(Canadian Premiere) Copenhagen is widely considered one of the world’s most livable cities, but it wasn’t always this way. Best in the World offers a closer look at the Danish capital’s journey from an industrial city on the brink of bankruptcy to the transformed Copenhagen of today. Celebrated writer and filmmaker Hans Christian Post takes stock of the cost of this transformation, examining inequity within the city’s borders and in the surrounding countryside. Through conversations with architects, activists, and writers, the film asks us to consider who ultimately benefits from the desirable new city.

Following the film will be a panel discussion.

(Canadian Premiere) Balkrishna Doshi, one of India’s most influential 20th-century architects, passed away this year at 95 years old. The Promise provides audiences with the gift of getting to know Doshi, a soft-spoken humanist with distinctly modern designs. He shares his sources of inspiration with exceptional presence of mind, humor, and wisdom.

(Canadian Premiere) When architect Le Corbusier designed Chandigarh, he imagined a just city that would allow for harmonious interaction between its residents and the natural environment. His utopic vision for the city came into being 70 years ago at a time of unrest, resettlement, and the partition of India. For some, it represented progress and a newly emerged democracy, but it remains unclear if Corbusier’s design was a success or a failure. Directors Karin Bucher and Thomas Karrer’s The Power of Utopia follows four cultural producers in Chandigarh. As we accompany them through their lives and work, we ask what can be gleaned from attempts at utopia.

Following the film will be a panel discussion on ideas of utopia.

(Canadian Premiere) When director Denise Zmekhol revisits the architectural masterpiece of her late father, a modernist skyscraper in São Paulo, Brazil, she discovers it is occupied by hundreds of unhoused people. The building is marked by controversy. Once a headquarters for the police force of a dictatorial government and later a site of anarchist artwork, it was most recently taken over by housing activists in an attempt to transform their city. Through the stories of people with a passionate connection to her father’s work, Zmekhol helps us understand the building as a reflection of Brazil’s political and economic turmoil over the last half century.

(20th Anniversary) My Architect is arguably the most significant film in our niche genre of architecture and design. This year is the 20th anniversary of the film’s release, and we have a new digitally remastered version that looks better than ever. In My Architect, director Nathaniel Kahn takes us on a heartbreaking and humorous journey of his attempts to reconnect with his deceased father, renowned architect Louis I. Kahn. When he died in 1974, Kahn left behind a personal life of secrets and broken promises that his illegitimate son Nathaniel is determined to unravel. The riveting narrative takes us from the men’s room of Penn Station to the bustling streets of Bangladesh to the inner sanctums of Jerusalem politics. In a documentary with all the emotional impact of a dramatic feature film, Nathaniel’s journey becomes a universal investigation of identity, a celebration of art, and an exploration of life itself.

This film was nominated for an Academy Award. Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s not to be missed on the big screen.

Following the film will be a panel discussion with family of Louis I. Kahn.

(Canadian Premiere) After a million years entirely devoid of life, the remote desert island of Ascension was engineered into a tropical paradise through a process of ‘terraforming’. By examining this unique scientific design process, TerraForma asks us to consider what transformation might mean for the fate of our planet. In a future when terraformed landscapes are more common, can human-engineered environments warp the very idea of what ‘nature’ means?

This film is screening with House of Adaptation.

(Canadian Premiere) House of Adaptation takes the viewers on a journey through the minds of the people that gave life to a climate-adaptive building. The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) is an NGO that was looking for a place for their headquarters, so the city of Rotterdam proposed a donation– a building that will float with rising sea levels. The film captures the primary stakeholders including politicians, designers, and builders.

This film is screening with TerraForma.

(Canadian Premiere) LOT-EK, the visionary and beloved architecture studio of Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, has reimagined the shipping container for over 30 years. This structure and other detritus of our industrialized economy have become the materials for unique architectural and artistic spaces. Through creative pursuit, LOT-EK has become a prophet of adaptive reuse, ecological construction, and unexpected beauty. We Start With the Things We Find investigates the studio’s provocative practice as a prescription for the ills of our consumptive society. ADFF is thrilled to welcome back Director Tom Piper, whose last film at the festival was Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf.

(Canadian Premiere) LOT-EK, the visionary and beloved architecture studio of Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, has reimagined the shipping container for over 30 years. This structure and other detritus of our industrialized economy have become the materials for unique architectural and artistic spaces. Through creative pursuit, LOT-EK has become a prophet of adaptive reuse, ecological construction, and unexpected beauty. We Start With the Things We Find investigates the studio’s provocative practice as a prescription for the ills of our consumptive society. ADFF is thrilled to welcome back Director Tom Piper, whose last film at the festival was Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf.

Following the screenings of the film will be a Q&A with LOT-EK Architects Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano and Director Tom Piper, moderated by filmmaker Gary Hustwit.

Reception after the film