Five days of film about the city and architecture
October 5–9, 2022
The Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, the world’s biggest film festival about urban affairs and the built environment, will take place for the fourteenth time in Rotterdam, the city of architecture. From October 5–9, 2022, Theater Zuidplein and LantarenVenster are the places to be for everybody who wants to be carried away by the best documentaries, the most exciting feature films and the most fascinating shorts about the city and architecture.
In a programme full of premieres and previously undiscovered films, filmmakers answer all your questions, experts offer illuminating introductions, and people involved discuss the big issues. Also included are masterclasses, a VR lounge, shorts programmes and film classics. For those who cannot choose, there is a Best of AFFR on Sunday.
AFFR 2022 opens with the world premiere of Best in the World by Hans Christian Post, a revealing look beyond the photogenic image of Copenhagen, on Wednesday October 5 at Theater Zuidplein. Over the next four days, the festival explore various subjects through a series of programmed themes that centre on critically selected films and documentaries, all from festival venue at LantarenVenster.
The festival not only explores the relationship between film, architecture and the city, but also looks at the world at large. This year, there is special focus on the Family Affairs of architects, on the treatment of the Brutalist legacy, on the rise of privately funded museums, on the imaginary worlds created by great filmmakers like Tati and Fellini, and on the future of food.
Five insider tips from the AFFR Team:
Robin Hood Gardens (Thomas Beyer & Adrian Dorschner, 2022) Both despised and celebrated, Alison and Peter Smithson’s demolished housing complex Robin Hood Gardens is revisited to examine the age-old question—can architecture improve society?
GES-2 (Nastia Korkia, 2021) A Russian oligarch tasks Renzo Piano with the transformation of GES-2, a former power plant opposite the Kremlin, into a contemporary art space. This documentary follows the construction workers, curators, artists and security guards as they offer us a peek into the development of this prestigious project. Journalist Asya Zolnikova, correspondent for Meduza, gives a critical overview of the state of Russian architecture under the current regime.
Planet City and the Return of Global Wilderness (live performance by Liam Young) Australian artist, filmmaker and architect Liam Young presents a provocative science-fiction safari through an imaginary city of the future; in his Planet City the entire world population lives together on 0.02 percent of the planetary surface and abandons the rest of the earth to a wilderness. Followed by a conversation with IABR-director Saskia van Stein.
Jacques Tati, tombé de la lune (Jean-Baptiste Péretié, 2021) The glorious failure that was Tativille, Jacques Tati’s ambitious film set consisting of fully realized modernist architecture, is the stuff of legends. This gripping found footage documentary effectively goes beyond the story we’ve heard time and time again. With the help of an impressive amount of behind-the-scenes footage, we witness the full scope of Tati’s spectacular rise as entertainer and gentle commentator on modernity. Péretié leaves us with a renewed appreciation for the doomed Tativille and its genius, obsessive architect Tati.
Best in the World (Hans Christian Post, 2022) & Debate. Filmmaker Hans Christian Post explores the downside of Copenhagen’s transformation into a photogenic, neoliberal urban landscape. On Wednesday October 5, this confrontational film will open the festival. A second screening, on Friday October 7, will be followed by a debate about the global influence of city branding and the increasing number of gentrified cities. With Hans Christian Post, writer Floor Milikowski, researcher René Boer and city-branding expert Faye Ellen. Moderated by Sophie Stravens.
