The documentary Group Affairs by Onur Can Tepe and Marcel IJzerman has been selected for the Arquiteturas Film Festival. On Thursday, September 29, the film will premiere during the 9th edition of the festival with the theme Slow Down! After previous editions in Lisbon, this year’s festival will take place in Porto from September 27 to October 1 2022.

Slow Down!
This year’s edition reflects on the idea of “slowing down,” including the demolition, reduction, reuse and contraction of architecture. The main focus is on socially and environmentally just spatial practices based on a reciprocal relationship between human activity and the natural world. This theme is translated into a program of film screenings, debates, an exhibition and a master class.

Selection
Earlier this year, filmmakers were invited in an open call to submit work related to the theme Slow Down! The film Group Affairs was selected along with 22 other films from some 200 submissions from 50 different countries. Among the selected films are Remnants of Memory by Jyll Johnstone and Michael Arlen Davis (USA, 2021) and Berlin Room by Jörn Staeger (Germany, 2021). Films from the Competition Program will be screened at Casa Comum, a cultural venue located in the Rectory at the University of Porto.

Group Affairs
In the film Group Affairs, the architectural firm GROUP A explores the past and future of their practice by inviting peers, clients, colleagues and friends to a roundtable discussion. Unexpected questions create a unique dynamic in this remarkable format. They reveal the fragilities of being an architect today, and question GROUP A’s social, cultural and sustainable position in society: a cinematic portrait of a group of architects united by their profound optimism.
Director Onur Can Tepe gives an introduction during Group Affairs’ premiere at the Arquiteturas Film Festival in Porto on Thursday September 29.

Watch the trailer of Group Affairs here.