CAPSULE

Synopsis

The international film competition [OPEN CALL] submissions addressed a variety of topics related to contemporary architecture. In particular, the role of housing—from the history of housing estates to the current global housing crisis—was a prominent theme. This critical topic will thus provide the basis for the festival’s opening film, Push (2019), directed by Fredrik Gertten. After the screening of Push on Wednesday, 2 June, a Q&A with several of the film’s key protagonists, filmmakers, and relevant experts will take place, including Leilani Farha, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing and Global Director of The Shift, and Gertten, the film’s director.

Organized in tandem with this theme, a special Capsule titled Housing Crisis split between two programmes of thematic shorts will similarly highlight the import of contemporary housing discussions.

These conversations will culminate next June 27 with the festival’s closing film, the world premiere of Shelter Without Shelter (2019) by Mark E Breeze and Tom Scott-Smith.

Synopsis

Responding to the housing crisis that gripped Dublin during the early 21st century, Not By Bricks Alone tells the story of the Fuzzy Belts, a public movement sweeping its way to an entirely more hopeful future.

Synopsis

A poetic study of a place and the people who shape it, this work considers Cressingham Gardens, a housing estate in South London. Designed by Lambeth Council and their in-house architects led by Edward Hollamby, the early-1970s scheme is a landmark example of carefully formed, subtly detailed social housing designed around natural landscape and a community’s needs. Shot on 16mm film, an English garden is 30 minutes with a continuous voiceover. It is broken into three parts, each taking the voice of different people who have shaped the place – the architects, the residents, then the current local council – considering the past, present and possible future of the place.

Synopsis