Sometimes it's intriguing not to know exactly what you're looking at. Documentary director Victor Kossakovsky (Aquarela, Gunda) is a master of decontextualization. Kossakovsky knows how to present images that make it seem as if we've arrived in an altered state where nothing seems ordinary. Architecton, Kossakovsky's latest documentary, makes points about the impact of architecture and the sustainability of building with concrete. But when you watch stones tumbling downward, you may ask yourself whether you're witnessing a rock slide or the movement of industrial-strength detritus through a quarry. You'll also see ancient ruins, but the best way to watch Architecton is to allow the movie take you where it will. Italian architect Michele De Lucchi serves as a kind of guide and provocateur, inviting us to consider the kind of environments we're creating for ourselves. The bombed-out ruins of Ukrainian apartments and earthquake devastation in Turkey point to the unsettling impermanence of our physical environment. At one point, De Lucchi and a few laborers make a circle of stones on his property. The stones outline a small patch of land void of human intervention. If you live in a city that's in the midst of massive development, Architecton may increase your dismay about the endless look-alike apartment buildings that seem to crop up everywhere. What will they be in 40 or 50 years? Will the generation that learns the answer to that question be happy with what they've inherited?
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