Fall is here and ADFF is (almost) here!

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Subject: Fall is here and ADFF is (almost) here!

September 23, 2026

ADFF:NY, presented by Eventscape, is just a few weeks away. This week, we’re highlighting 3 of the 12 films set in three very different cities: Los Angeles, Toronto and Copenhagen.

Interested in the tension between preservation and the space age? Check out Googie. Want to discover how one bold structure helped transform a city? Watch The Tower That Built a City. Curious about social housing and the communities it shapes? Don't miss The Tingbjerg Experiment.

ADFF offers a variety of films, with something to spark everyone’s curiosity.

Googie | Director Jake Gorst | 2026 | 58 min | USA

Jake Gorst is an architectural preservationist at heart, working through the medium of film. This time, he turns his camera toward an architectural movement rooted in Southern California called Googie. This style of design is at the intersection of organic forms, space-age design, and the viewing the world at 30 miles an hour through a cars windshield.

Firms like Armet & Davis brought a space-age sensibility to the ordinary strip, turning the roadside into a kind of public spectacle. The mid-century American style, defined by bold angles, sweeping rooflines, neon signage, and an unabashed belief in the future, was built for the everyday and everyone.

Many original Googie structures are gone, lost to redevelopment and a critical establishment that long dismissed the style as kitsch. Director Jake Gorst's film arrives at a moment when what remains is under active threat. Googie reminds us: What does it look like when a society builds with optimism?

For more information about GOOGIE, including ADFF:NY screening times and tickets, click here.

The Tower That Built A City | Director Mike Myers | 2025 | 92 min | Canada

The Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty are more than landmarks. They have become symbols of their cities and countries. Toronto’s CN Tower belongs in that company.

Built 50 years ago, the tower marked a turning point for Toronto and for Canada. Its story is bold, outrageous and controversial, all the ingredients of a compelling film. Through the lens of one extraordinary structure, The Tower That Built a City tells the story of a city coming of age.

For more information about The Tower That Built a City, including ADFF:NY screening times and tickets, click here.

Hot Docs 2026 Trailer: THE TOWER THAT BUILT A CITY

The Tingbjerg Experiment | Director Louise Detlefsen | 2026 | 86 min | Denmark

The Tingbjerg Experiment film premiered at the prestigious CPH:DOX film festival and then was shown widely on Danish TV. The film is a powerful and provocative story that made the promises and tensions of neighborhood transformation a subject of national discussion.

Tingbjerg is a neighborhood that Copenhagen has long looked at from a distance. It is also the site of what researchers are calling the largest social housing experiment since World War II. In 2018, Denmark passed its "parallel society law,” legislation designed to break up concentrated public housing by introducing private homes into existing social housing districts. In Tingbjerg, that means the neighborhood's population will double over the course of several years, with private homes built among the existing blocks. No one yet knows what this will produce.

Housing is one of the most contested questions in cities right now. How we build it, who it's for and what happens to communities when the calculus changes. These are not abstract questions. Tingbjerg is a test case and this film is an honest document.

Director Louise Detlefsen doesn't approach this as policy. She approaches it as people. The experiment is happening in real time and the film watches without pretending to know the outcome.

For more information about The Tingbjerg Experiment, including ADFF:NY screening times and tickets, click here.