With a full slate comprising some of the most innovative films centred on architecture and design to be screened through January 10-12, 2025, the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) makes its way from New York to Mumbai, India, for its South Asian premiere, creating fertile ground for elevating creative discourse with the wider public, and for a meta-disciplinary peek into the creative fields in a format yet unforeseen in the country. ADFF:STIR Mumbai is poised to be the first of its kind event in the subcontinent that dwells on the intersections of two vital storytelling and worldbuilding mediums: cinema and design, the latter encompassing all multitudes of creative vocations. Presented by STIR and taking over the iconic National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), the design event comes with a roster full of films, conversations, in-person interactions, pavilions and other special projects, threaded together by their engagement with the cinematic.

The films selected for the debut edition of ADFF:STIR Mumbai form part of a curated, cohesive programme that seeks to frame the innovative in the creative professions, provide valuable insights into the lives of creatives going behind the scenes of some of their most iconic creations, their 'process' and exploring how ethical engagement with these spheres has the ability to impact the sociality of our lives for good. Platforming inspirational stories of changemakers working to combat a crisis-defined world—in part created by the very fundamental human endeavour of designing—from the climate emergency to overconsumption and resource depletion, the design festival opens up to include everyone in discussions that may come to shape our built environment.

Kicking off the design festival, a special red carpet premiere evening on January 9 will showcase This is Not a House (2023) by Morgan Neville. The film chronicles the construction of one of the most unique homes in the world, the Hill House in Montecito, a rather delightful structure designed by Robin Donaldson of Donaldson+Partners, born of the combined power of art, technology and a celebration of play. Speaking on the lineup, Kyle Bergman, founder and director of ADFF, stresses that the idea with this unique iteration of the festival was to not only present urgent topics through the lens of design and its interactions with our world but to also augment how we perceive South Asian architecture and related narratives as part of the programme. Echoing the same plurality and intent to platform a multitude of voices, STIR presents a list of themes, highlights, special feature presentations and the best of films to be showcased at ADFF:STIR Mumbai.

Thinking-with nature: Biocentrics and Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz

Moving away from a position that only responds to human concerns through design, biophilic principles and nature-based processes present a new way of caring that considers the more-than-human as a vital part of our world. Depicting a perspective that prioritises nature, Biocentrics (2024) by Ataliba Benaim and Fernanda Heinz Figueiredo follows Janine Benyus, who proposes natural systems as a model for reinventing our world. The film details the principles of biomimicry through Benyus’ work, which gives precedence to the interconnections between Indigenous cultures and knowledge.

Another way to consider the role of nature in design is presented in Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz (2004) by Francesca Molteni and Mattia Colombo. Depicting the life of pioneering Argentinian architect Emilio Ambasz, the documentary portrays how Ambasz reimagined the relationship between humans and their environment in his projects, with nature becoming an integral part of the built world.

Rethinking neglect in architecture: Soviet Bus Stops and Robin Hood Gardens

Modernist architecture has always been a portentous topic in polemic circles. Presenting a rather utopian framework for the world to function, the singularity in vision that modernity has borne has often become a point of contention. Exploring these dual implications through the festival, on one hand, Kristoffer Hegnsvad’s Soviet Bus Stops (2023) follows Canadian photographer Christopher Herwig in his quest to uncover the stories of Soviet bus stops. Revealing the intricate histories of these sculptural edifices and the designers who envisioned them, the treasure hunt from Ukraine to Uzbekistan, Armenia to Far Eastern Siberia is a tale of the resilience of individual creativity and its insuppressible imagination. On the other hand, Robin Hood Gardens (2022) by Thomas Beyer and Adrian Dorschner frames the ill-fated yet radical housing estate by Alison and Peter Smithson in 1972 in a new light. As a result of their research into habitats, the council flats in London were disliked by the residents but garnered varied responses from critics. The film navigates this contradiction, questioning if the now-demolished Brutalist structure was truly a failure or simply a misunderstood masterpiece.

Creativity as process: The House: 6 Points of Departure + This Is Not A House and The Promise: Architect BV Doshi

The festival's previous iterations have all pivoted on giving tangible shape to creative processes, adding a novel layer to how cultural discourse around the built environment can be fostered. Two films delve into the processes that have shaped some of the most unique homes in the United States. The House: 6 Points of Departure (2024) / This Is Not A House (2023), presented as a double feature, unravels the stories of American architects Thom Mayne and Robin Donaldson. The first movie follows the duo as they return to the Crawford House in California, a residential building they designed 30 years ago. Remarked as “one of the world’s most widely studied pieces of residential architecture”, the film provides a deep dive into the anecdotes surrounding its conception. This is Not A House (2023) similarly depicts the construction of one of the most distinctive homes in the world. Designed for art collectors by Donaldson+Partners over six years, the delightful structure celebrates play and the combined power of art and technology.

Showcasing stories told by and about the work of one of the masters of Indian architecture, The Promise - Architect BV Doshi (2023) by Jan Schmidt-Garre offers a peek into BV Doshi’s work process. Doshi, who passed away earlier last year, beguiles audiences with his unique presence of mind, humour and wisdom. Through the film, audiences follow the great Indian architect as he visits Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn’s buildings in Ahmedabad, with whom he worked early in his career. Viewers also share a peek into the daily workings of Studio Sangath as Doshi works on new projects in his office. The film gives audiences a rare chance to sit and engage in a one-sided dialogue with one of the greatest minds of the previous generation, and an inspirational figure for all.

Alternative design: Modernism Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Story and Fashion Reimagined

Apart from the extensive ways in which architecture and design can influence us, the event hopes to widen peoples’ perspectives on the creative fields and their impact. A stalwart of American design, Eliot Noyes left an impact on the image of corporate America with his distinct modernist approach. Paving the way for corporate design and design thinking in businesses, he established design departments in companies like IBM and Mobil, setting the stage for Apple’s iconic design aesthetic. This inspirational journey is captured in Modernism Inc.: The Eliot Noyes Story (2023) by Jason Cohn. On a similar note, Fashion Reimagined (2022) by Becky Hunter presents an alternative to the ills of the fashion design industry and its unsustainable culture of overconsumption. Viewers follow Amy Powney, designer of the London brand 'Mother of Pearl' as she reveals how the wasteful supply chains of the industry impact our lives, and how she tries to combat these in her practice.

Legacies, mountains, feminist perspectives and other special features

The film festival will also screen a special remastered and reworked 20th-anniversary edition of the Oscar-nominated film My Architect: A Son's Journey (2003). Following Louis Kahn and his legacy through the eyes of his son, Nathaniel Kahn, the film presents a portrait of “a brilliant but unreliable man” whose work serves as an inspiration to many architects and students of architecture alike. The film will be introduced by Nathaniel Kahn during the festival. Apart from the films listed, the various other screenings that seek to add novel viewpoints to the festival include The Happy Film (2016), directed by Ben Nabors, Stefan Sagmeister and Hillman Curtis, depicting the vibrant world of graphic design through the life of the celebrated Austrian graphic designer pursuing three controlled experiments of meditation, therapy and drugs, turning himself into an art project; Perception (2019) by the Tunisian artist eL Seed which recontextualises Cairo’s Manshiyat Nasr neighbourhood housing the Zaraeeb community of the city’s trash collectors; The Pavilion on the Water (2023) by Stefano Croci and Silvia Siberini detailing Italian architect Carlo Scarpa’s fascination with Japan and the aesthetics of Japanese design; and Making a Mountain (2020) by Rikke Selin Als and Kaspar Astrup Schröder which frames one of the most recognised projects by BIG, the ambitious CopenHill in Denmark, the world’s cleanest waste-to-energy plant.

Telling the often overlooked stories of modernist architecture, other films in the lineup dwell on perspectives other than that of the solo male genius and look to critically examine dominant narratives. These include: E.1027 – Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea (2024) by Beatrice Minger and Christoph Schaub which introduces viewers to the overlooked legacy of Irish architect Eileen Gray through the titular house she built in the south of France, serving as a parable of a woman's creative expression and a man's desire to control it; Charlotte Perriand, Pioneer in the Art of Living (2019) by Stéphane Ghez similarly presents an up-close look at the life and work of pioneering French designer Charlotte Perriand, detailing her contribution to the notion of modern living through design and her intersections with other luminaries of the time such as Corbusier; Schindler Space Architect (2024) by Valentina Ganeva tells the story of a lesser known modernist architect R.M. Schindler who was influential in developing the aesthetics of the Californian lifestyle, dwelling on the philosophy of Space Architecture; Regular or Super: Views on Mies van der Rohe (2004) along with The Mies van der Rohes in a double feature critically dissect van der Rohe’s life and legacy; and The Genius of the Place: The Life and Work of Geoffrey Bawa (2023) by Afdhel Aziz details the impact the renowned Sri Lankan architect had on the built environment of the country, notably through his Tropical Modernist principles.

For more information, visit the ADFF:STIR Mumbai website for key highlights of the festival, including the 20+ films, 10 cinematic pavilions, special projects the ~log(ue) programme, media and press coverage and more. Stay tuned and keep an eye out for ADFF:STIR Mumbai 2026.