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

London has given up a portion of its heritage in exchange for “the contemporary”. This short video seeks to unveil such reality using the advertising billboards as a canvas. In this case, the streets are trying to warn us, instead of indoctrinating us with the consumeristic object culture the city usually feeds us with.

Synopsis

Brutal Neglect is a short documentary about Hotel Thermal, a Brutalist building in the Czech Republic. The film aims to acknowledge the buildings significance before it faces a looming reconstruction.

Synopsis

What does it mean to live in the city without a place you can call your own? What role can architects have in addressing homelessness? And how can cities become better homes for all? The documentary film What It Takes to Make a Home follows a conversation between architects Michael Maltzan (Los Angeles) and Alexander Hagner (Vienna), who have been grappling with these questions over many years and through various projects. While the cities and the political and economic contexts in which Maltzan and Hagner work differ, both search for long-term strategies for housing instead of reacting with ad hoc solutions. Focussing on some causes and conditions of homelessness, the film questions the role architects can play toward overcoming the stigmatization of people experiencing it, in order to build more inclusive cities.

Synopsis

Enter Through The Balcony is a Documentary Short about Ukrainian make-shift balconies. The film explores the phenomenon of the balcony as a small architectural form. Enter Through The Balcony is a journey through the decades. It is a look inside balconies and their owners in cities across Ukraine. It is a balanced and in depth view of the balconies from their owners, employees of city councils, historians, sociologists, urbanists, developers and architects. Through the history of the balconies film explores the history of Post-Soviet Ukraine — life, culture, and the relationships between personal and public space in cities.