Venice Architecture Film Festival 2022
Torna la terza edizione del Venice Architecture Film Festival organizzato dall’associazione culturale ArchiTuned, in concomitanza con il Festival Internazionale del Cinema La Biennale di Venezia.
Comunicato stampa
Dal 1 al 3 settembre 2022 torna la terza edizione del Venice Architecture Film Festival organizzato dall’associazione culturale ArchiTuned, in concomitanza con il Festival Internazionale del Cinema La Biennale di Venezia.
Durante le serate di proiezione gratuite del festival a Venezia presso l’isola di San Servolo, una suggestiva location tra Piazza San Marco e il Lido di Venezia, sede della Biennale Cinema 2022, verranno presentate opere cinematografiche (brevi documentari, corti e medi-metraggi, docu-film, animazioni, filmati sperimentali) sul tema dell’architettura e dello spazio urbano.
Giunto alla sua terza edizione, il Venice Architecture Film Festival continua ad indagare i luoghi in cui si vive, le dinamiche aggregative, le comunità, le abitudini e ciò che identifica un gruppo di persone anche a prescindere dallo spazio che condivide.
L’edizione Inhabitats vuole indagare l’indebolimento della capacità dell’architettura di rappresentare strutture sociali che diventano sempre più liquide e che diffondono il proprio senso di appartenenza al di fuori dei confini infrastrutturali di ciò che rappresentava la struttura produttiva, politica e culturale delle società.
Globalizzazione, comunicazione e consumo, nella configurazione attuale, pongono l’abitante al di fuori di schemi definiti di organizzazione di città che non sono più in grado di offrire una struttura per la produzione, favorendo invece il consumo e l’accoglienza, spesso transitoria, di lavoratori privi di legami stabili con l’ambiente che li ospita.
Inhabitats vuole descrivere cioè l’aggregazione di comunità in base a schemi diversi da quelli del quartiere, del centro direzionale, della zona industriale e delle infrastrutture che costruirono la forma urbis, per cercare di esplorare le aggregazioni immateriali in cui gli abitanti perdono la funzione fondativa della città cui non riconoscono il carattere identitario. Le città stanno diventando dei non-luoghi?
ArchiTuned ha indetto un concorso per cortometraggi, durante il Festival verranno presentati i 6 migliori corti selezionati insieme ad una giuria di esperti e professionisti del mondo dell’architettura e del cinema.
Al termine delle giornate di programmazione, il 3 Settembre, verrà consegnato un premio ufficiale per il cortometraggio vincitore dell’edizione 2022.
Oltre alla proiezione dei cortometraggi oggetto del concorso, il programma prevede la presentazione di una
rassegna cinematografica curata da Archituned in collaborazione con una piu ampia rete di professionisti del
settore, tra cui la Maison de l’Architecture of Haute Savoie (France), il NCCA - National Commission for Culture and the Arts delle Filippine, il Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design, l’Università della Svizzera Italiana - Accademia di Architettura.
Il cinema, come lente narrativa scelta per raccontare storie, realtà sociali nei paesaggi urbani e svelare modi di vivere, è il linguaggio scelto per comunicare con un vasto pubblico e stimolare una più profonda riflessione sulle nostre tendenze. Ci si interroga su come vengono urbanizzati ambienti diversi e sui possibili futuri scenari. L’architettura stessa viene messa in discussione, diventando strumento fondamentale che influenza e modella le nostre abitudini, il nostro futuro, il senso di comunità che costruiamo ogni giorno vivendo insieme nei nostri spazi. Diversi contesti urbani e un’ampia varietà di elementi che caratterizzano differenti luoghi abitati, questi gli scenari in programmazione, luoghi variegati e specifici contesti ci mostrano ciò che stimola o impedisce a una comunità a stare insieme, a divertirsi e vivere in armonia o a lottare per i propri bisogni e desideri. I film in programma approfondiscono temi come l’abitare in città, il paesaggio, l’uso e la riappropriazione dello spazio pubblico, il senso di comunità, la socialità della condivisione e la vita di quartiere.
La varietà delle realtà rappresentate attraverso i film regala uno spaccato di visioni, scelte e bisogni delle svariate comunità, analizzando allo stesso tempo, il valore e il ruolo dell’architettura nei differenti contesti sociali, geografici, culturali e politici.
Le press release delle scorse edizioni: venicearchitecturefilmfestival.com/press
From September 1 to 3, 2022, the third edition of the Venice Architecture Film Festival, organized by the cultural association ArchiTuned, returns in conjunction with the International Film Festival La Biennale di Venezia.
During the festival’s free screening evenings in Venice at the island of San Servolo, an evocative location between St. Mark’s Square and the Venice Lido, home of the Venice Biennale Cinema 2022, cinematic works (short documentaries, shorts and medium-length films, docu-films, animations, experimental films) on the theme of architecture and urban space will be presented.
Now in its third edition, the Venice Architecture Film Festival continues to investigate the places where people live, aggregative dynamics, communities, habits and what identifies a group of people even regardless of the space they share. The Inhabitats edition aims to investigate the weakening of architecture’s ability to represent social structures that are becoming increasingly liquid and spreading their sense of belonging outside the infrastructural boundaries of what used to represent the productive, political and cultural structure of societies.
Globalization, communication and consumption, in the current configuration, place the inhabitant outside defined patterns of organizing cities that are no longer able to offer a structure for production, instead favoring consumption and the often transient hosting of workers without stable ties to their host environment.
That is, Inhabitats seeks to describe the aggregation of communities according to patterns other than those of the neighborhood, the business center, the industrial zone and the infrastructure that built the forma urbis, to try to explore the intangible aggregations in which inhabitants lose the foundational function of the city to which they do not recognize the identity character.
Are cities becoming non-places?
ArchiTuned has launched a short film competition; the 5 best short films selected together with a jury of experts and professionals from the world of architecture and cinema will be presented during the festival.
At the end of the programming days, on September 3, an official award will be presented for the winning short film of the 2022 edition.
In addition to the screening of the short films that are the subject of the competition, the program includes the presentation of a film review curated by Archituned in collaboration with a wider network of professionals in the field, a.o. la Maison de l’Architecture of Haute Savoie (France), NCCA - National Commission for Culture and the Arts in the Philippines, the Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design, l’Università della Svizzera Italiana - Accademia di Architettura.
Cinema, as the narrative lens chosen to tell stories, social realities in urban landscapes and reveal ways of living, is the language chosen to communicate with a wide audience and stimulate deeper reflection on our trends. Questions are asked about how different environments are urbanized and possible future scenarios. Architecture itself is questioned, becoming a fundamental tool that influences and shapes our habits, our future, and the sense of community we build every day by living together in our spaces. Different urban contexts and a wide variety of elements that characterize different inhabited places, these are the scenarios in the programming, varied places and specific contexts show us what stimulates or prevents a community to be together, to have fun and live in harmony or to fight for their needs and desires. The films in the program explore themes such as urban living, landscape, the use and reappropriation of public space, the sense of community, the sociability of sharing, and neighborhood life.
The variety of realities represented through the films gives an insight into the visions, choices and needs of the diverse communities, while at the same time, analyzing the value and role of architecture in different social, geographical, cultural and political contexts.
Press releases from past editions: venicearchitecturefilmfestival.com/press
For any questions and further materials:
Valeria Romagnini
tel. +39 340 8205811
[email protected]
Thursday September 1st
Welcome drinks and gathering from 19:00
Screenings from 21:00
09:00 pm: Engelen, 23 augustus
5th qualified short film.
By André Schreuders, Netherlands, 00:14:00
Situated in the suburbs of Den Bosch, the Netherlands, Engelen 23 augustus explores the felt implications of postmodern urban design. Is it desirable to design places which are highly functional, comfortable, stylised, controlled and isolated? Does this urban landscape mirror who we are? Inspired by ‘Spheres’ of Peter Sloterdijk.
09:15 pm: Exterior Day (Esterno giorno)
4th qualified short film.
By Giulia Magno, Italy, 00:08:00
Inspired by a famous exchange of letters between Michelangelo Antonioni and Mark Rothko, “Esterno giorno” is an experimental love letter to Italian cinema.
Following in the footsteps of the characters played by Monica Vitti, the film retraces the geography of Antonioni’s vision, pushing the boundaries between subject and landscape, fiction and reality. From the metaphysical squares of Rome’s EUR district to the smokestacks of industrial Ravenna, from the red desert of Wadi Rum to the pink granite cliffs surrounding La Cupola—the futuristic house in Sardinia designed by the avant-garde architect Dante Bini in the 1960s for Antonioni and Vitti, then real-life partners—, the physical spaces explored by the camera become psychological landscapes, states of mind, atmospheres. The filmmaker poetically intertwines contemporary footage shot in Italy and Jordan with archival materials and excerpts from “Eclipse” (1962) and “Red Desert” (1964), creating an illusion of continuity between past and present. In collaboration with Archivio Michelangelo Antonioni.
ArchiTuned Selection
09:30 pm: Lower Grand
By Jeff Dorer, USA 2020. 10’.12’’
The secret life of a street known from movies, television shows and commercials. Lower Grand chronicles the uneven recovery after the Great Recession through the aspect of this familiar setting. Depending which side you’re on, its portals are a window on the upper crust of American society or its lower depths.
09:45 pm: The Automat
By Lisa Hurwitz, USA 2021. 79’.00’’
Iconic, elegant, and populist all at once: the Automat (aka Horn & Hardart) revolutionized American dining a century ago, long before there was fast food or hipster coffee shops. An eclectic mix of New Yorkers inserted nickels into slots, and slices of lemon meringue pie, mac & cheese, baked beans, and creamed spinach magically appeared from a grid of gleaming chrome windows. Then there was the eatery’s signature 5-cent coffee, cascading from ornate dolphin-headed spouts. Mel Brooks (who sings an homage he wrote specifically for the film), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell, Carl Reiner, and others pay effusive tribute to this communal Art Deco home away from home. Says Brooks: “You didn’t need a lot of money. You needed a lot of nickels.” Debut filmmaker Lisa Hurwitz collages rare artifacts, images, and memorabilia (including personal photos and deeply affectionate stories from former employees and the founding family) to create a love letter to the New York many of us still remember.
Friday September 2nd
Welcome drinks and gathering from 19:00
Screenings from 21:00
09:00 pm: Vertical Shadow
3rd qualified short film
By Felipe Elgueta and Ananke Pereira, Chile, 2022, 00:13:23
“Vertical Shadow” is a visual journey through the intimacy of migrant residents of a mega-building in Santiago. The pandemic forces them to spend their days locked in 17 square meters with 1.500 people.
09:00 pm: Rodas
2nd qualified short film. By Manu Toro, Spain, 2022, 00:05:39
RODAS is an audiovisual project reflecting on the contemporary meaning of cohabitation. Poetics of the domestic formed with humor, magic and irony, articulating different moments of everyday life in a contemporary urban context. Casa Rodas, projected by CIOestudio, is adaptable and progressive, capable of accommodating a great variety of uses with small variations, different ways of living and co-living. As a shared house the relationship between the public and private is central to the organization of the space. The shifting limit where the two meet reflects the relationship between its users.
09:30 pm: Jugaad
By Chak Hin Leung, Hong Kong / India 2020. 7’.49’’
A cow stops undisturbed in the middle of the road while scooters and cars whizz by as if it didn’t even exist. Every city has its own structure that derives from customs, habits, and different social stratifications. And every city poses challenges to its inhabitants. We are in Mumbai, and “Jugaad” is a Hindi word for a kind of “innovative fix or efficient solution that bends the rules.” The artist and architect Chak Hin Leung chose this very concept for the title of his short film that, through the absence of commentary or dialogue, shows how the inhabitants of Mumbai adapt to the city every day, actively conforming to its colourful and noisy spaces of coexistence. The camera becomes a respectful host of what happens in front of it, investigating how the city and its inhabitants are a whole that moves and evolves in unison.
09:40 pm: Ininfiammabile
a Project by RI-PRESE, Italy, 2022, 01’.00’’
Open call on occasion of the centenary of “amateur cinema” to collect the historic films in 9.5mm format “Pathé Baby” among the old home memorabilia, a format widely used by families in the twenties and thirties of the twentieth century and whose centenary occurs in 2022.
09:45 pm: Structures of Mutual Support
NCCA, Philippines 2021. 18’.00’’
Mutual support is a tradition where people come together for collective work to achieve a common goal. Structures of Mutual Support is a collaborative design and building project created by Sudarshan V. Khadka Jr, Alexander Eriksson Furunes, and the GK EF Community in Angat, Bulacan, Philippines. The documentary captures the mutual support process of creating a library and conflict mediation space that became the Philippine Pavilion at the 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale. A project commissioned by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts as well as the Department of Foreign Affairs, and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda.
10:00 pm: Homo hurbanus bogotanus
By Bêka & Lemoine, France/Italy 2018. 43’.00’’
Homo Urbanus is a cinematic odyssey offering a vibrant tribute to what we have been most cruelly deprived of: namely, public space. Taking the form of a free-wheeling journey around the world (10 films, 10 cities), the project invites us to observe in detail the multiple forms and complex interactions that exist every day between people and their urban environments. Somewhere between visual anthropology and observational cinema, these films put urban man under the microscope and encourage us to take a closer look at individual and collective behaviour, interpersonal dynamics, social tensions, and the economic and political forces that play out every day on the grand stage of the city streets.
Saturday September 3rd
Welcome drinks and gathering from 19:00
Screenings from 21:00
09:00 pm: Habitable Infrastructure: Science Fiction or the Future of the Countryside?
Competition Winner
By David Gak-Vassallo and Jeremie Mellul, Israel, 2022, 00:12:00
By 2050 the world will reach 10 billion people , 70 precent of which will live in the large cities. Israel, a small and already dense country, is projected to go through an even more drastic transformation by then. Even before the pandemic, concern of this future had already existed. The tech revolution allowed people to leave the office, and The City, behind. It allowed them to piece themselves together anywhere in the world, nomadically. What is the threshold that separates the countryside from the city, what is its future, and do we really have a choice?
The Berlage Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture and Urban Design. Faculty of Architecture and the build environment.
09:15 pm: Wrapping a Room
By Ana Herrero Cantis, Svizzera, 2022, 03’.02’’
Ana lives surrounded by her landlord’s objects. As time passes by, she learns to coexist in this unfamiliar domestic space.
Università della Svizzera Italiana
Accademia di Architettura.
09:20 pm: L’attesa
By Alessandro Pasti, Maryia Sidorenko, Tobia De Eccher, Vittoria Morpurgo, Svizzera, 2022. 03’.21’’
In a suspended condition between past and future, the city of Mendrisio with its realistic features resembles more and more as a metaphysical space, a point in an infinite line, where everything passes and nothing stops, except for us, constantly waiting.
Archituned Selection
09:25 pm: Spatial Rutual
By Lucas Bacle, France 2020. 04’.03’’
Spacial Ritual is sensitive film trying to show ironically how architects would like to see their own projects experienced by users.
09:30 pm: Transience
By Matthew Ho, 25’.38’’
What makes a home, a home? How does the design of a city implicate the way that people are able to live? The film depicts the lives of individuals who have experienced homelessness, focusing on the notion of what a home means and represents to them, while uncovering the struggles of constant impermanence within every facet of their lives.
09:55 pm: Les insulaires
By Adam W. Pugliese and Maxime Faure, France 2021. 50’.00’’
By a river, between a large forest and a snow-capped mountain, towers emerge in the middle of the mist: The Islands. Its inhabitants seem to have been living here forever. However, they will soon have to vacate their apartments. Here, a few kilometers from Switzerland, 257 families are getting ready to move out. The public housing neighborhood will be demolished, leaving room mostly for private residences. How do you put 10, 20, 45 years of your life into cardboard boxes? And where do you go?
