Spend your Memorial Day Weekend watching movies with us! Offered in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, this four-day, at-home film festival explores how filmmakers use architecture to tell extraordinary stories. Stream the movies at home, then join CAC staff and guest experts for discussion.
Registration grants access to Zoom discussions only; attendees are responsible for viewing films on their own. Links for streaming options to view the films will be provided via email.
Participants may choose to stream the films according to our recommended start times—which will result in the film ending just as the discussion begins—or at their own convenience.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE & GUEST SPEAKERSFriday, May 22: BLADE RUNNER(Ridley Scott, 1982, 117 Mins)
In a dystopian imagining of Los Angeles in the year 2019, the Tyrell Corporation develops androids, identified as “replicants,” to serve as slaves. The corporation hires a former LAPD officer (Harrison Ford) to hunt down a fugitive group of replicants living undercover as humans. Incorporating a selection of iconic landmark buildings, including Los Angeles Union Station, the Bradbury Building and the Frank Lloyd Wright−designed Ennis-Brown House, BLADE RUNNER's futurist production design brilliantly incorporates historic architecture.
Guest Co-Host Christopher Hawthorne is Chief Design Officer for the City of Los Angeles and former architecture critic for The Los Angeles Times. Hawthorne is also Professor of Practice at the University of Southern California’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
Saturday, May 23: COLUMBUS
(Kogonada, 2017, 100 Mins)
The Korean-American son (John Cho) of a celebrated architecture scholar finds himself in Indiana, where his father lies comatose in a local hospital. He strikes up a friendship with Casey (Haley Lu Richardson), a young woman who works in the local library but dreams of leaving town to study architecture. With expertly composed shots of Columbus’ remarkable collection of modernist buildings, CLOUMBUS examines themes of family obligation, home and identity, using architecture as its guiding metaphor.
Guest Co-Host Anne Surak is Director of Exhibit Columbus with more than 15 years of experience creating collaboration-based projects and gallery exhibitions. Owner of the consulting firm art + space, Surak was the inaugural director of Project 4 gallery in Washington, D.C.
Sunday, May 24: AN ENGINEER IMAGINES
(Marcus Robinson, 2019, 80 Mins)
This cinematic homage to Peter Rice traces the Irish structural engineer’s extraordinary life and career, from his Dundalk childhood to his work on the Sydney Opera House, the Centre Pompidou and the Lloyd’s Building, to his untimely death in 1992. Marcus Robinson uses stunning time-lapse photography and illuminating interviews to tell the story of a genius who stood in the shadow of architectural icons—until now.
Guest Co-Host Aaron Mazeika is a Director of Structural Engineering at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. He has overseen the structural design of 800 West Fulton Market in Chicago and more than 30 high-rise towers in China, including the New Poly Plaza in Beijing.
Monday, May 25: THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
(Joel and Ethan Coen, 1994, 111 Mins)
A conniving executive (Paul Newman) devises a corporate takeover after a company’s founder dies. To devalue its stock, he promotes naïve business school graduate and amateur inventor Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) from mailroom clerk to the board of directors. But when Barnes’s latest invention succeeds, the company’s value launches into the stratosphere. THE HUDSUCKER PROXY weaves together iconic Chicago locations with exquisite models to create a larger-than-life metropolis, punctuated by real-life Art Deco treasures.
Guest Co-Host Jean L. Guarino, PhD is a historian who prepares assessments, reports and surveys of historic buildings and landscapes. For the book “Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America,” she contributed essays on multiple Chicago skyscrapers of the 1920s.
PRICING
$9 per post-screening discussion; four-film festival passes $27$7 per post-screening discussion; four-film festival passes $21 (CAC & Music Box Theatre members)
Buy tickets for all four discussions and save! Discount will automatically apply when all tickets are added to the cart. Scroll to the bottom of the page to register.
Music Box Theatre members can purchase discounted tickets by clicking “Register,” selecting “yes” when asked, “Are you a CAC member?” and clicking “Forgot Password?” Enter the email address associated with your Music Box Theatre membership, then “Reset Password,” and your ability to purchase discounted tickets will be activated.
This program will be hosted on Zoom. You will receive an email directly from Zoom on the day of each program with details about how to access and view it.
If you don’t receive the Zoom link three hours before the program please contact tickets@architecture.org.
NOTES:
Discussions are approximately one hour and begin at 8pm Central Time.Registration grants access to Zoom discussions only; attendees are responsible for viewing films on their own. Links for streaming options to view the films will be provided via email.The deadline to register, both for individual events and full festival passes, is noon Central Time on Friday, May 22.