Urbanized

Sylvia Kristel – Paris is a portrait of Sylvia Kristel , best known for her role in the 1970’s erotic cult classic Emmanuelle, as well as a film about the impossibility of memory in relation to biography. Between November 2000 and June 2002 Manon de Boer recorded the stories and memories of Kristel. At each recording session she asked her to speak about a city where Kristel has lived: Paris, Los Angeles, Brussels or Amsterdam; over the two years she spoke on several occasions about the same city. At first glance the collection of stories appears to make up a sort of biography, but over time it shows the impossibility of biography: the impossibility of ‘plotting’ somebody’s life as a coherent narrative.

It’s October 10 2020 and Kim Jong-un presents the largest mobile rocket on Earth. Jippe Liefbroer, Interaction Design student, sees the rocket and thinks: it can be bigger. For his graduation project he built 'Kimmi's worst nightmare', a 31 meter long rocket. That is 1 meter longer than Kim Jung-un's.

"[Hutton’s] latest urban film, New York Portrait, Chapter III, takes on a unique tone in relation to Hutton’s ongoing exploration of rural landscape. The very fact that Hutton is dealing with older footage, with archives of memory more than immediacy, gives it a different texture than his earlier New York films. Hutton always found the presence of nature in the city, not only in his many shots of sky and vegetation, but also in the geometry and texture of the city itself, which seemed to project an independence from the human." (Tom Gunning)

Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.

Chapter Two represents a continuation of daily observations from the environment of Manhattan compiled over a period from 1980-1981. This is the second part of an extended life's portrait of New York.

Through a collage of spaces and times, the interventions and interferences of nature and human beings in the south of Brazil reveals themselves... or try to hide.

In 1968, art students Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell made a trippy photo collage for their musician friends Syd, David and Roger. The resulting album and album cover, A Saucerful of Secrets, helped launch two careers: that of Pink Floyd, one of the 70s megabands, and of Hipgnosis, which, over the course of the next 25 years, designed a stream of iconic album covers.

In Humberstone (Chile), little was left of the saltpeter's prosperity. Near the old Fordlandia (PA), squatter houses are the last signs of the city built by Henry Ford. Armero (Colombia), had its population wiped out by the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano in 1985. Twenty-five years after a flood, ruins of Villa Epecuén (Argentina) expose the remains of the old water station.

Several days in the lives, and profiles of, the owners and players of the open air street chess tables in downtown San Francisco. An informative and insightful portrait of a freely public, yet effectively anonymous, subculture: a unique and colorful patch of eccentric americana in the urban quilt of an international city. —Anonymous

Toypunks is a documentary film series covering the converging world of Japanese toys, fashion and punk rock. Exploring the birth of the designer vinyl explosion from its roots in character culture and punk music, Toypunks takes you in-depth with Japanese fashion icon, Hikaru Iwanaga, creator of the worlds first designer toy. Frank Kozik, Hiddy Kinoshita of Secret Base, Balzac, Three Tides Tattoo and more are interviewed highlighting profound cross-cultural connections between todays top creative talents in toys and fashion.

One billion people on our planet—one in six—live in shantytowns, slums or squats. Slums: Cities of Tomorrow challenges conventional thinking to propose that slums are in fact the solution, not the problem, to urban overcrowding caused by the massive migration of people to cities. (Lynne Fernie, HotDocs)

Since the end of World War II, one of kind of urban residential development has dominate how cities in North America have grown, the suburbs. In these artificial neighborhoods, there is a sense of careless sprawl in an car dominated culture that ineffectually tries to create the more organically grown older communities. Interspersed with the comments of various experts about the nature of suburbia

Narrated by Queen Latifah, this documentary follows Elsie, a black Labrador mix, and her struggled to raise her puppies on the streets of Los Angeles.

Marginal

A film about Maija Isola, the designer of Finland’s most beloved fabrics. Her bold designs, which include classics like Unikko, Kivet, Kaivo and Melooni, were essential in creating Marimekko’s lifestyle universe. The film shows the secrets to the success of Maija Isola’s fabrics, the values at the heart of Isola’s globetrotter lifestyle, and the legacy she left us. The film is narrated by Maija Isola, as well as her daughter Kristina Isola. It takes us close to Maija as a person, artist, thinker and visionary through her letters. We also hear Armi Ratia’s thoughts on Isola both as an employee and as a friend.

While gun violence was on the decline in most major US cities, why did it continue to increase in Chicago's segregated communities? What is known about the systems that created the problem, the laws that isolated it, and the policies that abandoned it? Using dramatic footage, including interviews with residents on the front lines over the last 15 years, this documentary opens a rare historical window into the systematic creation of poverty stricken communities plagued by gun violence. 

A historical overview of Sisak, the city on three rivers, from the Roman era to the post-WWII industrialization.

This short documentary films some of the wild animal species that have adapted to the city of Vancouver, from the familiar pigeons and starlings to the less familiar herons nesting in Stanley Park and a coyote in a farmer's field.

A poetic and beautiful tribute to the city of Bergen, Norway. Based on archive footage from the last century and packed with Bergen music from Grieg to Vaular.

Made on a wind-up Bolex camera, The Sound of Seeing announced the arrival of 21-year-old filmmaker Tony Williams. Based around a painter and a composer wandering the city (and beyond), the film meshes music and imagery to show the duo taking inspiration from their surroundings.