Architecton (in-person & online)

Victor Kossakovsky follows Gunda – his black and white treatise on a pig and her young – with a documentary that offers us a god’s eye view of man’s attempt to build with and against the elements. Told largely without narration, Kossakovsky’s camera shows construction – the churning rock at quarries shot in hallucinogenic 96 frames per second – and devastating destruction, such as the aftermath of Turkish earthquakes. Our guide across this grand terrain is architect Michele De Lucchi, offering us hints at ways we can find new ideas of beauty, ones that speak to eternal principles while also pushing us to a new future.

Kossakovsky’s jaw-dropping documentary asks searching questions about our use of natural resources, but with a lightness of touch that manages to trip effortlessly from ruined Ukrainian cities – a concrete tomb for a country in turmoil – to ancient stone monuments in Lebanon. For anyone who values the power of architecture, as well as epic scale filmmaking, this is a film pulled from the earth that will hold you rapt.