerly anticipated feature-length film which, through its fascinating and impressive exploration of Czech and Slovak architecture of the latter half of the 20th century, offers exclusive insight into extraordinary buildings and unique individuals living below the Tatra Mountains. Karel Och (kviff.com)
Ernst Hiesmayr, Walter Pichler, Ella Briggs, Margaret Schütte-Lihotzky, Helene Koller-Buchwieser, Oskar Strnad, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Christopher Alexander
In the same vein as Meri's other documentations, this one takes advantage of the glasnost policy to discuss the social and ecologic impact of the Russian oil industry on the natives and the lands they inhabit.
Life for the residents of a tower block begins to run out of control.
What’s it like to dedicate your life to work that won’t be completed in your lifetime? Fifteen years ago, filmmaker David Licata focused on four projects and the people behind them in an effort to answer this universal question.
Combining real footage, archival footage, fiction and 3D modeling, this unseen documentary traces the history of this spectacular and unfinished work.
La Sagrada Familia – although still under construction in Barcelona – is a cathedral without any flaws. Almost 100 years after his death, experts are convinced that Gaudi was a mathematical genius and that each embellishing ornament of the Sagrada Familia actually serves an architectural purpose.
Best known for designing National Historic Landmarks such as St. Louis’ iconic Gateway Arch and the General Motors Technical Center, Saarinen also designed New York’s TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Yale University’s Ingalls Rink and Morse and Ezra Stiles Colleges, Virginia’s Dulles Airport, and modernist pedestal furniture like the Tulip chair.
Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary The People of the Kattawapiskak River exposes the housing crisis faced by 1,700 Cree in Northern Ontario, a situation that led Attawapiskat’s band chief, Theresa Spence, to ask the Canadian Red Cross for help. With the Idle No More movement making front page headlines, this film provides background and context for one aspect of the growing crisis.
A documentary about the 1968 explosion in the residential Ronan Point tower in East London. The building had only been opened for several weeks when a gas explosion led to a partial collapse of the upper floors of the structure. It was later deemed to have been built in an unsafe fashion. Voices of those involved are heard in the film.