Soviet Bus Stops

Soviet Bus Stops 2024

1

“There’s a bus stop I want to photograph.” This may sound like a parody of an esoteric festival film, but Canadian Christopher Herwig’s photography project is entirely in earnest, and likely you will be won over by his passion for this unusual subject within the first five minutes. Soviet architecture of the 1960s and 70s was by and large utilitarian, regimented, and mass-produced. Yet the bus stops Herwig discovers on his journeys criss-crossing the vast former Soviet Bloc are something else entirely: whimsical, eccentric, flamboyantly artistic, audacious, colourful. They speak of individualism and locality, concepts anathema to the Communist doctrine. Herwig wants to know how this came to pass and tracks down some of the original unsung designers, but above all he wants to capture these exceptional roadside way stations on film before they disappear.

2024

Backwards

Backwards 1970

1

In a corporate world where people walk backwards, Minus needs to control his instincts to fit in society and climb the social ladder.

1970

Space and Light

Space and Light 1972

10.00

An award-winning wordless documentary that explores the architecture of the then new St. Peter's Seminary which is now seen as one of the most important post-war buildings in the United Kingdom. The film was made in celebration after architect Jack Coia was awarded the RIBA Gold Medal in 1969. Winner of the Medalla de Bronce at the Fifth Union of International Architects Festival in Madrid (1975).

1972

Brutalism

Brutalism 2019

1

Beneath towering Brutalist architecture, a man is driven to do what must be done.

2019

Lasnamäe

Lasnamäe 1986

1

The director asks straightforward questions in a phone call to the lead architect of the district of Lasnamäe, Malle Meelak. The topics include the bureaucracy, planning and living quality in the brutalist district of panel houses. He gets surprisingly straightforward answers because Meelak doesn't know that the call is being recorded. Later, in a public interview conducted in front of the camera, Meelak's answers are quite different.

1986

Bauta

Bauta 2018

6.00

Bauta is a short documentary that explores public, monumental buildings in Norway - stone and concrete buildings. By the public they have the desire to be torn down, or are not given particular aesthetic value. But what about when people are out of the buildings and they get to stand for themselves? Bauta provides a new experience of space and architecture.

2018

Ad Astra

Ad Astra 2015

1

A visual journey through Norwegian modernist church architecture. A short documentary film that pays tribute to the Norwegian church and post-war postmodernist architects for its daring reform of the 50-70's innovative church building. Raw concrete and cold clean lines in a functionalist style were in line with society's development, but in stark contrast to what the church had previously represented. The film portrays 25 of these churches from all over the country

2015

Brutalism

Brutalism 2014

1

Black giants break classical architecture and rebuild them into Brutalistic structure.

2014

Bad Blood

Bad Blood 2013

1

"A Brutalist film-poem about the nature of a family tree and the macabre ancestral tales that work their way into your identity, whether you like it or not. A collaborative work that blends the poetry of Adelle Stripe, the music of C.A.R., and my hand-processed Super 8 imagery." — M.J.

2013