Architecture & Design Film Series

“M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity” Launches Architecture + Design Free Monthly Film Series at 118 Elliot’s Ongoing Collaboration with American Institute of Architects Vermont and Burlington City Arts Features Simultaneous Showings and Virtual Day-Of Option

14 September 2022, Brattleboro Vermont:  The Architecture + Design Film Series will kick-off its 10th season of free, monthly films shown in person simultaneously at 6:30 pm at 118 Elliot in Brattleboro, 118 Elliot Street, and at Burlington City Arts’ Contois Auditorium up north, on September 21, 2022 with “M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity” (2019, Robin Lutz, 81 minutes, Netherlands, mostly English with some subtitles). Doors open at 6:15 pm. Film showings are free and open to all (masking is optional but appreciated) and are also available for virtual viewing all day through the A+D Film website at: www.adfilmseries.org.

The film, equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, is the story of world famous Dutch graphic artist M.C Escher (1898-1972). Director Robin Lutz’s portrait gives us the man through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form. “The public sees the film through the eyes of Escher himself: The camera is Escher,” Lutz writes. 

“The film’s plot lines interlock like the labyrinth of an Escher print. And driving it all are those Escher words, filled with longing, growing dark (as someone wrote of Bach) with an excess of light,” Penn, of Penn & Teller, wrote in a review.

The Architecture + Design Film Series website  https://adfilmseries.org/films/ offers the history of the film series and descriptions and trailers for all eight movies this season. Here’s the lineup so mark your calendars for these Wednesday showings: October 19 – OLMSTED AND AMERICA’S URBAN PARKS; November 16 – THE LAST ARTISANS OF VENICE; December 14 – FREY I: THE ARCHITECTURAL ENVOY;  January 18 – FREY II: THE ARCHITECTURAL INTERPRETER;  February 15 – DAVID HOCKNEY AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS;  March 15 – LOUIS SULLIVAN: THE STRUGGLE FOR AMERICAN ARCHITECTURE;   April 19 – MAU: DESIGN THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE.

The films will be introduced by Brattleboro-based architect Jim Williams, AIA Vermont Chapter board member and architect for 118 Elliot’s 2015 renovation, who said: “When we decided to expand the film series beyond Burlington four years ago, we chose 118 Elliot because the wonderful transformation of that dilapidated laundromat into a thriving gallery and community gathering space is a vibrant demonstration of the power of good design to effect positive change.” 

118 Elliot Director John Loggia said: “We are pleased to present these thoughtfully curated films for free and open to all, underwritten by 118 and local sponsors as a service to the community to foster understanding and stimulate conversation about the impact of design and beauty in our daily lives.”  

“M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity” (2019, Robin Lutz, 81 minutes, Netherlands, mostly English with some subtitles) tells the story of world famous Dutch graphic artist M.C Escher (1898-1972) through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form. Doors open 6:15 pm, masking is optional but appreciated. Film is also available for virtual viewing all that same day through the A+D Film website at www.adfilmseries.org.