Last Saturday, October 12, we had a celebration with the premiere of our documentary Kombiná! During the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam, our documentary Kombiná was shown for the first time. We look back on a successful event. The audience was moved by the message of the film and we received many positive reactions about the documentary and our designs.
The 150-person cinema in LantarenVenster was completely sold out. People even sat on the stairs because they wanted to be part of the event. The audience was filled with architects, urban planners and students. There were also invited guests, such as our colleagues – and also a lot of family. We were also happy to see that some clients of our projects on the Caribbean islands and people involved in the film were there as well.
Panel
Afterwards, a panel discussion was held under the guidance of moderator Fadoua Alaoui. We did this with Glenn Helberg, transcultural psychiatrist and Setareh Noorani, architect working at Nieuwe Instituut where she researches multivocality in the collection. You see the attention that Lyongo pays to a design and especially how much he immerses himself in the local culture that he knows so well to design something that fits with the place and its users”, was one of the first comments by the panel.
During the panel discussion, they touched on the subject on how this film fits within Caribbean culture and also fits more broadly in the way of documenting architecture. An important conclusion was that more attention should be paid to the islands and that this documentary is a good step to show that there is much more see and explore there. And just as important: how you capture that and document this for future generations.
We also received a lot of positive reactions from the audience. Both during the event and afterwards. “It was an impressive film. It really shows the versatility of Lyongo’s architecture and the versatility of him as a human being. He connects people, place and history. Together it becomes a special composition; a new creation. Very special! An inspiration for me!”, was one of the reactions.
Lyongo: “It was a mesmerizing experience to finally share the film. I received many hart warming compliments afterwards. As a documentary team, we were so proud to see that the message we wanted to convey had been received. We look forward to the next screening of the film.”
Audiene award
Happy to give this update, two weeks later. The film was very well received and even got second place in the Audience Award of the AFFR. Very special to be chosen for this award during our first screening. The public, of approximately 8,000 visitors during the entire festival, chose our film as one of the best films of the festival – with about 80 different movies. Thank you all for the kind words and appreciation.
Next premiere
The next premieres are planned for the 5th of December in Curacao and the 8th of December in Bonaire. We will share details about time and ticket sales soon! In addition, the premieres will follow in Sint Maarten, Saba and hopefully later also in more places in the Caribbean and the Netherlands.
