60 films on design and architecture at the Anteo palazzo del cinema for the Milan design film festival 2017. Info, prices and the must-see events from 19 to 22 October.
The Milan design film festival 2017 (Mdff) presents over 60 films, numerous previews, debates and international guests. The themes of the films and documentaries screening in the event — organised by Antonella Dedini and Silvia Robertazzi, with Porzia Bergamasco as curator — range from contemporary architecture and the many social issues it involves, to design, with interviews and in-depth looks at the work of many internationally acclaimed authors. The packed screening programme at the Anteo palazzo del cinema in Milan from 19 to 22 October is not aimed solely at industry insiders, but offers topics of general interest to a wide audience, such as greenery in cities, the reappraisal of craftsmanship, and the sustainability of everyday object production.
The programme of the fifth edition of the Milan design film festival is divided into six sections, each with a subtitle reflecting a different sense of the word "time" in relation to the overarching theme, Portraits of our time. Ritratti del nostro tempo. The subtitles are:
The guest curators of the 2017 edition are designers Patricia Urquiola and Alberto Zontone, who propose a selection of titles spanning history, science fiction and art in a section called Cronotopia, in which they offer a reading of the relationship between time and visionary capacity.
Borsalino city by Enrica Viola, 2016, is the story of the legendary Borsalino hat, which became an icon thanks to cinema. In Hollywood's golden age, everyone wore one. Less well known is that this myth was born in a city in the Italian provinces, Alessandria, and that for more than 125 years a single family has been at the head of the empire founded by Giuseppe Borsalino. Evoking the memories of workers of a bygone era, the film tells the story of the fabulous encounter between the dream of an entrepreneur who started from nothing and the great industry of desires that was twentieth-century cinema.
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Hands on. Crafting serenity in design, a Dutch film by Marco Sweering, 2017, on the theme of European craftsmanship, is a journey with designer Emmanuel Babled across Europe in rediscovery of making by hand — something that throughout history has represented an essential part of our lives. Now, however, in an era in which mass production has almost entirely replaced traditional methods, it is being lost. The documentary examines the important role that craftsmanship can play in contemporary design culture, looking at the many possible facets of this challenge.
Gillo Dorfles. In un bicchier d'acqua is a film by Francesco Clerici, 2017. A portrait/self-portrait of Gillo Dorfles, the legendary art critic still active at the age of 107, seen through his favourite objects in an intimate account, suspended within a house — his own — that is at once a real and symbolic space, mental and physical. Dorfles speaks about the things he holds most dear, blending art-historical culture with everyday objects, family mementoes and previously unseen sculptures, memories and intuitions.
Five seasons: the gardens of Piet Oudolf by Thomas Piper, 2017, is an American film celebrating the creator of the greenery in New York City's High Line park and other iconic urban spaces. Oudolf is the most influential and celebrated landscape designer of the last fifty years, highly sought after for his visionary ideas for garden design, and public spaces in particular. The documentary is an immersion in the life and work of this Dutch master. His works are numerous, among them his private garden in Hummelo, in the Netherlands (Private garden Anja & Piet Oudolf) and what he himself calls his masterpiece: the 7,000-square-metre public garden for the Hauser & Wirth Somerset art gallery in Burton, England.
Il treno di Sottsass, an Italian film by Valeria Parisi, 2017, adds new pieces to the complex creative universe of Ettore Sottsass, the great designer who would have turned 100 this year, also celebrated by the exhibition There is a planet at the Triennale di Milano until 11 March 2018. A free childhood in the mountains, travels to the United States where he discovers industrial culture and the poets of the Beat Generation, the value of colour, the Olivetti years, his countless languages: from ceramics to glass, from design to architecture. The narrator is Sottsass himself, across three interviews gathered at three different moments of his life.
Francis Kéré: an architect between, a German film by director Daniel Schwartz, 2016, recounts the work of architect Francis Kéré on the front line of a paradigm shift within design practice. The architect is world-renowned for using his craft to improve social, economic and political environments in his native country, Burkina Faso, and in numerous other countries. Using a combination of low technology and high design, and collaborating with the communities for whom he builds, Kéré always addresses the great contemporary challenges in his projects — from poverty to climate change — seeking innovative and effective solutions.
Read also: Torna il Serpentine pavilion, il padiglione londinese ispirato a un villaggio del Burkina Faso
Songs next door tells the story of the La Maladrerie social housing complex in Aubervilliers, France, through the singing of its residents. Director Flavie Pinatel presents a poetic, non-didactic documentary that, through the juxtaposition of places and music, speaks to viewers' emotions. The architectural complex embodies the utopian vision of Algerian architect Renée Gailhoustet, who sees social housing as a hybrid model free of functional divisions, with a variable floor plan and surrounded by greenery. In the film, people use their songs to communicate their culture and aspirations, while the images show the way residents share spaces, in play and in everyday life.
Individual screenings cost 5 euros, a day pass 15 euros and an unlimited pass 40 euros. For students, every screening includes 10 free admissions. There is a 30 per cent discount on passes for the over-65s and for those who subscribe to or already hold the Mdff Card amici. Tickets can also be purchased online on the Anteo palazzo del cinema website. Workshop attendance is free, subject to availability.