Canada/Poland, 2005 – 37 minutes

MDM explores the relationship between architecture and ideology by focusing on one Warsaw neighbourhood.

The Marszalkowska Housing District was one of the first and most famous of Poland's 1950s Socialist-Realist housing developments. Conceived on a monumental scale as a model of socialist planning and an architectural showpiece for the new Soviet-backed Communist regime, it rose up from the ruins of a city almost completely destroyed in World War II.

Architects, planners and urban and cultural historians evoke the controversies surrounding MDM’s conception and construction. They examine the changing meanings that have attached to it over the years, and its place in the Warsaw of today.

Production info:

• Produced by Eric Bednarski
• Directed by Eric Bednarski
• Written by Eric Bednarski
• Edited by Iván M. Carmona
• Music composed by Rodrigo Caballero

Where to buy:

• Purchase DVD on Amazon.com

 

› Next film: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Historic Sites and Sounds of a Port City