ADFF LA Starts Next Week

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Subject: ADFF LA Starts Next Week

October 16, 2025

ADFF:LA starts next week! We're showing 13 films this year, starting with a special screening on Saturday, October 18 in the Helms Design District. Then we'll have 12 screenings over 3 days at the Culver Theatre in the center of Culver City.

Speakers include several of the filmmakers, along with Critic Frances Anderton, Architect Hernan Diaz-Alonso, Curator of AD&A's Architecture and Design Collection Silvia Perea, and Dean of Sci-Arc Winka Dubbelda.

All ADFF:LA films are LA premieres, so don't miss your first chance to see them on the big screen.

Saturday, October 18

Free screening! The film will play every hour on the hour from 11am-6pm at Helms Design Center. The final screening will begin at 5pm. This event is part of the Culver City Art Walk at Helms Bakery.

Søren Pihlmann: Make Materials Matter

2025 / 54 min / Denmark
Directors: Marc-Christoph Wagner and Simon Weyhe

The global construction industry is one of the planet’s most resource-hungry and polluting sectors. But a shift is underway. In recent years, Søren Pihlmann has emerged in the global conversation about how we live, build, and shape our surroundings using existing materials.

Wednesday, October 22

Identita: Film o českém grafickém designu (2024) - TRAILER HD

6:00pm

Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story

2024 / 85 min / Czech Republic

Directors: Kateřina Mikulcova and Petr Smelik

Tickets

What does a country’s design aesthetic reveal about its identity? That’s the animating question behind Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story, a documentary that pairs cultural inquiry with personal narrative. At its center is Nicholas Lowry, a charismatic Czech-American auctioneer and obsessive collector who returns to his ancestral homeland to investigate a design tradition, a national identity, and himself.

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6:15pm

Living in a Piece of Furniture – Gerrit Rietveld's Houses

2024 / 52 min / Netherlands

Director: Lex Reitsma

Tickets

Known for his Red and Blue Chair and the groundbreaking Schröder House, architect Gerrit Rietveld believed that homes should function like living sculptures. Exploring several of Rietveld’s private residential projects through the experiences of their current residents, this film reveals how his design philosophy shaped not only the spaces themselves but the lives within them.

8:15pm

Lewerentz Divine Darkness

2024 / 70 min / Sweden

Director: Sven Blume

Tickets

Sigurd Lewerentz did not seek fame. This film begins decades after the architect’s death, when an unexpected discovery in a root cellar cracks open the mystery of his work. A treasure trove of beautiful black and white film clips and audio recordings reveals fascinating moments between the architect and his friend Bernt Nyberg, guiding us through an unexpected journey into Lewerentz’s singular legacy.

8:30pm

Building on the Edge

2025 / 73 min / US

Directors: Mike Scalisi and Bruce Borowsky

Tickets

Few architects ever have the chance to design buildings for one of the most extreme environments on Earth—Antarctica. When scientists at NOAA grew frustrated by the poor design quality available within strict government budgets, they took an unconventional leap: they invited the University of Colorado’s Master of Architecture Design/Build class to take on the challenge. Building on the Edge captures the thrill of design idealism clashing with the challenges of reality.

Sunday, October 26

12:30pm

Changing Lanes

2025 / 73 min / US

Director: Ben Wolf

Tickets

After a beloved teacher is tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a grassroots movement emerges to transform a notoriously dangerous four-lane boulevard into a safer, two-lane street with protected bike lanes. While many applaud the proposed road diet, it also sparks a backlash—led in part by a powerful local business owner. As government support begins to waver, neighbors unite to challenge entrenched interests and fight for a safer Greenpoint.

2:25pm

The Space Architect

2025 / 40 min / US

Director: Rebecca Carpenter

Tickets

The Space Architect introduces us to architect Constance Adams, whose groundbreaking work at NASA reimagined how humans might live in outer space. At age 53, knowing she was dying of cancer, Adams enlisted the help of filmmaker Rebecca Carpenter to preserve her story. Filmed just four days before her death, The Space Architect captures Adams reflecting on her extraordinary career and her final, passionate focus towards Earth.

4:15pm

Prickly Mountain and My Design Build Life

2025 / 90 min / US

Director: Allie Rood

Tickets

Prickly Mountain and My Design Build Life takes us to Warren, Vermont—a remarkable small town with more architects and designers per capita than anywhere else in the USA. Director Allie Rood, who grew up in this vibrant environment, offers an insider’s perspective on a place where design is not just a profession, but a way of life.

6:30pm

Kensington Market: Heart of the City

2024 / 104 min / Canada

Director: Stuart Clarfield

Tickets

Kensington Market: Heart of the City is a richly textured portrait of one of Toronto’s most storied neighborhoods. It is an ever-evolving enclave shaped by more than 160 years of immigration, artistry, and individuality. Through the eyes of the neighborhood’s vibrant personalities, the film reveals a community fighting not just for affordable rents, but for the soul of a place they have helped define.

Monday, October 27

6:00pm

Miralles

2024 / 90 min / Spain

Director: Maria Mauti

Tickets

Miralles is a visually striking journey into the life and work of Catalan architect Enric Miralles, whose brilliant mind was taken from the world too soon when he passed away just before his 50th birthday. With lyrical narration by acclaimed Spanish author Sara Mesa, Miralles moves like memory itself—fluid, non-linear, full of color and longing. The film drifts through space and time, searching for the architect in the traces he left behind.

6:15pm

At the Garden's Pace

2024 / 70 min / Netherlands

Director: Juan Benavides

Tickets

At the Garden’s Pace tracks a design-build process of a striking new modern pavilion within a botanical garden dedicated to conifers in the Dutch town of Hilversum. Featuring compelling characters and a satisfying conclusion, the documentary thoughtfully explores how bold contemporary architecture can find harmony within a century-old landscape.

8:15pm

Tracing Light

2024 / 99 min / Germany

Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer

Tickets

Renzo Piano once said, “Light is not just something that allows us to see. It is a material that gives form, emotion, and life to architecture.” Tracing Light invites us to contemplate this mysterious and fundamental force that shapes our world and our built environment. Visually striking and thought-provoking, this film expresses the language of architecture, sensation, and cinema itself.

8:15pm

We The Others

2024 / 55 min / Italy

Director: Francesca Molteni

Tickets

Shot several years after Fernando Campana's passing, his brother Humberto leads audiences through the iconic duo's humble beginnings, their prolific creative journey, and their enduring commitment to social and environmental impact. With behind-the-scenes access, the documentary explores Parque Campana, their studio’s latest initiative—an architectural park that is a tribute to creativity rooted in community, craft, and nature.

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Subject: ADFF LA Starts Next Week