TIME MACHINE – that’s the theme of the 2013 Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR) which takes place from October 10-13. In the cinemas of LantarenVenster it will all be about evaluating the past and dreaming about the future. This will be done with movies, lots of movies, in which "the world called city" is the leading character. But the festival also hosts television series, debates and talk shows.
The poster of the AFFR 2013 shows an image of an actress in a stage costume, set against a backdrop of cranes and high-rise buildings. A surreal still, taken from the movie Estate. In this film a group of residents are followed within the context of a participation project. The residents are acting in a play about their neighborhood in London, which is in transformation. Estate is one of the films screened at the AFFR symbolizing that one time period is closed while another one opens. It symbolizes the times we live in, times in transformation. Times in which we are very well aware of past and future. There is a lot of vacancy in cities and both the value and the meaning of buildings are in dispute. Movies like Unfinished Italy, Reconversão and Unfinished Spaces focus on the life cycle of a building. The movies are picturing both the phases of newly built projects and underused or reallocated places.
But the time machine also takes us back in time. The film Drop City, for example, takes you to the seventies, when hippies and dropouts set out for their own idealistic society. Drop City was a lively experimental settlement full of dome buildings inspired by Buckminster Fuller. In 1973 it was abandoned and since then it is a ghost town. In total, the AFFR will screen about 100 movies; new films, cult classics, animations and documentaries. There’s one thing the films have in common: that’s architecture and ‘the city’.
Rooftop Screenings
The AFFR doesn’t only show architecture in 2D, we also offer visitors spectacular locations to enjoy movies. In the weeks leading up to the festival, we organize several rooftop screenings. On the roofs of Rotterdam buildings we build a temporary cinema to watch a movie at high altitude. Keep an eye on our Facebook account Affr.Rotterdam).
Practical information
Tickets are € 9 (regular) / € 7.50 (public transport card, cardholders CJP or 65 +) / € 25 (day pass). The presale starts on September 29. Tickets are available at the box office of LantarenVenster (010-2772277). There are also packages with hotel stay and day pass book.
The AFFR has been made possible by the municipality of Rotterdam, the Creative Industries Fund, the Dutch Film Fund, the VSB Fund, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the SNS REAAL Fund and Stichting Volkskracht.