The Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival is coming to screens all over the country from May. We look forward to sharing this next festival with you!
A word from the curators
In one of our favourite films of the programme this year, Mary Heilmann: Waves, Roads & Hallucinations, the artist is quoted as saying, "Every time you get a clever idea, it is a consequence of being connected, to a language, to people, that magical and spiritual aspect is the product of a group effort." It's a sentiment we cannot get out of our heads as we ascend on our 14th year of the festival.
Each time, we are motivated to provide a space for Aotearoa's arts and architecture industries to come together and celebrate progressive ways of thinking and creating. It is within this exchange that better worlds are imagined and 'clever ideas' are put into practice. It is also a group effort. We would like to thank our partners at Rialto Cinemas and our sponsors for their unwavering support, allowing us to host a catalogue of films that inspire Aotearoa's most curious minds.
This year, it is also hugely encouraging to feel a wave of local filmmakers swarm onto the scene, with powerful perspectives and a warm Kiwi attitude. A mention must be made to the local talent behind The Chodge film, which takes us through the build of a unique family home on the banks of Lake Whakamaru. It's the result of intuition and engineering that serves a purpose, as well as winning Architectural Designers New Zealand's Supreme Award, impressing the judges for its translucent walls and ceilings.
So, good luck deciding between our exceptional female-led films with notable stand out being Eileen Gray's house E.1027 on the French Riviera. And enjoy rummaging through the archives of architecture visionaries, such as Studio Mumbai in The Sense of Tuning or Rudolph Schindler's bohemian dream home in Schindler Space Architect. Alternatively, move your ideas outside with our beloved Landscape Architecture category: Materials from the Earth.
Our annual programme is becoming its own space. Each cinema session is a home for research, entertainment, and inspiration. It is where builders, makers, and radical thinkers unite. We can't wait to see you there.
—Yasmine Ganley & Sara Black
Rialto Cinemas is proud once again, to bring you the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival.
As we usher in the 14th edition of the festival, we can't help but reflect on the festival's beginnings. Launched in 2012, the festival initially screened exclusively at Rialto Cinemas Newmarket in Auckland. Since then, the festival has expanded into a nationwide event, reaching 12 regions and 15 venues. It has become a key annual film festival in Aotearoa and is one of the largest architecture and design film festivals in the world!
We want to thank our dedicated curatorial partners, who have carefully sourced a rich catalogue of films to build this year's programme and brought the creative vision of the festival to life. We're grateful for their contributions to crafting a festival that continues to challenge, delight, and inspire audiences.
To open the festival, we have a locally made documentary that highlights the talent, vision, and unique architectural stories found right here in Aotearoa. Graeme Murray's The Chodge, opens the doors to Darryl Church's award-winning holiday home on the picturesque banks of Lake Whakamaru, renowned for its striking 'translucent skin' exterior. The film beautifully captures this architectural gem and showcases Church's innovative approach to design. We invite you to step into this truly unique local home—The Chodge is unmissable.
Among this year's standouts are E.1027 — Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea, which explores the designer's iconic modernist villa and her struggle for creative control; The Sense of Tuning, the latest from cult architecture documentarians Bêka & Lemoine (Big Ears Listen With Feet, RADFF 2023; Tokyo Ride, RADFF 2021) which offers a sensory-rich portrait of architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai; and I am Martin Parr, an enormously entertaining look at the acclaimed British photographer, renowned for his unfiltered and mischievous images of British life. Rounding out our selection is Architecton, a poetic study of stone and concrete materials from acclaimed filmmaker Viktor Kossakovsky (Gunda); and Schindler Space Architect, narrated by Academy Award-winner Meryl Streep, which vividly brings the pioneering work of R.M. Schindler to life.
As always, we'd like to thank our sponsors for making this festival possible. A special thanks to Resene, our long-standing Naming Rights Sponsor; our Premiere Gold Sponsor ArchiPro; our Gold Sponsors Fisher & Paykel, Colorsteel, Blum, Home Magazine and Go Media; and our Bronze Sponsors ADNZ (Architectural Designers New Zealand) and Inzide.
—Kathryn Bennett Group Manager, Rialto Cinemas
It's amazing what a difference you can make when you dare to be different and do what others say cannot be done.
We are endlessly inspired by the pioneers all around us, who push ahead with new ideas, and despite the brick walls and obstacles that block the path, thanks to a good dose of persistence and grit they find a way to make things happen.
On the cusp of Resene's 80th birthday, we're always reminded of our own pioneering spirit with Ted Nightingale starting Resene in a concrete mixer in a Wellington garage, making a paint to solve his building problem. Despite being a builder rather than a paint maker, Ted persevered to first make a paint he could use on his own projects, then soon found he had a ready market of other builders clamouring to buy it. And thus, Resene was born.
Resene's story is reminiscent of so many others, where a seemingly small solution to a problem becomes a new way of doing things.
We often see this in the architecture and design space. Problems require creativity to solve them and in that creativity is genius. Not only is the problem solved, but the solution opens up new possibilities in the future. All those things we think can't be done, there's most likely someone out there working on the solution.
We see buildings and landscapes reinvented, we see projects that don't just look good but truly work to support those using the space, and we see projects that bring joy to the community, a much-needed beacon of hope and optimism in sometimes trying times. It's a reminder that creativity, passion, colour and enthusiasm have so much to offer us all.
Thanks to Rialto Cinemas, the Resene Architecture & Design Film Festival has also overcome its own challenges along the way to now be celebrating its 14th anniversary and its status as one of the largest architecture and design festivals in the world. And we've been privileged to be on the journey since the very first film was shown.
We are always delighted to be able to share this fantastic festival with you, in the hopes that it will inspire you as much as it always inspires us.
Enjoy!
—Nick Nightingale
Managing Director, Resene
Get inside the minds of the world's most experienced and experimental architects as they continuously confront the question: 'What do we need?'
The Chodge | Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines | Schindler Space Architect | Architectron | Lewerentz Divine Darkness; The House: 6 Points of Departure + This Is Not A House
Radically minded and unapologetic, these women and their life's work will leave your spirit humming.
E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea + Her Blueprint, Aotearoa | Mary Heilmann: Waves, Roads & Hallucinations | Viva Niki – The Spirit of Niki de Saint Phalle | Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin
Exploring the boundaries of our cultural obsessions, we ask: 'What does an image mean in today's world?'
I Am Martin Parr | Jacquemus: The Prince of Today's Fashion + Richard Serra: You Are the Subject | The Documerica Project + TāWharau Lane: A Sustainability Exemplar
By creating spaces for nature and humanity to merge, we are reminded that our surroundings define us.
The Sense of Tuning | Dale Frank Nobody's Sweetie | We the Others + Fruitvale: A Community Compass for Regeneration | Sitting Still | Ever the Land
Main Centres
Full programme
Auckland | Rialto Cinemas Newmarket | 1 - 21 May |
Nelson | State Cinemas | 8 - 21 May |
Wellington | Embassy Theatre, Light House Cinema Cuba& Petone, Te Papa | 15 May - 2 June |
Christchurch | Deluxe Cinemas | 15 May - 1 June |
Dunedin | Rialto Cinema | 29 May - 11 June |
Hawke's Bay | MTG Century Theatre Napier | 29 May - 11 June |
Festival Selects Locations
Week long festival /Top films from the programme
Blenheim | Event Cinemas | 29 May - 4 June |
Whangarei | Event Cinemas | 29 May - 4 June |
New Plymouth | Event Cinemas | 5 - 11 June |
Palmerston North | Event Cinemas | 5 - 11 June |
Hamilton | Event Cinemas Chartwell | 12 - 18 June |
Tauranga | Event Cinemas Tauranga Central | 19 - 25 June |