Not only do we bring you world-class films about architecture and the city, but we also bring you competitions, exhibitions, related festivals and launches! It's almost too much to handle!
Our educational initiatives include: a national student architectural photography competition, the Tripod Architecture Photography Students Competition, the top entries of which were exhibited at the Architecture Student Congress 2009/2010; and support and participation in a student film competition, the Moving Spaces Competition. This initiative encourages the production of footage focussing on South Africa’s built environment, and opens up new avenues for students filmmakers.
Below you will find out all about our 'On the Side' events -
The Moving Spaces Competition brings together architecture and film students, and the Architect Africa Film Festival is proud to be part of this initiative. Details for the 2010 competition will be posted here soon!
The film reflects the growth of graffiti and how its existence is based on the existence of walls and concrete.
Graffiti is a form of the public’s voice, a protest and expression of how one views the world. Our film takes an abstract approach to the way in which concrete and graffiti unite to create undivided beauty where each needs the other. The irony in our film is how the existence of graffiti destroys concrete where we can also show the views of other people in how they think graffiti is destructive.
Graffiti acts to serve itself, using concrete as a medium. Our approach is how the two reconnect and bring about the feeling of, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ in a sense where we do not like each other but we will always both exist regardless. We take in a more casual approach to the conflict and turn it into a collaborative growth of both together.
Church Square, Pretoria, 2009. The city is deserted at dawn and slowly people start moving on it. The history of the country, the buildings around them, seems to be the unattended background of their everyday routines.
But there are some that feel the need to experience & question their environment. Through the eyes of an architect and an artist we see the city that could be, a city that grows forth from this context, and extends beyond the physical boundaries. In this utopia, the actors transform the city & in turn exploit the art & architecture that have been neglected & ignored…
“Here be a city, here be inspiration, here be their creation, here be me.”
A city forgets nothing. Its every line contains the story of its history.
Litshe le Golide (Concrete from Gold) is an ethnographic music video that describes the story of a concrete metropolis manifested from a mining heritage. Large mine dumps like desert pyramids worship a rich history of segregation, exploitation, and the birth and palimpsest of Johannesburg. The story is narrated through the words of a poem describing both a love and a hate for a city of many contradictions and beauties.
There was certainly a buzz in the auditorium as students eagerly anticipated the announcement of the winners of the Tripod Architecture Students Photography competition at last night’s Architect Africa Film Festival, held at ASC09. Guy Trangoš, co-organiser of the competition, gave a brief introduction to the competition, before calling upon the winners to collect their certificates and prize money from Karen Eicker, chairperson of the Architects’ Collective.