Many of the best-known architecture documentaries profile notable designers. Take 2003’s acclaimed My Architect, where director Nathaniel Kahn examined the life of famed architect Louis Kahn, his father. More recently, the widely released films REM and Big Time focused, respectively, on the work and design philosophies of Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA, and Bjarke Ingels.
While films like these delight architects and public audiences alike, the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF), now in its 10th season, showcases stories that extend beyond the accomplishments of individual designers, demonstrating a commitment to enhancing public understanding of the value of architecture. “One of the festival’s goals is to inspire and educate everybody about the power of design,” says ADFF director and founder Kyle Bergman, AIA.
To help achieve this goal, the festival’s 2018–19 season kicked off in New York City last fall, featuring its most diverse lineup of films yet. This season’s films promote inclusive design by highlighting projects that seek to remedy the 21st-century challenges of urbanization, climate change, and social injustice.
Frank Gehry: Building Justice, directed by Ultan Guilfoyle, follows students at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) and Yale as they attempt to understand how the design of current U.S. prisons has contributed to mental and physical health problems within incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations. Partnering with Impact Justice, the George Soros Open Society Foundations, and A New Way of Life, educators (including Frank Gehry, AIA) took a multidisciplinary human-centered approach and encouraged students to propose design solutions for restorative justice and rehabilitation facilities. “As architects, we have to lead by example. We have the opportunity to design for positive change, and we should act on that,” Bergman says. “It’s inspiring to see that Frank Gehry is spending some of his time trying to encourage students to be civically engaged.”
The Ecuadorian film Do More with Less explores how architects and architecture students are making the most of space and resources in Latin America. By building with local materials and training young people in construction skills, the featured designers put a sharp focus on their environment and economy, with an acknowledgment that a sustainable built environment is crucial for the future of their communities.
While they are only two of ADFF’s many films to be featured this year, Do More with Less and Frank Gehry: Building Justice both signify how conversations about the relationship between design and social responsibility are making their way into mass media.
For the third year, ADFF has partnered with AIA to bring films to the Conference on Architecture. Along with Frank Gehry: Building Justice and Do More with Less, the Blueprint for Better Film Series at A’19 in Las Vegas will feature a variety of other films from recent festival programs. Like the bigger festival, Blueprint for Better will screen films connecting social causes with design.
The series will feature more than a dozen finalist films from the annual AIA Film Challenge in short-film sequences on topics such as housing, resilience, culture, and equity and inclusion. Among the most moving of these are the 2018 AIA Film Challenge winners Past/Presence: Saving the Spring Garden School; A Joyful Gathering Place; and ChildSafe: Designed to Heal, all of which have been screened at ADFF events this year.
After a decade of bringing the best new design films to audiences around the world, ADFF has become a mainstay in both the architecture and film communities through innovative programming and partnerships. As ADFF continues to expand, the films it showcases will not only highlight design’s impact to the public, but also serve as a reminder to architects of their responsibility to contribute. “At the end of the day, if we can encourage some architects who attend the festival to be socially active, then we have accomplished something important,” Bergman says.