Dear Friend,

We couldn't hold an architecture & design festival in Chicago and not pay tribute to Mies Van der Rohe, who made his home in the windy city for 31 years after leaving Germany in 1937. ADFF will stage two unique events that put the spotlight on Mies' Farnsworth House (along with Johnson's Glass House).  The first will take place on May 3rd, when a film called Points on a Line will be shown during a cocktail reception at the Wright.  The second event will be a reading of The Glass House, a play by June Finfer, that will take place on May 7th at 1pm Gene Siskel Film Center.   Tickets to both are available on a first-come basis on our website: www.adfilmfest.com.

Twice Upon A Garden 

Director - Philippe Baylaucq

Created during the 1930s, not far from the 49th parallel, Les Jardins de Métis are unlike any other. Situated at the confluence of the Mitis, the legendary salmon river, and the majestic St. Lawrence estuary, they are protected by the site's unique geography and microclimate. This botanical paradise stems from the labours of Elsie Reford, who in 1926 decided to transform her Gaspé fishing camp into gardens. Today, they display some 3,000 species and varieties of indigenous and exotic plants along a kilometre and a half of pathways. Every year, tens of thousands of visitors come to see Elsie's gardens, which have constantly evolved over the past eighty years, as well as the International Garden Festival, which was founded by her great grandson Alexander, and which celebrated its 10th edition in 2009. A film on both the art of nature and the nature of art.

  
Eye Over Prague

 Director - Olga Spátová

The international premiere of a documentary dedicated to the late Czech architect Jan Kaplický, co-founder of London based internationally acclaimed practice Future Systems. The film featuring Brian Clarke, Eva Jiricná, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Václav Havel and the team Future Systems tells the story of Kaplický's last grand design. The project for the National Library in Prague called the Eye over Prague is radical, exciting and far enough ahead of its time to provoke a fair degree of controversy. For Kaplický, a Czech-born émigré, it also represents a triumphant return to his homeland, a vindication of his uncompromisingly forward-looking philosophy and, eventually, a tragically poetic ending to his remarkable career. After winning the international competition chaired by Zaha Hadid, the popular and much supported design met opposition from the Czech government and the local administration and the fierce battle began.

Space, Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm