Robin Hood Gardens

2022, dir. Thomas Beyer, Adrian Dorschner

The now-demolished council estate Robin Hood Gardens often occupies opposing positions within the architectural imagination. Was Alison and Peter Smithson’s 1972 brutalist contribution to the London cityscape a misunderstood masterpiece or a well-intentioned failure?

Bela Vista. Inhabited Island

2018, dir. Rui Gonçalves Rufino

“Bela Vista-Inhabited Island” registers the rehabilitation of the municipal “ilha (island) da Bela Vista”, in the city of Porto, between 2015 and 2017. Through the testimonies and memories of different generations of residents, are revealed years of difficulties and struggles for better living conditions on the “ilha”.

Natura Urbana – The Brachen of Berlin

2017, dir. Matthew Gandy

The Brachen of Berlin are unique. Emerging from war-time destruction, economic malaise, and geo-political division, these ostensibly empty sites evolved into laboratories for botanists, artists, and ordinary people seeking respite from the city.

Capital

2010, dir. Maxim Pozdrovkin

In the run up to the tenth anniversary of Kazakhstan’s new capital, Astana, construction workers race to finish grandiose buildings, a national song is voted on, and bewildered artists are hired in to give the appearance of culture. Yet who can afford to live in this utopia?

In Ukraine

2023, dir. Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski

Participatory observation and observation from a distance. This is what Piotr Pawlus and Tomasz Wolski shared, together creating a poignant report from a country gripped by war.

Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On

2019, dir. Michael Rieper, Lotte Schreiber

Based on six milestones of self-organized and self-managed housing projects in Austria, this 75-minute documentary explores a variety of topics related to cooperative planning processes from 1968 to the present.

I have loved living here

2020, dir. Regis Sauder

In a new town somewhere in the suburbs of Paris, intimate stories meet the writings of the famous writer Annie Ernaux, living in harmony an utopia, or could it be actual and overcome the paradoxes of society to welcome foreigners.