A hundred films that deal with architecture or interfaces with it will be screened in In the Rotterdam cinema LantarenVenster from 10 to 13 October.

A few tips:
Haus Tugendhat
How do you deal with masterpieces that have fallen into disuse? Do you leave the traces of time visible when renovating or restoring such works or do you endeavour to restore everything as it was once intended? The film tells the story of the difficult struggle in the twenty-first century of the Tugendhat heirs to give this cadavre exquis, designed by Mies van der Rohe, a new lease of life. It resulted in the building as Mies once intended it, but is everyone pleased with this?

Unfinished italy
Italy is the Walhalla of ruins, historical and modern. According to the filmmaker, “the unfinished” has been the most prominent architectural style in Italy since World War II. A theatre that has never had a public, a stadium where no game has ever been played, all languishing in their unfinished state. A report of a fascination with, as well as a quest for, a use for these “UFOs in the landscape”.



This Space Available
Billboards and commercial messages dominate the public space as never before. Renovation projects are seldom without gigantic advertising boards and vacant display windows are successfully leased as “shopvertising”. It is visual pollution, but can this be reversed? This documentary looks at diverse activists from the world of advertising, street art and politics. It focuses on the tense retationship between the two-dimensional, visual attention, the urban economy and social coherence in the city.



16 Acres
Poignant documentary about the emotionally-charged construction site of the WTC towers in New York. The reconstruction of Ground Zero is the most complex regeneration project in the history of America: architecturally, politically and emotionally. Since inception the project was burdened by controversies, delays and political intrigue. The conflict lasted more than ten years, with nineteen state agencies involved, a dozen or so projects and more than twenty billion dollars in costs. The good thing is that this entire process was filmed. 16 Acres is the story of the last ten years on this emotionally-charged construction site, told by the major players in this drama. A must-see for every planner.



Kleiburg
The fascinating account by filmmaker Jeroen Visser about the once-applauded, but rapidly-abused Bijlmermeer in Amsterdam. On completion in the late sixties the estate was called the apotheosis of Dutch public housing. A neighbourhood that would bring happiness to tens of thousands of poorly-housed Amsterdammers. But the neighbourhood was quickly criticised owing to its huge scale, inhospitable atmosphere and lack of security. The Kleiburg block is the pars pro toto where glory, decline and cautious resurrection are visible.



The Human Scale
In 1971 Jan Gehl wrote his bible Life Between Buildings and now, forty years later, there is the film. The documentary shows how his bureau advises people how to make urban areas and public space “liveable”. His plea meets with approval among politicians and inhabitants, who miss a human approach to the street in other architects’ work. His projects in Melbourne, Dhaka, New York, Chongqing and Christchurch are reviewed. An entertaining film about this “cosy” urban design.



Reconversao
In this film Thom Andersen (Los Angeles Plays itself) seeks the essence of Souto de Moura’s architecture, Pritzker prize-winner and designer of the Braga football stadium, among others. Hardly a “talking head” to be seen in this film, instead, many breathtaking images of seventeen buildings and unfinished projects by this impressive architect.


See full program: www.affr.nl