Architecture

A documentary that uses the rat to explore the complicated history of Baltimore and how racial segregation, redlining, and environmental racism built the American city we see today.

Never before available, Thom Andersen's landmark documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself explores the tangled relationship between the movies and their fabled hometown – as seen entirely though the films themselves.Newly remastered, this kaleidoscopic tour through the metropolis' real and cinematic history, from the silent era to modern times, is an extraordinary achievement, unlike any documentary that has come before or since.

A master of the essay film, Thom Andersen (Los Angeles Plays Itself, Red Hollywood) surveys the work of Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto de Moura - winner of his profession's highest honor, the Pritzker Prize - whose astonishing, often-controversial projects embrace decay, the passage of time, local history, and nature.

A documentary about greed, politics, urban development and renewal, the award-winning Zipper: Coney Island's Last Wild Ride is an absorbing chronicle of the efforts to redevelop an iconic American landmark, Coney Island.

Part city symphony, part visual poem, The Solitary Life of Cranes explores the invisible life of a city, its patterns and hidden secrets, seen through the eyes of crane drivers working high above its streets. Referencing both Ruttmann and Vertov as well as Jane Jacobs' "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," it's a beautiful meditation on how our existence is shaped by the spaces we inhabit.

What does it mean to be gay and old in America? A Place to Live: The Story of Triangle Square addresses this issue by following the construction and development of the country's first affordable housing facility for LGBT seniors.

An urgent, beautifully crafted examination of urban sprawl and its impact on the environment, The Unforeseen is a critically-acclaimed, award-winning documentary from director Laura Dunn and executive producers Terrence Malick and Robert Redford.

When a group of Moroccan street children faced with the choice of emigrating illegally to Europe take part in a treehouse building workshop, they find themselves unexpectedly transformed. This wonderful documentary offers a timely and intimate window into the world of Arab youth.

A magical portrait of Russia's revolutionary artistic avant-garde - Mayakovsky, Voloshin, Blok, Malevich, Tatlin - through the life of Sonia Dymshitz-Tolstaya, an impassioned artist whose life reflected the social upheavals of her time. She was one of the few Jewish women who became part of this inner circle.

From Buena Vista Social Club to Hollywood blockbusters, Havana's crumbling architecture has been romanticized in countless movies. But what about the people who must live in these buildings? A unique thought-provoking portrait of Havana's inhabited ruins and their curious blend of magic and decay.

There was a time when the Salton Sea was known as the Riviera of the West - a premiere vacation destination for the rich and famous. Today, it's considered one of America's worst ecological disasters. Narrated by John Waters, this irreverent documentary looks at exactly what went wrong.

Can a single building impact the career of an architect, the image of a global company and the future of a major city? Building the Gherkin chronicles the design, planning and construction of the controversial Swiss Re building, dubbed 'the erotic gherkin' by the British press.

Chronicles life on East Seventh Street in New York City and its transformations. Residents share their memories of what used to be an immigrant lower-class neighborhood.

This video illuminates the emergence of ecological design in the twentieth century. Beginning with the work of Buckminster Fuller , from the 1920s through the 1960s, continuing through the counter-culture, and ending on the doorstep of the twenty-first century, the video follows the evolution of ecological design from the early visions of a few independent thinkers to the powerful movement it has become today.

This video follows the sculptures of the late Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), one of Europe’s most popular artists, as they are transported from his Swiss studio to their new home at the Museum of Basel.

This video chronicles, from inception to completion, the creation of a commissioned art work, showing how one community comes together to make a vision a reality.

In this offbeat mockumentary, Thompson Merrimack, Chairman of WorldWide Monitor, hosts a performance of the Surveillance Chamber Music Society in a celebration of Jeremy Bentham, whose architectural design of the Panopticon revolutionized systems of penal surveillance in the eighteenth century.

This video examines the ancient Red Sea port of Jeddah, one of the oldest commercial waterways in the world, and renowned in the Middle East as "the Bride of the Sea."

For nearly thirty years, in the longest ongoing war in Africa, the Eritrean people waged a bitter struggle against the occupying forces of the Ethiopian government, which were armed by the Soviet Union and Israel.

Tells the stories of poor people in Philadelphia who illegally take over or `squat' in abandoned houses in order to get places to live and to change housing policy locally and nationally. The film focuses on a 22-year-old single mother of three small children who becomes a leader in the national squatters movement, and includes numerous interviews with activists, real estate developers and government officials.