By appropriating domestic interior spaces as backdrops for projections, Galway Avenue's International Architectural Film Fest focuses attention on the decline of the urban film festival and urban cinema as "experience" in general. Relocating and re-exploring the films of the 2008 International Architectural Film Festival within a domestic location allows an troubling insight into suburban futures of free content and Plato's allegory of the cave extended across the developed world. Blank generation. While the schedule of the films suggest some sort of community awareness as tonic, low projected turn out suggests that the community has about as much concern for architecture as the soul of man as it does for anything other than "Top Model: Australia" repeated and looped, with teared Kelsey Martinovich forming digital nightmares in cul de sac wasteland.
J. Phillips, Festival Director
FILM SCHEDULE
October 4th, 2010
OSCAR NIEMEYER
"Oscar Niemeyer – A vida é um sopro"
BRAZIL, 2008
A film based on interviews with the popular face of Brazilian modern architecture, Oscar Niemeyer. Exploring the coexistence of different art genres in Niemeyer’s work (architecture together with literature and music) and contextualising them in within contemporary Brazilian and global modernist cultures.
BIRDS NEST
"Bird’s Nest: Herzog & de Meuron in China"
GERMANY, 2008
Schaub and Schindelm’s documentary follows two Swiss star architects on two very different projects: the national stadium for the Olympic summer games in Peking 2008 and a city area in the provincial town of Jinhua, China. Architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron are literally building bridges between two cultures, two architectural traditions, and two political systems. Their work doesn’t simply enhance China’s great international debut, but serves the everyday needs of the Chinese population. “Bird’s Nest” presents the Basle architects as they find solutions not in the comfort of an ivory tower but in encounters and friction on the ground.
"A fascinating documentary!“
Filmbulletin
"Reveals not only exciting architectural insights but also the image of the country’s sensibility, in times of rapid change.“
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
RADIANT CITY
CANADA, 2006
Winner of the 2008 Genie Award for Documentary, the Canadian equivalent of the Oscars, Jim Brown and Gary Burns address issues around suburban sprawl through a fictional family the Mosses. Includes interviews with Joseph Heath, Mark Kingwell and James Howard Kunstler.
MAYA LIN
"Maya Lin: A strong clear vision"
USA, 1994
The film won the Academy Award for Best Achievement in Feature Documentary in 1995, and details the clear vision of Maya Lin's proposal for the Washington D.C Vietnam War Memorial. An insightful film that shows not just the strength of the monument, but also the architect in negotiating the public domain to pursue her own conviction.
October 6th, 2010
KOOLHAAS HOUSELIFE
ITALY, 2008
An exceptional film on one of the masterpieces of contemporary architecture, the Koolhaas House in Bordeaux. Described by the NY Times as "heartfelt, thoughtful and hilariously funny" and Le Monde as "magique" which translates to "magic."
MON ONCLE
FRANCE, 1958
Winner of the 1958 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Directed by Jaques Tati, it also got the Special Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Fest. Focusing on a socially awkward man and his struggle with postwar modern architecture.
October 7th, 2010
THE POWER OF COMMUNITY
USA, 2006
Increasingly relevant and pertinent.
MY FATHER THE GENIUS
USA, 2002
Apparently really good.
