Architecture and film are interlocked: both unfold narrative ideas through space and time, taking us to real and virtual worlds; both start with the imagination, and then take on their own reality. Films are set in cities, landscapes and buildings where architecture is a visual shorthand, telling us about characters and plot in an instant. Yet a dedicated festival that brings architecture and film together has never before been held in this country.
ArchFilmFest London takes on this territory through a six-day, biennial festival that will celebrate architectural film through screenings, installations, symposia, workshops and an international film competition. Each festival year will involve a new international partner and a specific central theme. This year ‘Scale’ is the theme and Chile the partnering country, whose Arqfilmfest in Santiago de Chile will bring a Latin American perspective to the dialogue.
ArchFilmFest founders Manuel Toledo Otaegui (co-organizer of Arqfilmfest Santiago) and Charlotte Skene Catling (co-founder of Skene Catling de la Pena architects) say:
With so many crossovers between film and architecture, we felt it was time to celebrate and encourage more experimentation. ArchFilmFest will be a platform for new thinking and approaches to the shared disciplines of architecture and film. Today’s technological reality is that mobile phones, drones, AI and VR play an integral part in our everyday lives; we can and are using these to augment our experience of, and responses to, the built environment. This festival will not only be a forum for debate; it has the potential to have a real and direct impact on the way architecture is thought about and, ultimately, developed.
The inaugural festival will reveal just how extensive the ground is where these disciplines meet, with documentaries, features, films made about and by architects, works that use algorithms to morph architecture, animation, drone footage and virtual reality all part of the mix. A curated programme of films, many world or UK premieres with director Q+A’s, will be screened daily at London’s ICA throughout the run of the festival. Twelve of these will be the finalists of the festival’s international film competition.
A daily film selection, combining architectural classics and competition long-listed films, will be screened at the festival’s second venue, the Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf. Alongside these will be a series of architectural installations with related projections, bringing a three dimensional, interactive element to the festival. The Bargehouse will be a hub to encourage the meeting of the curious and like-minded with a cafe and bar, talks, music, events and a pop-up bookshop, with symposia giving an opportunity to focus on live dialogues between architects and filmmakers engaged in the shared exploration of architecture and filmmaking.
The festival will also draw attention to films where architecture, the city or set design plays a significant, central or pivotal role. Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner, Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Christopher Nolan’s Inception are classic examples. It will look at those who have been exploring the interface of the two fields for some time – from Tron legend Joseph Kosinki’s engineering and architecture background, to Rem Koolhaas’ early film-writing work; aptly for this discussion, the latter’s plan of a building has been described by critic Shumon Basar as "a plot waiting to happen.”
Title
Inaugural ArchFilmFest LondonType
Festival / BiennialOrganizers
From
June 06, 2017 08:20 PMUntil
June 11, 2017 06:30 PMVenue
ICA and Bargehouse, Oxo Tower WharfAddress