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Winnipeg architecture foundation <\/p>\n
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The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre is an example of brutalist architecture.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
From tonight until Oct. 6, the documentary, which sold out its Toronto premi\u00e8re at the Hot Docs festival, will screen at the Dave Barber Cinematheque as part of the architecture foundation\u2019s year-round Architecture+Film series.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people, let\u2019s say, have a love-hate relationship with concrete,\u201d says Guenther, who has yet to see the film. In Winnipeg, a city that has achieved international renown for its embrace of the material in the tradition of brutalist architecture, he expects the film to have no trouble finding an engaged audience.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany Winnipeggers might not know that we regularly have people contacting the architecture foundation, coming to Winnipeg to see our brutalist architecture,\u201d says Guenther.<\/p>\n
Some key examples of the material\u2019s and style\u2019s most cutting-edge expressions include the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Manitoba Teachers\u2019 Society building at the corner of Portage Avenue and Harcourt Street.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe regularly have people contacting the architecture foundation, coming to Winnipeg to see our brutalist architecture\u201d<\/p>\n
Called McMaster House, the MTS headquarters \u201ccould be used in films,\u201d Guenther says.<\/p>\n
But while exposed concrete has its fair share of devot\u00e9es, Guenther says that in his capacity with the foundation he\u2019s toured some \u201cfantastic\u201d buildings with lobbies floored by poured concrete, which are often tiled over or hidden.<\/p>\n
\u201cConcrete is often covered up with the notion that we need to do something nicer, or softer, for people,\u201d he says. \u201cBut how can we better understand the material if it\u2019s constantly covered up? How do we know and learn about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
A fan of concrete, Guenther still laments the loss of the Public Safety Building, a brutalist structure built in 1966 on Princess Street from designs by the firm Libling Michener and Associates, the same group responsible for the teachers\u2019 society building.<\/p>\n
Six years after its demolition, Guenther says that the Public Safety Building still inspires debate and inquiry.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t BORIS MINKEVICH \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Winnipeg’s former Public Safety Building, a brutalist structure built in 1966, was demolished six years ago.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe now have architecture students regularly studying the building and what could have been done to repurpose it,\u201d he says. \u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know that the building was entirely demolished, and most of it sent to the landfill, which is terrible for our carbon footprint.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many uses that could have been for that building \u2026 but I digress.\u201d<\/p>\n The History of Concrete\u2019s international buzz \u2014 plus the abundance of civic reference points to Wilson\u2019s chosen subject \u2014 has made for steady advance sales for the screening series at Cinematheque.<\/p>\n And the local twists keep on coming.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many uses that could have been for that building.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the theatre\u2019s plot summary of The History of Concrete, Wilson uses another definitive material of Winnipeg\u2019s narrative \u2014 our frequent shooting location for Hallmark films \u2014 to help ensure the film reaches its audience.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, he decides to use the industry-approved Hallmark formula to tell this seemingly drab story and increase his movie\u2019s appeal. But his foundation soon begins to crumble \u2014 literally and figuratively \u2014 as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry.\u201d<\/p>\n The History of Concrete screens through Oct. 6 at Dave Barber Cinematheque (100 Arthur St.). Tickets at davebarbercinematheque.com.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Ben Waldman Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University\u2019s (now Toronto Metropolitan University\u2019s) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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