By Jim Williams, AIA

The Architecture + Design Film Series was started five years ago in Burlington as a way to foster understanding and stimulate conversation about the impact of design and beauty in our daily lives.  The selection of diverse films celebrates design in all its various forms – architecture, landscape design, graphic design, product design, city planning, photography, sculpture, painting, and more.  Film showings are free and open to all, paid for by numerous area sponsors as a gift to their community.

 This year, through the financial commitment of seed funding by the American Institute of Architects Vermont Chapter and the generosity of numerous local sponsors in Southern Vermont and Southern New Hampshire, Season # 6 of the series is being brought to Brattleboro as well.  All eight films will be simultaneously screened in Burlington at Contois Auditorium, and in Brattleboro at 118 Elliot Street once a month on Wednesdays from September through April.

 “For several years now, we have witnessed from afar the ongoing success of this series in Burlington.  We wanted to bring it down to Southern Vermont.  We chose to show the films at 118 Elliot Street, because the transformation of that dilapidated laundromat into a thriving multipurpose community space is a vibrant demonstration of the power of good design to affect positive social change,” said Brattleboro-based architect Jim Williams, AIA Vermont Board member and architect for the renovations at 118 Elliot.

Andrew Chardain, AIA Vermont member from Jericho and one of the founders of the film series in Burlington, adds “as the film series has been met with increasing enthusiasm in Burlington, inquiries by audience members over the years have asked us to take the series on the road and expand to a wider viewership around the state. But that was only an idea.  We never had a particular location coming forward with any specific plan. This year, with the efforts of Jim’s team in Brattleboro, and the financial commitment of the AIA Vermont seed funding to help us get it off the ground, the timing lined up perfectly to make it happen in Brattleboro.”

Catherine Lange, AIA Vermont Board member from Burlington, proposed that AIA Vermont support the Film Series in Brattleboro, “As a Board we have been looking to offer programming with a wider reach around the state beyond Chittenden County, as well as to cultivate understanding and appreciation about architecture in the general public.  Supporting the expansion of this series down to Brattleboro helps on all these fronts.”

The Architecture + Design Film Series website tells the history of the film series and presents film trailers for movies this season.    www.adfilmseries.org

The films are shown on Wednesdays, film at 6:30 pm, doors open at 6.

FILM SHOWINGS ARE FREE and open to all.

        SEP 19       Zaha Hadid, An Architect, A Masterpiece

        OCT 17      Sabra: The Life and Work of Printmaker Sabra Field

        NOV 14     In Between Mountains and Oceans

        DEC 12      My Architect: A Son’s Journey

        JAN 23      California Typewriter

        FEB 20      The Black Museum

        MAR 20     Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight

        APR 10     Leaning Into the Wind

118 Elliot is a modern, multipurpose environment for the creative arts, educational talks, and personal events for up to 220 people.  It is a fully ADA accessible space in the heart of downtown Brattleboro.  This unique, flexible space has a 2,000 sq. ft. main room and a smaller conference room or backstage which allows for easy transitions between public gatherings to smaller social events.  Parking in back can be transformed to a large and private outdoor area with a forest garden for warm weather events.  Learn more at www.118Elliot.com.

For further information please contact AIAVT Board Member, Jim Williams AIA, JIM@ WFIVT.com, 802-257-1311