The City of Cassiano

Bird's Nest - Herzog & de Meuron in China

January 2008 •English

Schaub and Schindelm’s documentary follows two Swiss star architects, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, 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.

The Amateur

August 2016 •Italian

The memory of Piero Portaluppi, a Milanese architect who reached the peak of his fame during the 20 years of the Fascist regime, comes back to life, both through the rediscovery of his work today and in a previously unpublished film diary in 16 mm, shot and edited throughout his lifetime. A man of great charm and power, Portaluppi lived through a grandiose but tragic era with ironic detachment, as if dancing across things as he created beauty. History marches on implacably, radically transforming the arena in which the eclectic artist and his large family lived and worked.

Tokio - Die Stadtkultur von morgen

July 2021 •German

Restoring a Masterpiece: The Renovation of Eastman Theatre

April 2010 •English

Take a look behind the curtain to see the vast history and recent renovation of one of Rochester, New York's most famous landmarks. Architects, theater personnel, historians, community leaders, and citizens provide in depth insight from start to finish in one of the most extensive renovations the city has ever seen.

Magical Imperfection

June 2020 •English

'Magical Imperfection' tells the inspirational story of world-renowned Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama. Imprisoned in his own country during the 1940s because of his race, Ray found the strength to combat injustice by devoting his career to social justice and equality.

Pugin: God's Own Architect

January 2012 •English

Augustus Northmore Welby Pugin is far from being a household name, yet he designed the iconic clock tower of Big Ben as well as much of the Palace of Westminster. The 19th-century Gothic revival that Pugin inspired, with its medieval influences and soaring church spires, established an image of Britain which still defines the nation. Richard Taylor charts Pugin's extraordinary life story and discovers how his work continues to influence Britain today.

Arata Isozaki: Early work in Japan

July 1985 •English

Arata Isozaki: Early Work in Japan takes a detailed look at the architect's pieces, exploring applauded projects such as the EXPO '70 Osaka Festival Plaza, Gunma Prefectural Museum of Modern Art and Kitakyushu Municipal Library. The extraordinary series of architectural breakthroughs made during this time contributed significantly to the evolution of contemporary architecture worldwide, and eventually gained him his first foreign commission

The Veluwe

January 1923 •Dutch

A film about the Veluwe region of the Netherlands, by the director of the Gemeentelijke Schoolbioscoop in Rotterdam. We see detailed images of villages, towns, moors, streams, ponds, poultry, and sheep farming. Van der Wel shot his own footage (according to the intertitles), but also used existing films. He drew mainly on the ‘city films’ from the catalogue of HAP & BenS. We see, for example, images from the films "Oosterbeek aan den Rijn" and "De Steeg" made by the Arnhem film company AFKO; and from the films made for Haghe Film "From Arnhem en omstreken" to "Barneveld and Elburg", directed by Willy Mullens.

Arata Isozaki II: International Projects

March 1990 •English

Through a blend of Japanese history and Western influence, Arata Isozaki has built a career around his boldly distinctive architectural style. Constantly challenging the concepts of space, form and tradition, Isozaki’s work dares us to imagine a merging of cultures where artistic movements and methods bind together in riveting new forms. "ARATA ISOZAKI II: INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS" follows the architect to many of his most famous sites including the Barcelona Olympic Sports Palace, Disney’s Team Building in Orlando, New York’s Palladium nightclub, as well as the newly completed Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

Gray Matters

May 2016 •English

Gray Matters explores the long, fascinating life and complicated career of architect and designer Eileen Gray, whose uncompromising vision defined and defied the practice of modernism in decoration, design and architecture. Making a reputation with her traditional lacquer work in the first decade of the 20th century, she became a critically acclaimed and sought after designer and decorator in the next before reinventing herself as an architect, a field in which she laboured largely in obscurity. Apart from the accolades that greeted her first building –persistently and perversely credited to her mentor–her pioneering work was done quietly, privately and to her own specifications. But she lived long enough (98) to be re-discovered and acclaimed. Today, with her work commanding extraordinary prices and attention, her legacy, like its creator, remains elusive, contested and compelling.

Frank Lloyd Wright: Phoenix From the Ashes

November 2020 •German

A portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), a genius of modern architecture, whose life passed between glory, scandal and tragedy.

Neutra: Survival Through Design

February 2019 •English

This insightful documentary feature from PJ Letofsky serves as a profile of iconic Austrian-American Architect Richard Neutra, whose work and legacy have helped shape the modern understanding of design, architecture and the interconnected fabric of nature. Today, Richard's legacy lives on through his son, Dion, who has taken up his father's mantle after nearly three-decades under his mentorship.

Wiener Barock - Der Architekt dreier Kaiser

March 2024 •French

Antonio Gaudí

May 1984 •Japanese

Catalan architect Antonio Gaudí (1852-1926) designed some of the world's most astonishing buildings, interiors, and parks; Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara constructed some of the most aesthetically audacious films ever made. With camera work as bold and sensual as the curves of his subject's organic structures, Teshigahara immortalizes Gaudí on film.

The Sea of Itami Jun

August 2019 •Korean

"Hello. I'm Itami Jun. I apologize for my poor Korean." Itami Jun (Yoo Dongryong), a Korean architect who was born in Japan. This film follows his life through heartwarming architectures for people that he had tried for all his life. The architecture of time that exists for the people, space and the story of an architect who walked his own way between Korea and Japan, Shimizu and Jeju.

Lasnamäe

April 1986 •Estonian

The director asks straightforward questions in a phone call to the lead architect of the district of Lasnamäe, Malle Meelak. The topics include the bureaucracy, planning and living quality in the brutalist district of panel houses. He gets surprisingly straightforward answers because Meelak doesn't know that the call is being recorded. Later, in a public interview conducted in front of the camera, Meelak's answers are quite different.

A City at Chandigarh

October 1966 •French

Documentary on the construction of Chandigarh, the new capital of the Indian Punjab region, planned by Albert Mayer and Swiss architect Le Corbusier.

Funkiskungen

June 2019 •Swedish

Architects Herzog and deMeuron: The Alchemy of Building & The Tate Modern

July 2001 •English

Visiting examples of Herzog and de Meurons ground-breaking style, this film reflects their capacity to astonish and explore the way in which they transform what might otherwise be ordinary through new treatments and techniques.

Inside Piano

March 2013 •Italian

The fifth project of the Living Architectures series, Inside Piano is composed of three films on three symbolic buildings of Renzo Piano's career. A visit throughout the prototype-building of the Centre Pompidou. An immersion in the soundproof world of a submarine floating in the depths of the Parisian underground. A journey aboard a luminous magic carpet of a highly sophisticated architectural machine. A humorous, caustic and quirky point of view.