The New York Architecture and Design Film Festival

Film festivals dedicated to architecture and design are no new thing if you live in Europe, but travel west to the United States and you will note that there has been a distinct lack of such events. This is all set to change with the first festival of this kind to be held in the US, premiering at Downtown New York’s Tribeca Cinemas between 14-17th October. As the films will range from 2-minute shorts to full-length features, the organisers of the Architecture & Design Film Festival have split the festival into 13 programmes, showing between two and four films each screening. 

The highlight of the festival for me has to be Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio. The premise of this documentary is summarised eloquently by one Hale County resident, Peanut Robinson: “Architects design buildings for who? ... Wealthy people! They are not going to design anything for people like us”. Citizen Architect outlines the impact and inspirational philosophy of Rural Studio’s founder, the late Samuel Mockbee. With a series of interviews from Mockbee himself forming the narration, the film follows a young instructor, Jim Sanders, and his group of architecture students as they design and construct a house for the inimitable Jimmie Lee Matthews or ‘Music Man’. Although the driving force of the film is Rural Studio’s interaction with impoverished communities and their design of affordable housing, the most engaging aspect of the story comes from the relationship struck up between instructor, students and their unlikely client. 

Other films that you should catch if you’re in the area include: Contemporary Days, about British designers Robin and Lucienne Day; The Making of the Biennale, following Aaron Betsky as he explores behind the scenes at the 11th Venice Architecture Biennale; and Space Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm, taking a look at the work of the groundbreaking architecture collective, Ant Farm.

By Robert Fiehn
Assistant Editor, Architecture & Design at Phaidon