Architecture on Film

Architecture on Film is a monthly film series by De Cinema and the Flanders Architecture Institute (VAi), bringing together two complementary areas of expertise: that of a unique cinema with a strong focus on film heritage and new voices, and that of an institute that explores architecture, design and heritage from a broad social and cultural perspective.

Don’t expect a conventional architecture film series. Architecture on Film presents a distinctive and carefully curated programme in which film and architecture intersect. From architecture and urbanism to heritage, landscape, housing, politics and social relations, each film explores a different way in which our surroundings are designed, used and experienced.

The selection deliberately looks beyond architecture as an object or design, exploring what the built environment can tell us about the world we live in. In doing so, the series creates space for inquiry, encounter and dialogue; between past and future, different cultures and perspectives, and the people and places around us.

From October to May, a new film is presented each month. On the first Tuesday of the month, the film is introduced by the programmer and an external expert, who brings an additional perspective to the film. A second screening takes place on the third Tuesday of each month, without an introduction. Films are always screened in their original language with English subtitles; introductions are in English.

This autumn, we examine our relationship to the ground: how we shape, transform and exhaust landscapes, and how these interventions reshape the worlds we inhabit.

METABOLIC WALL returns architecture to its environment. LAST AND FIRST MEN looks at the monuments we leave behind and at a future in which they become witnesses to a vanished humanity. In SHIFTING BASELINES, nature must make way for new technologies, while AGATHA’S ALMANAC shows a way of life in which people, land, and seasons are inextricably linked.

What remains of what we make?

Together, the four films, place architecture and human interventions within geological, ecological and temporal processes that extend far beyond us. Some structures weather and landscapes shift, while other interventions cause lasting or irreversible change. What does it mean to shape a world, and what does it mean to leave traces behind?