Urban Regimes
Concrete is neutral only for a short time, once cast into form it becomes a cultural dimension that affects our everyday life and our political views. Cities, monuments and buildings are always designed with certain intentions, identities are carved in stone and societies are shaped by architecture, site and city development. Four experimental documentaries sharpen our perception of the highly politicized public space. They examine individual players, power structures, and different means of control.
Form and Control: Boulevard de L'Europe
Niklas Goldbach´s series FORM AND CONTROL focuses on the connection between late-capitalism and architecture. Space dominating buildings and architectural structures reflect the politics and values of a society oscillating between intellectual progress and economic profit. BOULEVARD DE L´EUROPE uses static and contemplative images to portrait an area of walls, fences, barbed wire and CCTV surveillance cameras.
- Deutschland
- 00:06:04
- Director: Niklas Goldbach
- Sound: Christian Obermaier
- Year: 2016
- Website
Constructed Futures: Haret Hreik
Sandra Schäfer observes the dynamics in the Shiite dominated neighborhood Haret Hreik in Beirut, which houses the headquarters of the Hezbollah. After the Israeli Military bombarded the neighborhood in 2006, the area was quickly rebuilt by Hezbollah. This building project is part of a military conflict and a geopolitical network in which city development and architecture take part in the production of space, landscape, and memory. CONSTRUCTED FUTURES documents the interpretation of resistance by Hezbollah, which is spatially and ideologically manifested. What role does Hezbollah play as a developing company? What are the aesthetic, religious and political implications of architecture? And what does it mean when new buildings are added without rupture or break into the existing urban structure and into individual memories?
- Deutschland, Libanon
- 00:28:40
- Director: Sandra Schäfer
- Production: Sandra Schäfer
- Photography: Sandra Schäfer
- Editing: Sandra Schäfer
- Sound: Sandra Boutros
- Languages: ar,en
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2017
- Website
Pivot
Maki Satakes experimental work captures the structural ramification of the industrial decline in the city of Tomakomai, in Hokkaido, Japan. The history of this city has been densely connected with the development of a well-known factory. The road to the factory is still there. And even tough the lives of the people are changing, the rhythm of the city still beats with the chimney as a pivot.
- Japan
- 00:06:00
- Director: Maki Satake
- Sound: Atsuhiko Nakatsubo
- Year: 2017
- Europe Premiere
Junction
In the streets of the metropolis of Kinshasa, young Congolese imagine their version of the colonial past. Around an empty pedestal that once carried a Belgian monument emerges an imaginary city where archival footage, artistic performances and present-day Kinshasa interact. ÉCHANGEUR is the first outcome of an ongoing exchange between young Congolese artists and Belgian filmmakers, who try to relate to the colonial past through artistic work.
- Belgien
- 00:33:00
- Director: Anne Reijniers, Rob Jacobs
- Production: Koen Bleuzé
- Photography: Anne Reijniers
- Editing: Anne Reijniers & Rob Jacobs
- Sound: Aïda Merghoub
- Languages: fr,ln
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2016
- Website
- Golden Key
