Posted on: 3rd July 2015
ARCHITEKTUR.FILM.SOMMER
Shelter, Housing and the Formation of Cities
Film Festival: 12.08–22.08.2015, WED, FRI & SATs @ 20:00
architecture film festival in the Az W courtyard
*in the event of bad weather, at the Az W Podium
a cooperation by wonderland — platform for european architecture with Az W, frame[o]ut and the MuseumsQuartier Wien
This year’s festival presents a high-calibre programme of shorts, essay and documentary films compiled from almost 100 international submissions under the heading Shelter, Housing and the Formation of Cities. Visitors and passers-by are invited to linger outdoors to observe and discuss the films with their makers, who are present at the event.
The spectrum ranges from the city straight off the drafting table via the significance of existing communities and the impact on these of large-scale planned development, to the appropriation of space by marginalised communities and the traces of time inscribed on our environment.
Jury/Open Call: Karoline Mayer, Marlene Rutzendorfer, Martina Theininger
frame[o]ut opening night:
Fri 10.07.2015, 9.30pm in MQ Hof 8
Last Dance on the Main
CA 2014, 3 mins, D: Aristofanis Soulikias, in French with English subtitles
PROGRAM:
THE CITY OFF THE DRAFTING TABLE
Wednesday, 12. August 2015, 20:00
Questions and answers with Marleen Leitner, Michael Schitnig und Sándor Guba
Der Weltbaumeister
AT 2014, 8 mins, D: Marleen Leitner & Michael Schitnig, in German
Using hand-drawn transformations Der Weltbaumeister (The World Builder) explores change from a social and an architectural, utopian perspective. The arenas of activity, initially large in relation to their environment, are gradually shrinking and becoming increasingly anonymous. Hierarchic changes in architecture play a key role in this restaging of Bruno Taut’s work, too. The animation not only engages with the “where do we come from — where are we going” question implicit to architecture, it also takes a clear position in regarding architecture as not only a spatial art but also a temporal art.
seestadt aspern D12
AT 2014, 5 mins, D: Sándor Guba
Summertime on the lake and a construction site. A concrete skeleton transforms into homes — 213 units encased by 8,000 square metres of wooden façade.
Berger+Parkkinen Architekten with querkraft architekten zt gmbh build in aspern Vienna’s Urban Lakeside — a time-lapse documentary.
GÖTTLICHE LAGE. Eine Stadt erfindet sich neu
DE 2014, 99 mins, D: Ulrike Franke & Michael Loeken, in German
On the former site of a steelworks in Dortmund, Germany, a new city district has been under construction over many years. The centrepiece is an artificial lake, on the banks of which luxurious residential developments are going up. The people who live in the vicinity of the former-steelworks, and who worked there, cannot afford to live by the lake. Over five years pass: planners and local residents, individuals with vision, and sceptics become the winners and losers in so-called “social progress”. A film about the transformation of the industrial society into a leisure society.
GENTRIFICATION
Friday, 14. August 2015, 20:00
Questions and answers with Aristofanis Soulikias, Beyza Boyacioglu, Thomas Weichselbaum and Florian Brand (GB* 7/8/16)
Last Dance on the Main
CA 2014, 3 mins, D: Aristofanis Soulikias, in French with English subtitles
An elaborately animated documentary on the demolition of a row of historic buildings on Montreal’s St Laurent Boulevard, also known as ‘The Main’. The Film portraits the resistance put up by the burlesque artists and local community against politicians and building developers. An architect, a cultural historian, a local activist and a local bar owner tell the story of The Main, how it began and how it evolved, and outline the challenges they are facing at this very moment.
Tonita’s
US 2014, 21 mins, D: Beyza Boyacioglu & Sebastian Diaz, in Spanish with English subtitles
Toñita’s is a documentary portrait of the last Puerto Rican social club in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The 30-year-old Caribbean Club has witnessed the transformation of South Williamsburg from a Hispanic neighbourhood ravaged by gang violence and drugs into one of the hippest and most luxurious places in New York. As the harsh gentrification cleared the neighbourhood of poverty and crime it also washed away the majority of the Puerto Rican community, and with them the local identity and culture. Today, the Caribbean Club is the last social club in the South Side, kept alive by its owner and community matriarch Maria Toñita.
The Domino Effect
US 2014, 51 mins, D: Megan Sperry, Daniel Phelps & Brian Paul, in English
The Domino Effect explores the origins and impact of gentrification and luxury redevelopment in Williamsburg and Greenpoint in Brooklyn, under the Bloomberg administration. The film follows the rezoning of the Domino Sugar Factory on the East River waterfront and delves deep into the politics and economics of urban development. Why have decent jobs and affordable housing become increasingly scarce while gleaming towers of luxury condos, high-end retail, and offices continue to rise? Told through the voices of long-time residents, the film conveys the personal impact of gentrification while shedding light on the struggles faced by communities across the nation.
Burning Fire
AT 2010, 9 mins, D: Anna László, Thomas Glatz & Thomas Weichselbaum, in German with English subtitles
Ottakringer Strasse, the Gürtel and Yppenplatz provide the settings for a portrait of three loveable people who have one thing in common: making music in Vienna. As a fleeting captured moment, the title is quoted from a comment made by one of the protagonists as the film pursues — sometimes more explicitly, and sometimes less so — the issue of communal life in Vienna and the impact on it of different societies and cultures, and ultimately on the city and the architecture.
SHELTER
Saturday, 15. August 2015, 20:00
Questions and answers with Hannes Mayer, Martin Zettel and Claus Drexel
„Sei Vogel, wenn du fliegst“
AT 2010, 49 mins, D: Hannes Mayer & Martin Zettel, in German with English subtitles
A documentary on homelessness in Graz that tells of very personal stories, living conditions and what are frequently refined strategies for dealing with life “on the street”, in an attempt to broaden our image of the city of Graz. The film avoids the familiar views of soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless, telling instead the personal stories and paths into homelessness, and out of it. The film shows the survival strategies, the everyday routines and the accompanying dangers. A film that carefully challenges our preconceptions of homelessness, informing our perception of the town and society.
Au bord du monde
FR 2013, 98 mins, D: Claus Drexel, in French with English subtitles
Paris at night. Jeni, Wenzel, Christine, Pascal and many other people without homes live on the margin of a world where society no longer protects them. In beautiful poetic images the film describes how they set up temporary shelters on the pavements, under bridges and in the corridors of the Métro — under constant threat of being chased away — without romanticising the protagonists’ plight. An award-winning film about life on the street.
HOUSING AS A COMMODITY
Wednesday, 19. August 2015, 20:00
Questions and answers with Nina Gschlössl, Laura Engelhardt, Gusztáv Hámos and Katja Pratschke
I-wish
KR 2013, 5 mins, D: Jan Schabert
Daegu Gwangyeoksi in South Korea. Three-dimensional simulations are used to sell the dream of an apartment in a tower block complex. I-Wish is a place beyond reality, where you wear slippers, however, as if you were already in your new home. The perfect home is real, it is visible, tangible, accessible, easy to imagine, and available for purchase.
Casas para Todos
DE/ES 2013, 54 mins, D: Gereon Wetzel, in Spanish with English subtitles
A documentary journey takes us through the topography of the burst real estate bubble in Spain. The film visits newly built holiday complexes that have never housed a single holidaymaker, half-finished high-rises, now derelict, and new roads leading nowhere. It poses the question: What is left and what new uses are these permanently scarred areas filled with the ruins of new buildings being put to? How are people and nature reclaiming these spaces?
A film about the visible remnants of the ‘financial crisis’. A film about human hubris, greed and gullibility.
Home on display
DE/CN 2014, 18 mins, D: Nina Gschlössl & Laura Engelhardt, in Chinese with English subtitles
China has been experiencing an enormous building boom over recent years, and is one of the largest consumers of building materials and labour in the world. Increasingly aristocratic-looking styles from the West are being copied for the large housing complexes of the country’s new rich. A deeply capitalist desire for affluence and progress is manifested in buildings adorned with a mishmash of quotations, with the promise of a seemingly “better life”.
Verborgene Städte
DE 2012, 35 mins, D: Gusztáv Hámos & Katja Pratschke, in German
Verborgene Städte (Hidden Cities) contains nine descriptions of cities in the style of filmic haikus. Each of these miniatures uses images and few words to sketch one of these (documented/fictional) cities, summarising for each a historical, social, economic, political or private aspect in a poetic narrative. The film addresses the personal urban perceptions that we call “the city”.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
Friday, 21. August 2015, 20:00
Questions and answers with Andrea Seidling, Jola Wieczorek and Lotte Stoops
zeitraum 02
AT 2012, 3 mins, D: Andrea Seidling
A house in the Vienna Werkbundsiedlung is the starting point for a filmic move from Venice to New York. The contrast between the images and the soundtrack creates a road movie in time and space.
Home
NZ 2012, 11 mins, D: Thomas Gleeson
South Island, New Zealand: A house relocates, describing a journey that provides food for thought: Is a house really a lasting place, as is normally presumed? This short documentary has won awards at numerous festivals.
O que resta
AT/PT 2014, 39 mins, D: Jola Wieczorek, in Portuguese with English subtitles
O que resta tells the story of an empty house in Lisbon that had been the centre of life for one family for over a century. While the house is being cleared, letters from the past tell us about the lives of the vanished occupants and the objects that they have left behind in the house. Emmaus, a flea market and an auction are the interim repositories for these mementos, where they begin a new lifecycle. Like the house, which is soon to be home to a new family.
Grande Hotel
MZ/BE 2010, 70 mins, D: Lotte Stoops, in Portuguese with English subtitles
The folly of colonialism manifests itself in the Grande Hotel located in Beira, Mozambique. Once the largest hotel in Africa it is now abandoned and dilapidated. “Sir Arthur Brandao was mad”, exclaims one of the film’s interviewees, talking about the architect behind the mammoth-sized complex who divided the hotel into 120 rooms, ensuring its inability to ever turn a profit. Now, after the anti-colonial war and chaos, it has been occupied by 2,500 impoverished Mozambicans living in a huge hollow concrete ruin without water or electricity. They have taken possession of the building and manipulated not only the stones but also the dreams. A journey through the present and past of a city in a city; a story about colonial megalomania, revolutionary vanity and feeling at home.
Supported by Embassy of Belgium in Austria / Delegation of Flanders
MY BUILDING AND I
Saturday, 22. August 2015, 20:00
Questions and answers with Ingel Vaikla
The House Guard
EE 2015, 26 mins, D: Ingel Vaikla, in Estonian with English subtitles
The House Guard is a double portrait — of the Tallinn Linnahall concert and sports venue and its caretaker Peter, who are both bound by seclusion. It tells the story of the decline of a legendary building through one man’s eyes, and the personal story of a man against the backdrop of a vanishing building. It is a dialogue between the two.
Barbicania
FR 2014, 90 mins, D: Ila Bêka & Louise Lemoine, in English
An intimate and lively survey of that brutalistic masterpiece the Barbican, which has evolved from suspect to hip in recent decades. The film is designed as a video diary of a month-long immersion in the life of ‘the Barbican’, from the upper floors of the towers to the underground levels in the culture. The film presents the house as a mosaic of personalities, lifestyle, architecture — and none the less, the shapes.
