ADFF / ADFF:Chicago / Films
Chicago Films
Best in the World
56 mins | Denmark | 2022
Confronting the stark inequalities within modern Copenhagen, filmmaker Hans Christian Post reveals the unseen challenges of a city coined Best in the World.
Clodagh
50 mins | Ireland | 2022
World-renowned designer Clodagh offers a vibrant timeline of her life and the philosophies that impacted her as both a creator and a conduit of change.
Emotional Architecture 1959
29 mins | Spain | 2022
The buildings and spaces we inhabit everyday shape our inner world. With this perspective, director León Siminiani guides us through a sweet and surprising love story.
House of Adaptation
42 mins | Netherlands | 2023
A floating building in the middle of a major city begs the question– what will happen to society as sea levels continue to rise?
Life, Assembled
70 mins | Belgium | 2022
Architect/filmmaker Elodie Degavre returns to her unconventional roots in rural Belgium to understand her past and build a better future.
Modernism, Inc.
75 mins | US | 2023
Architect Eliot Noyes’ trailblazing ideas brought design-conscious thinking to big business. His innovations continue to influence modern brands.
My Architect
116 mins | US | 2004
This newly remastered print of the iconic film My Architect follows director Nathanial Kahn’s search for emotional closure with his late father, renowned architect Louis I. Kahn.
Point of Origin
45 mins | Netherlands | 2023
An international tech entrepreneur purchases an impossibly narrow piece of steep mountain slope in Austria, where he grew up. The building site will only allow for a 4-meter-wide house. This challenge sparks the interest of well-known architect Rem Koolhaas.
Radical Landscapes
90 mins | Switzerland | 2022
Director Elettra Fiumi explores the work and life of her late father Fabrizio Fiumi. Her story about this disruptive architect and his radical contemporaries reveals how challenging the status quo shaped Italian design.
Rehab (from rehab)
86 mins | Italy and France | 2023
Through a series of vignettes at architects Herzog & De Meuron’s REHAB Basel, this film demonstrates what can happen when the usually drab space of a rehabilitation center is replaced by a modern masterpiece whose very design aids recovery.
Skin of Glass
90 mins | US | 2023
A journey to reckon with Brazil’s harsh inequality begins when filmmaker Denise Zmekhol discovers her father’s architectural masterpiece is occupied by hundreds of unhoused people.
Soviet Bus Stops
56 mins | Canada, Denmark | 2023
Uncovering stories of the designers who built fascinating architectural gems during the Soviet regime, Soviet Bus Stops is an ode to the power of individual creativity that would not be suppressed.
TerraForma
62 mins | Ireland | 2023
In the middle of the Atlantic, the remote island of Ascension offers a close-up look at the profound effects humans have on the environment, a lesson for all of humanity.
The Genius of the Place: The Life and Work of Geoffrey Bawa
80 mins | Sri Lanka | 2023
Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s famous tropical modernist, explores the ever-evolving beauty of life through architectural contributions that are as influential in Southeast Asia as Frank Lloyd Wright is in the Western world.
The Mies Van der Rohes
80 mins | Switzerland | 2023
In The Mies van der Rohes, filmmaker Sabine Gisiger introduces us to the many women who impacted the life of world-renowned architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Drawing on a private archive of footage, photos, and documents, the film retells the story of this iconic architect as remembered by his eldest daughter, Georgia.
The Power of Utopia – Living with Le Corbusier in Chandigarh
84 mins | Switzerland | 2023
Looking at Le Corbusier’s planned city of Chandigarh, the film explores an important question– did Corbu create a utopian masterpiece or a modernist nightmare?
The Promise: Architect B.V. Doshi
90 mins | Germany | 2023
The Promise honors the master architect B.V. Doshi, who passed away this year. Doshi’s incredible legacy of captivating modern designs is matched only by his reputation as a kind and generous human being.
veins
45 mins | Romania | 2023
veins offers a poetic look at the epic journey materials make to build our modern world. This story follows 30,000 tons of marble carved out of a mountain in Portugal as it makes its way to the facade of Perelman Performing Arts Center in Manhattan.
We Start With the Things We Find
85 mins | US | 2023
Reimagining and repurposing the common, the architects behind the studio LOT-EK create an inspiring way of living within a consumptive society.
Women in Architecture
20 mins | Switzerland | 2022
There is a staggering inequity in the field of architecture– women principals are the exception, not the rule. Meet three architects who are breaking down those barriers.