LOT-EK, WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND

WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND

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WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND

a documentary by Thomas Piper on our practice, questioning beauty and the impact of the shipping container

type

film

completed

2023

location

New York / Hudson / Naples / Johannesburg / Cape Akritas, cargo ship from Kingston Jamaica to Savannah Georgia

director

Thomas Piper

executive producer

Sherri Wolf

advisors

Jorge Fontanez / Thomas de Monchaux / Marques McClary

funding

Ford Foundation / Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown / Agnes Gund / Rosenkranz Foundation / Beth DeWoody / Joanne Cassullo / Lorraine, Fabrizio + Leonardo Bonanni / Willim + Heather Vators / Barbara Foshay / Integrated Industries / Amy Cappellazzo + Joanne Rosen / Sara Meltzer / Amy Bernstein + Steve Ross / Eric Lee / EV Day / Virginia Hatley ....and many more!

world premiere

ARTECINEMA, Naples 10/13/23

north america premiere

SVA THEATER, New York 10/25/23

festivals and screenings

Ford Foundation, New York / ADFF, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver / FOG Design + Art Fair, San Francisco / Virginia Film Festival, Charlottesville / Kennedy School Theater, Portalnd / Siff Cinema Uptown, Seattle / / Artistry, Johannesburg / The Zone, Johannesburg / Upstate Films, Saugerties, NY / University of Michigan/Taubman College, Ann Arbor / Mercy University + Cranbrook, Detroit / Winnipeg Architecture & Design Film Festival / DCEFF Film Festival, Washington, DC / Columbia University GSAPP, New York / Walter Studios, Phoenix / The Nature of Cities Festival, Berlin / San Diego Architectural Foundation / Demanio Marittimo, Senigallia, Italy / Architecture Film Festival, Rotterdam / Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson / MIT Museum, Cambridge , MA / Glimmerglass Film Days, Cooperstown, NY /

awards

external sources

watch the trailer and stream it here

impact & significance

upcycling is the art and science of repurposing, remaking, rethinking, reimagining. Of using old things in new ways. The shipping container is the thing that has captured our imagination for over a quarter-century: we have remade containers into homes, schools, galleries, libraries, and more. With hundreds of millions of obsolete and unused containers around the world, this is a new and necessary architecture to repair and regenerate the unnatural environment that we inherited. WE START WITH THE THINGS WE FIND is a feature-length documentary of our vision, and of the soulful lifelong partnership of the people, designers Ada and Giuseppe, behind it

related object:

shipping container

related project:

STACKS / PORTS Entire World