Grace Farms to Host Second Annual Humanity in Architecture Film Festival in Collaboration with Architecture & Design Film Festival

Saturday, January 31, 2026 (10am – 5pm)

Brief introductory remarks by Kyle Bergman and Toshihiro Oki and the premiere of Dancing Trees, directed, filmed, and edited by Ben Stamper.

Dancing Trees

18 mins | USA | 2026

Director: Ben Stamper

The film follows the design and fabrication process of Dancing Trees, the new site-specific handmade seating designed by Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA, which were sited on Grace Farms’ Plaza on the occasion of Grace Farms’ 10-year anniversary. The film features new commentary from Sejima, as well as footage of her design process and a viewing of the installation.

Søren Pihlmann: Make Materials Matter 
54 mins | Denmark | 2025

Directors: Marc-Christoph Wagner and Simon Weyhe

[Trailer]

The global construction industry uses far too many resources and emits too much CO2. Far too often, buildings are demolished and materials thrown away to build new houses. Not only is this approach unsustainable from a sustainability perspective; it also overlooks the potential, not to mention the poetry, that is present in what exists. In recent years, this discussion about how we live, build and design our physical surroundings has gained a distinct Danish voice that is gaining global attention. Through several projects, architect Søren Pihlmann has demonstrated how houses can be transformed by reusing their inherent materials. In 2025, Søren Pihlmann curated the Danish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale – a building that needed both climate protection and an overall upgrade. The renovation itself thus became an experimental exhibition that showed how the materials themselves helped to create the pavilion’s future.

Followed by a conversation about the film with Søren Pihlmann and Grace Farms CEO & Founder Sharon Prince. 

Saturday, January 31

Bawa’s Garden (10:45 am – 12:30 pm)
89 mins | UK, Sri Lanka | 2022
Director: Clara Kraft Isono

[Trailer]

Presented in partnership with New York Botanical Garden

Bawa’s Garden is a road movie in search of the work of renowned Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa. The film follows a protagonist scouring the island for the “lost” garden of Lunuganga. While finding the treasure may be the goal, the journey becomes a catalyst for encounters with a series of characters and rarely seen buildings that illuminate Bawa’s life and work. Shot across Sri Lanka, this experimental documentary blends dreamlike storytelling with real-life figures deeply connected to Bawa’s legacy. The result is an alternative docudrama that mirrors the eclectic, quietly moving spirit of Bawa’s architecture, landscapes, and collaborators.

Followed by a Q&A with Director Clara Kraft Isono, Sean Anderson, Associate Professor, Cornell University and former Associate Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art, and Kyle Bergman, Architecture & Design Film Festival Founder and Director.

If You Build It (11:00am – 12:30pm)
85 mins | USA | 2013
Director: Patrick Creadon

[Trailer]

From the director of WORDPLAY and I.O.U.S.A. comes a captivating look at a radically innovative approach to education. IF YOU BUILD IT follows designer-activists Emily Pilloton and Matthew Miller to rural Bertie County, the poorest in North Carolina, where they work with local high school students to help transform both their community and their lives. Living on credit and grant money and fighting a change-resistant school board, Pilloton and Miller lead their students through a year-long, full-scale design and build project that does much more than just teach basic construction skills: it shows ten teenagers the power of design-thinking to re-invent not just their town but their own sense of what’s possible.

Directed by Patrick Creadon and produced by Christine O’Malley and Neal Baer, IF YOU BUILD IT offers a compelling and hopeful vision for a new kind of classroom in which students learn the tools to design their own futures.

Followed by brief closing remarks by Toshihiro Oki.

Gateways to New York (11:15 am – 12:45 pm)
88 mins | Switzerland | 2018
Director: Martin Witz

[Trailer]

Gateways to New York chronicles the extraordinary career of Swiss structural engineer Othmar H. Ammann, who emigrated to New York in 1904 and transformed the skyline with groundbreaking bridge designs. His legacy includes the George Washington Bridge, Bayonne Bridge, Triborough, Bronx-Whitestone, Throgs Neck, and the Verrazano-Narrows.

Ammann’s work defined the modern American bridge—and the century that shaped it. This beautifully told documentary places his life and designs within the sweeping story of 20th-century America: the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, mass motorization, suburbanization, and post-war prosperity.

James Hubbell: Between Heaven and Earth (1:15 – 2:30 pm)
66 mins | USA | 2019
Directors: Marianne Gerdes & Michael Gerdes
[Trailer]

James Hubbell has spent a lifetime in dialogue with the world, using art and architecture to give form to his beliefs. Living in harmony with nature at his Southern California mountain home, Hubbell has created exquisite works commissioned for churches, synagogues, parks—even a palace. Melding tile, glass, iron, clay, and stone into unified expressions, he transforms every element—from door handles to rooftops—into art. At age 87, his quiet but powerful voice reminds us that creativity transcends age, strength, and scale. Between Heaven and Earth is a moving portrait of an artist whose work speaks when words fall short.

Followed by a Q&A with Director Marianne Gerdes, Drew Hubbell, Architect, Principal of Hubbell & Hubbell Architects, and Kyle Bergman, Architecture & Design Film Festival Founder and Director.

Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz (1:30 – 2:45 pm)

55 mins | Italy | 2024
Directors: Francesca Molteni, Mattia Colombo
[Trailer]

This documentary explores the revolutionary green architecture of Emilio Ambasz, a pioneer in the dialogue between built environments and nature. For over four decades, Ambasz has reimagined how architecture can be emotionally resonant and ecologically sustainable.

With commentary from renowned architects like Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma, Green Over Gray reveals Ambasz’s prescient vision—one where design serves both people and planet in profound and poetic ways.

Followed by a Q&A with Todd Forrest, Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections at the New York Botanical Garden and Toshihiro Oki.

Integral Man (1:45 – 2:50 pm)

62 mins | Canada | 2016
Director: Joseph Clement
[Trailer]

Mathematician Jim Stewart, one of the most published in the world, spent a decade designing Integral House—a Toronto home that reflects his twin obsessions: curves and music.

A masterpiece of architecture, the house features fluid wooden forms and dramatic acoustics, earning acclaim as one of Toronto’s best performance spaces. Integral Man, Joseph Clement’s debut film, is a meditative portrait of Stewart’s passions, pairing exquisite visuals and sound with the story of a life lived through beauty and intellect.

The Promise. Architect BV Doshi (3:15 – 4:45 pm)

90 mins | Germany | 2023
Director: Jan Schmidt-Garre
[Trailer]

The Promise honors the late B.V. Doshi, one of modern architecture’s most revered figures. Known for his captivating designs and deeply humanist philosophy, Doshi’s legacy extends beyond buildings—it lives in the countless lives he touched through teaching, collaboration, and generosity. This documentary is a moving tribute to a master whose vision continues to shape the future of architecture.

Building on the Edge (3:30 – 5 pm)

73 mins | USA | 2025

Directors: Mike Scalisi and Bruce Borowsky

[Trailer]

Few architects ever have the chance to design buildings for one of the most extreme environments on Earth—Antarctica. Building on the Edge tells the story of one such group of designers. When scientists at NOAA grew frustrated by the poor design quality available within strict government budgets, they took an unconventional leap: they invited the University of Colorado’s Master of Architecture Design/Build class to take on the challenge.

The students were tasked not only with designing functional structures in a landscape better suited to penguins and seals than humans, but also with navigating a complex logistical puzzle. Their buildings would need to be built in Colorado, disassembled, shipped to Chile, loaded onto a vessel capable of braving the infamous Drake Passage, and finally transferred by rubber raft to the Antarctic coast, where they’d be reassembled on-site. Building on the Edge captures the thrill of design idealism clashing with the challenges of full-scale reality.

Followed by a Q&A with Erick Sommerfeld, Director of Graduate Studies at University of Colorado, Kyle Bergman, ADFF Founder and Director, and Toshihiro Oki, Grace Farms Architecture Advisor

Glen Murcutt: Spirit of Place (3:45 – 4:45pm)

59 mins | Australia | 2017
Director: Catherine Hunter
[Trailer]

Glenn Murcutt: Spirit of Place explores the life and legacy of Australia’s most celebrated living architect. Winner of the Pritzker Prize, Murcutt has crafted a globally influential body of work—without ever building outside of Australia.

Known for energy-efficient designs in harmony with their environment, Murcutt’s buildings are models of sustainability and beauty. Now in his 80s, he takes on his most ambitious project yet: designing a mosque for a Muslim community in Melbourne.

Building Bastille! The Tangled and Improbable Story of the Opera Bastille (6 – 7:15 pm)

76 mins | Canada | 2021
Director: Leif Kaldor
[Trailer]

A half-billion dollar project. A crushing architectural challenge. An impossible deadline. Two political adversaries—and a blind competition. What could go wrong?

Set in 1982, Building Bastille! recounts the improbable tale of how a little-known Canadian architect, Carlos Ott, won the commission to build Paris’s new opera house—thanks to a blind submission mistaken for a design by Richard Meier. Drama erupts when right-wing Prime Minister Jacques Chirac halts the project, clashing with Socialist President Mitterrand. But, as with all French politics, things are never as they seem. A comedic and dramatic saga, this documentary tells one of modern architecture’s most unlikely success stories.

365 Lukes Wood Road

New Canaan, CT 06840

$15-$20 per film; Shuttles are available on a regular basis from the New Canaan train station from 9:45 am to 8 pm on Saturday, January 31.