Architecture

Part 36 of Heinz Emigholz’s Photography and Beyond series, Ecce Mole juxtaposes two buildings by Alessandro Antonelli in Turin, 500 metres apart: the private Casa Scaccabarozzi (1840) and the monumental Mole Antonelliana (1889). Originally planned as a synagogue, the Mole became a symbol of national unity in Turin, now housing the National Museum of Cinema. A concise study of opposites—public and private, interior and exterior—Ecce Mole is the first of five short films commissioned for the Mole's 25th anniversary.

¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR!

When South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone learn that Casa Bonita (which was featured in a 2003 episode of the series) might close its doors for good, they attempt to preserve a crumbling piece of their childhood-and Denver history. With an ambitious summer 2023 opening date and the eyes of a nation upon them, Parker and Stone strive to see their vision through in this hilarious ode to the power of creativity and love of community.

PICTURES OF GHOSTS

A wondrous ode to movies and movie-going, Pictures of Ghosts, from acclaimed director Kleber Mendonca Filho (Bacurau, Aquarius, Neighboring Sounds), is a multidimensional journey through time, sound, architecture and filmmaking, set in the urban landscape of Recife, Brazil: a historical and human territory, examined through the great movie theatres that served as spaces of conviviality during the 20th century.

STONEBREAKERS

Stonebreakers chronicles the conflicts around monuments that arose in the United States during the George Floyd protests and the 2020 presidential election and continue to reverbate in towns and cities across the country. As statues of Columbus, Confederates and Founding Fathers fall from their pedestals and triumphalist myths are called into question, this film interrogates the link between history and political action in a nation that must confront its past now more urgently than ever.

BUNKER

An investigation into the increasing number of American men who have decided to live in decommissioned military bunkers and nuclear missile silos out of fear of an imminent breakdown of society and the destruction of the United States. Considering toxic American myths, including self-reliance, masculinity, home safety and security, and family life in a time of climate crisis, economic upheaval, and political strife, filmmaker Jenny Perlin journeys by herself into the middle of America to meet such men, and the builders and salesmen who cater to them.

UNDER TOMORROW'S SKY

Under Tomorrow's Sky follows renowned architect Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV, whose work argues for transforming cities with “high rises on a human scale,” stacked structural volumes with open spaces and greenery around them that feel like vertical villages. This inspiring documentary shows Maas’ influence on contemporary architecture, and examines how his designs are offering innovative solutions for the city of the future.

THE AMERICAN SECTOR

Universal Studios in Florida, a Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Museum of World Treasures in Kansas, and private homes in the Hollywood Hills are just some of the places that slabs of the Berlin wall have ended up on display. From coast to coast, The American Sector documents the present remnants of the wall’s architecture while evoking the past with home video footage, offering a new perspective on history, what we ascribe to it, and how easily it is scattered.

HAVANA, FROM ON HIGH

The chronic shortage of housing in Central Havana has pushed the city upwards forcing some to make their homes on building rooftops. This wondrous documentary tells the story of these remarkable and resilient rooftop dwellers - a secret village, hidden from the clamor of the streets below - who have a privileged point of view on a society in the process of major transformation.

DREAM OF A CITY

Between 1958 and 1960 Walter Hess and Manny Kirchheimer shot black and white 16mm film from Wall Street to midtown New York to the Delaware River. The footage was left unedited. Nearly 60 later, Kirchheimer took up the challenge of editing it, adding music and sound that would mesh with the surrealism of the material. The result is a dynamic and compact symphony of a city.

STREETSCAPES [DIALOGUE]

A director speaks at length to a psychoanalyst, confiding his obsessions, fears, ideas about cinema, and creative blocks. Based on his own six-day psychoanalytic treatment with trauma specialist Zohar Rubinstein, Heinz Emigholz’s latest masterwork is a demonstration of his singular working methods, and a playful, moving treatise on trauma and architecture.

UPPLAND

In the late 1950s, a large American-Swedish company established a mining operation in the remote highlands of Liberia and built a sprawling, modernist city, a “true America,” for its employees and their families. Today, all that remain are abandoned buildings and empty pools. Exactly what happened involves mythical beasts, the environment, the promise of industrialization, and the last remnants of colonialism.

THE AREA

Filmed over the course of five years, The Area is a panoramic documentary about a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, home to more than 400 African-American families, that is being displaced by the Norfolk Southern railroad company. It is a complex story of economic revitalization, commercial interests, and community rights.

DIESTE [URUGUAY]

Born in 1917 in Uruguay, Eladio Dieste created industrial and agrarian works, public infrastructure and commercial buildings whose unique and innovative design, a melding of architecture and engineering, elevated these often humble buildings to masterworks of art. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, this audacious documentary presents twenty-nine of Dieste's buildings.

PARABETON: PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE

Considered the Architect‘s Architect of the 20th century, Nervi is the creator of style-forming constructions and a grand master of concrete buildings. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, Parabeton presents seventeen of his buildings punctuated by Ancient Roman constructions, suggesting, with its gorgeous compositions, a relationship between the two.

PERRET IN FRANCE AND ALGERIA

Both biography and cultural commentary, Perret tells the story of architectural pioneer Auguste Perret, whose groundbreaking works in two countries are mired in their volatile histories, including Parisian buildings destroyed (and later rebuilt) during WWII. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, this visually stunning documentary presents thirty of Perret's buildings.

GOFF IN THE DESERT

One of the most inventive and iconoclastic American architects, Bruce Goff’s work, which comprised mostly churches and private homes, combined the harmony of nature with the innovation of modern construction. Directed by Heinz Emigholz, Goff in the Desert presents sixty-two buildings by Goff, who was never formally educated as an architect.

BE LIKE AN ANT

After returning from Vietnam, Paul bought a mobile home for his family. Unhappy with its construction, he decided to build his own house around it. 38 years, 4 floors and 100 windows later, Paul is nearly finished.

ESTATE, A REVERIE

The utopian dream of public housing is explored in this incandescent, artful documentary.