Following a successful first edition—with more than 5,000 viewers—the Architecture & Design Film Festival’s ADFF: Online program is back starting Sunday, May 17th, through Wednesday, May 20th for a new set of film screenings.
The ADFF: Online series invites cinephiles and the architectural community to connect over positive, uplifting, and recent award-winning films about great names, projects, and movements in architecture and design. This edition of the online series celebrates the life and work of the four creative geniuses and studios of Eileen Gray, Jørn Utzon, Bruce Goff, and Ant Farm, according to the press release, who consistently produced innovative, timeless designs, and left a distinct mark on architectural history.
Besides collective access to some of the most notable architectural and design-centered films in recent years, each screening will be accompanied by an introduction from a special guest and will conclude with a director Q&A session. On Sunday, May 17th, viewers will be treated to insight from Marco Orsini, director of the screened film Gray Matters. The biopic explores the fascinating life and complicated career of designer-turned-architect Eileen Gray, whose vision was known to define and defy modernism in decoration, design, and architecture.
Director Lene Borch Hansen will conclude the Monday, May 18th screening of The Man & The Architect – Jørn Utzon. The film recounts the surprising backstory of the creation of the Sydney Opera House and the architect it both propelled to stardom and stunted. The film will be introduced by Kai-Uwe Bergmann, partner at Bjarke Ingels Group.
Subject and special guest converge during the May 19th screening of the documentary Space Land Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm. The film considers the limitless work of the 1970s avant-garde architecture, graphic arts, and environmental design firm called Ant Farm, and it will conclude with a Q&A from the firm’s co-founder Chip Lord, as well as the film’s directors Elizabeth Federici and Laura Harrison. It will be introduced by Mark Lamster, architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News and author of The Man in the Glass House, an acclaimed biography of the late architect Philip Johnson.
ADFF: Online will conclude its second edition on Wednesday, May 20th with GOFF, a film exploring the life and professional chronicles of Bruce Goff, a great 20th century American architect, who challenged stigmas about the Midwest’s inability to create innovative design work through his unconventional perspective. The film revisits Goff’s body of work—which sometimes polarized him at the time of his career—and the events that led to a destruction and renewed interest in his memory. The film will be introduced by Alison Fisher, associate curator of architecture and design at the Art Institute of Chicago, and it will conclude with a Q&A session featuring the film’s director, Britni Harris.
The celebratory approach to architecture, design, and the creative spirit underlines each of the Architecture & Design Film Festival’s programs. The organization has curated film selections, panel discussions, and events in major cities in the United States, such as Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles; as well as programs for international film festivals in Toronto, Ontario and Vancouver, British Columbia, and cultural institutions.
The goal of the ADFF is to entertain, educate, and engage anyone interested and excited about architecture and design. For this edition of the newly launched ADFF: Online, each film will begin at 8:00 p.m. EST, and the entire program will be recorded and broadcast a second time at 9:00 p.m. PT. Tickets are $1.99 and available here.
Text: R. Collins | GLBD writer
Featured image: The Man & The Architect is a documentary about Jorn Utzon, who is one of only two living persons ever to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. Directed by Lene Borch Hansen and Anna von Lowzow.
Photography: Novita Communications | ADFF
