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# Starchitects, Sustainability, and Virtual Reality at the Architecture and Design Film Festival
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/architecture-design-film-festival-2017/
- Published: 2017-10-30T21:43:19.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:26:19.000Z
- Description: The ninth edition of New York's Architecture and Design Film Festival balances movies about boldface names with documentaries about historic preservation of the future of urbanism.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: Art, Events, Film, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:30(2016, 2017, part 3)

![Still from <em>Made in Ilima</em> (2017), Thatcher Bean (courtesy Thatcher Bean)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/10/made-in-ilima.jpg)

Still from Made in Ilima (2017), directed by Thatcher Bean (courtesy Thatcher Bean)

It has [been said](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elvis%5FCostello?ref=hyperallergic.com#Misattributed) that writing about music is as utterly nonsensical as dancing about architecture. Making films about architecture is a different matter entirely. For proof, consider the [Architecture and Design Film Festival](http://adfilmfest.com/site/ny2017?ref=hyperallergic.com) (ADFF), the ninth New York edition of which kicks off on November 1\. Over its five-day run it will feature screenings of [34 films](http://adfilmfest.com/site/schedule%5Fny2017?ref=hyperallergic.com) — including four world premieres — a short virtual reality documentary about the enduring influence of Buckminster Fuller, and plenty of post-screening panels and conversations.

And while the New York ADFF’s lineup features plenty of films about the usual starchitects — from the Rem Koolhaas doc [*REM*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9332?ref=hyperallergic.com) and the Australian short [*Getting Frank Gehry*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9319?ref=hyperallergic.com) to the elegiac [*Zaha: An Architectural Legacy*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9343?ref=hyperallergic.com) and the prismatic [*Jean Nouvel: Reflections*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9341?ref=hyperallergic.com) — it will also take up more unexpected and urgent topics. For the preservation-inclined, a [new documentary by Ina Weisse](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9313?ref=hyperallergic.com) tracks the project to renovate Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, while [*SUPERDESIGN*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9370?ref=hyperallergic.com) tells the story of Italy’s radical design period in the 1960s and ’70s. Oscar Boyson’s crowd-sourced short documentary, [*The Future of Cities*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/10106?ref=hyperallergic.com), features citizens from some 75 countries showcasing elements of their local urban design that work for them. Finally, [*Made in Ilima*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/films%5Fny2017/9336?ref=hyperallergic.com) tracks the collective building process of a school and community center by the MASS Design Group in Ilima, a town in a remote and ecologically sensitive region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**When:** Wednesday, November 1–Sunday, November 5  
**Where:** Cinépolis Chelsea (260 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan)

*More info* [*here*](http://adfilmfest.com/site/ny2017?ref=hyperallergic.com)*.*