Thematic press release professional public
August 2009
Never before could the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR) choose from
such a wide variety of films, documentaries and shorts as today, all of them
beautiful and relevant to architects and city lovers. The grinding halt of the
economy and building business doesn't only double unemployed architects, it
apparently also creates space for critical reflections and elegant documentaries.
The AFFR shows the latest and the best films and shorts in the field of
architecture and city development.
This year, the programmers of the film festival choose to sketch the gap between
stagnation and progress and between the imaginary world of film or utopia and
the hard facts of building bussiness and urban practice. The festival shows this
gap on the basis of documentaries and discussions in the daily talkshow, but it
also shows the way in which contemporary filmmakers and architects are trying
to bridge that gap.
Jules and Jane
The brand for the visionary side is the European premiere of the documentary
Visual Acoustics (Erik Bricker, 2008) about the recently deceased architectural
photographer Julius Shulman. His photo "Final Cut" of the famous Case Study
House # 21 of Pierre Koenig is displayed on AFFR flyers this year. The pleasant
climate, rocky hills and the breathtaking desert landscape of California were the
inspiration for a new generation of modern architects in the twenties to
experiment with lightweight materials, modern techniques and often with
minimal resources. The photos of Shulman added something to the spirit of
heroism, romance and immortality. Ingredients on which the Hollywood film
industry was based. The modernist homes more than once served as the
backdrop for movies with bad guys in good architecture. One of them appears in
the classic film Sleeper (Woody Allen, 1973), a hilarious science fiction film set at
the beautiful Sculptured House by architect Charles Deaton.
At the other spectrum, this year is a another tribute: to Jane Jacobs, economist
and city activist in New York and Toronto, famous for her book Death and Life of
Great American Cities in 1962, in which she denounced the brutal city planning
from that time. The movie Urban Goddess (Sharon Bliss, 2008) focusses on the
legacy of Jane - she died in 2006 - because urban life can still be at odds with
urban design. The film is part of the Jane Jacobs week, organised in collaboration
with the SUN Publishers, the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam and
Trancity. Walks, talks and workshops take place as well.
Great planning disasters
There is quite often some stupidity going on in townplanning and the
implementation of projects, but rarely is it so well defined as in the
documentaries The Holyrood Files (Stuart Greig, 2005) and The New
Rijksmuseum (Oeke Hoogendijk, 2009). Both films were actually meant to be a
jubilant promotional film respectively of the new Scottish parliament and the
transformation of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum. But they grew out to be critical
reports of bureaucracy, political cowardness and total chaos at the building site.
The films play such an important role in the analysis and overview of the process,
that it raises the question whether the filmer is the director of the building
process, rather then the architect. The films are screened in advance to a debate
in the foyer.
Pre-and post-architecture
Debacles during planning are still nowhere to be seen in the animations of
Squint/Opera, the London based agency, the leading office in the field of
animated architecture presentations. The office employes both architects as
directors to deliver the best possible service in visualizing the urban narrative.
Architecture and scriptwriting are closely knit together. This pre-architectural
world finds its counterpart in the short films of Terence Gower and Niklas
Goldbach, showing the banal everyday life of outstanding architecture. Goldbach
filmed in the short film Gan Eden the ruins of the Dutch pavilion at the Hanover
Expo in 2000, which created a furore as being an efficient layering of landscapes.
While the architect leave the playing field, filmmakers, artists and other urban
adventurers enter the scene.
Shelter for the Soul
The economic and climatic crisis increase an interest in modest buildings with a
high added value. The AFFR hopes to be able to host the film Snakebit (Sam
Wainwright Douglas, in production) to be programmed as a European premiere.
The documentary shows the Rural Studio of the founding father Samual
Mockbee and the role it plays in the basic relationship between architect and
client. Mockbee sought 'shelter for the soul'. Rural Studio sends architecture
students each year from the academic into the jungle of the poor regions of
Alabama to get lessons in the 'classroom or the community'. With minimal
resources they build houses to the needs of citizens and co-create stunning
architectural and practical houses. Further details about screening data will
follow in October.
In the September issue of A10 New European Architecture, a special annex is
published on the AFFR, including interviews, articles and reviews of movies.
Mid-October, the complete program magazine will be available.
Note for the editors:
For more information about the AFFR or for images, please contact
Elsbeth Grievink ++31 6-48266077 / press@affr.nl.
www.affr.nl