ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN FILM FESTIVAL:DC 2023

Purchase Opening Night Tickets Here

5–9:30 pm, Opening Night Celebration and Screening of Alice Street

Alice Street
2020 / 70 min / US
Director: Spencer Wilkinson
Co-presented by National Building Museum

This program qualifies for 2 LU/HSW (AIA)

Alice Street is a compelling story of how two artists in Oakland form an unlikely partnership to tackle a four-story mural at a unique intersection where Chinese and Afro-Diasporic communities face the imminent threat of displacement and gentrification. After the conclusion of the mural, the construction of a luxury condominium threatens to demolish the artwork.

Purchase Tickets for Friday Here

5–6 pm, Happy Hour and Photography Showcase featuring local artists, Ahmed Akari, Steven M. Cummings, and James Singewald

6–7:45 pm, Segregated by Design shown with Committee of Six

Committee of Six, along with Segregated by Design, and the panel that follows qualifies for 1.5 LU/HSW (AIA)

Segregated by Design
2020 / 17 min / US
Director: Mark Lopez

Segregated By Design examines the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy.

Committee of Six
2022 / 37 min / US 
Director: Fred Schmidt-Arenales

Committee of Six reenacts the 1955 meetings that took place between community leaders and University of Chicago officials for the purpose of creating an “Urban Renewal Program” for the neighborhood of Hyde Park, on the south side of Chicago. The film invites comparison between the language of the past and the contemporary reality of gentrification and racist real estate practices in Chicago.

A Redlining and Segregation panel with Fred Schmidt-Arenales, director of Committee of Six, Ellenor Riley-Condit, producer of Committee of Six, and Sarah Shoenfeld, public historian at Prologue DC, follows the screening.

6:15–7:45 pm, Robin Hood Gardens

Robin Hood Gardens
2022 / 90 min / Germany
Directors: Thomas Beyer and Adrian Dorschner

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU (AIA)

The controversial East-London council estate, Robin Hood Gardens, built in 1972 by Alison & Peter Smithson, was not only unloved by its first residents, but also garnered divisive responses from internationally renowned critics. In light of the estate’s fiftieth anniversary, the documentary offers surprising insights from residents and critics of the ostracized project.

6:30–7:30 pm, Grethe Meyer–The Queen of Danish Design

Grethe Meyer–The Queen of Danish Design
2021 / 61 min / Denmark
Director: Isabel Bernadette Brammer

This program qualifies for 1 LU (AIA)

The Queen of Danish Design tells the story of Grethe Meyer, one of the few pioneering women who created classic Danish designs globally renowned for their simplicity, functionality, and longevity in the 1940s and 1950s.

8:15–9:45 pm, Maija Isola–Master of Colour and Form

Maija Isola–Master of Colour and Form
2021 / 96 min / Finland
Director: Leena Kilpeläinen

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU (AIA)

Finnish artist Maija Isola was one of the first designers of Marimekko – the Finnish design brand known for its vibrant and original prints. The film traces the footsteps of Maija, who revolutionized Finnish homes in the 1950s and 60s, and explores her life, sources of inspiration, legacy, and the secret behind the success of her nature-inspired fabrics.

8:30–10 pm, Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens

Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens
2021 / 87 min / Greece
Directors: Tassos Langis and Yiannis Gaitanidis

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU (AIA)

Builders, Housewives and the Construction of Modern Athens unveils a new perspective of the city, examining the most distinctive Athenian building type – the polykatoikía – and the city’s reconstruction by anonymous lay builders and their housewives.

8:45–9:50 pm, Beyond the Life Forms

Beyond the Life Forms
2021 / 63 min / Italy
Directors: Francesco Conversano and Nene Grignaffini

This program qualifies for 1 LU (AIA)

Beyond the Life of Forms takes viewers on two separate emotional and symbolic journeys into the visionary universe of two great, 20^th century Italian architects – Carlo Scarpa and Aldo Rossi – and their respective views about life on this earth and afterlife.

Purchase Tickets for Saturday Here

5–6 pm, Happy Hour and Sustainable Fashion Pop-Up featuring local vendors Tribute Collective, Bitter Grace, and Illicit Rag Vintage

6–7:45 pm, A World to Shape

A World to Shape
2022 / 52 min / Netherlands
Director: Ton van Zantvoort

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU/HSW (AIA)

Nienke Hoogvliet (1989) and Dave Hakkens (1988) represent a new generation of contemporary Dutch Designers. Acutely aware of the depletion of raw materials, energy scarcity, and globalization, their mission is to discover solutions to make their industries more sustainable.

Sustainable fashion panel with Rebecca Ballard, sustainable fashion adviser, business owner and founder of The Fashion Connection and Maven Women, Gabrielle Clary, executive director of the DC Sustainable Fashion Collective, Joelle Firzli, fashion professional, independent researcher, and co-founder of Tribute Collective, and Marianna Sachse, founder of Jackalo, follows the screening.

6:15–7:30 pm, Building Bastille! The Tangled and Improbable Story of the Opera Bastille

Building Bastille! The Tangled and Improbable Story of the Opera Bastille
2021 / 76 min / Canada
Director: Leif Kaldor

This program qualifies for 1.25 LU (AIA)

Building Bastille! tells the comedic and tangled story of modern history’s most remarkable case of mistaken identity and seized opportunity. In 1982, the socialist President of France opens a blind competition to build an opera. The jury selects a drawing that appears to be that of a prominent American architect, but it is a submission from the unknown and inexperienced Canadian architect Carlos Ott.

6:30–7:45 pm, Under Tomorrow’s Sky

Under Tomorrow’s Sky
2021 / 71 min / Netherlands
Director: Jan Louter

This program qualifies for 1 LU/HSW (AIA)

Renowned architect and urbanist Winy Maas is passionate about finding innovative solutions for the city of the future and advocates for ‘high rises on a human scale’. Under Tomorrow’s Sky provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Maas’ professional life and explores how his designs can keep future cities compact and livable.

8:30–10:15 pm, Fashion Reimagined 

Fashion Reimagined
2022 / 100 min / UK
Director: Becky Hutner

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU (AIA)

Fashion Reimagined follows Amy Powney, designer of the London brand Mother of Pearl, as she sets out to create a collection that’s ethical and sustainable at every level. Powney’s journey takes a deep dive into the supply chain, uncovering its destructive cycle from deforestation, and animal mutilation to farmer suicide.

8:45–10 pm, Concrete Landscape

Concrete Landscape
2022 / 72 min / Brazil
Directors: Laura Artigas and Luiz Ferraz

This program qualifies for 1 LU (AIA)

Concrete Landscape presents a narrative view of the life of Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza while exploring his relationship with Brazil, including his familial roots and the Ibere Camargo Institution – Siza’s only building in his country.

9–10:15 pm, GES-2

GES-2
2021 / 77 min / Russia
Director: Nastia Korkia

This program qualifies for 1.25 LU (AIA)

In 2014, a 20,000 sq meter power plant in Moscow was transformed into a new, global cultural institution. With intimate access to workers, builders, project supervisors, and architects, GES-2 offers an up-close portrait of the transformation. Interlacing the events in an unconventional and non-chronological order, the film provides a dose of humor on an often unexplored topic in design.

Purchase Closing Go-Go Brunch Tickets Here

10 am–noon, Go-Go Brunch featuring TOB Band and Show and Photography Showcase featuring DC photographer Dee Dwyer

12:15–1:50 pm, Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington DC

Barry Farm: Community, Land and Justice in Washington DC
2022 / 50 min / US
Director: Samuel George and Sabiyha Prince

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU/HSW (AIA)

This documentary tells a story of a journey for community, land, and for justice. It is a story of Barry Farm, in Southeast DC, the site of one of DC’s first thriving Black communities, later a public housing complex, now under redevelopment. In the cycles of place and displacement, it is a story of the United States of America.

Land and justice panel with Samuel George and Sabiyha Prince, directors of Barry Farm, Coleman Hall, community partner, and Dr. Greta Fuller, vice president of the DC Preservation League, follows the screening.

2:30–4:15 pm, Bawa’s Garden

Bawa’s Garden
2022 / 84 min / UK
Director: Clara Kraft Isono

This program qualifies for 1.5 LU (AIA)

Bawa’s Garden follows a protagonist scouring the island of Sri Lanka for the ‘lost’ garden of Lunuganga. Her search includes a series of encounters that reveal the story of renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa, interwoven with dreamlike narratives from real life characters.

2:30–3:40 pm, Alice Street

Alice Street
2020 / 70 min / US
Director: Spencer Wilkinson
Co-presented by National Building Museum

This program qualifies for 2 LU/HSW (AIA)

Alice Street is a compelling story of how two artists in Oakland form an unlikely partnership to tackle a four-story mural at a unique intersection where Chinese and Afro-Diasporic communities face the imminent threat of displacement and gentrification. After the conclusion of the mural, the construction of a luxury condominium threatens to demolish the artwork.

2:40–3:40 pm, Segregated by Design shown with Committee of Six

Committee of Six along with Segregated by Design qualifies for 1.5 LU/HSW (AIA)

Segregated by Design
2020 / 17 min / US
Director: Mark Lopez

Segregated By Design examines the forgotten history of how our federal, state and local governments unconstitutionally segregated every major metropolitan area in America through law and policy.

Committee of Six
2022 / 37 min / US 
Director: Fred Schmidt-Arenales

Committee of Six reenacts the 1955 meetings that took place between community leaders and University of Chicago officials for the purpose of creating an “Urban Renewal Program” for the neighborhood of Hyde Park, on the south side of Chicago. The film invites comparison between the language of the past and the contemporary reality of gentrification and racist real estate practices in Chicago.