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We’re inviting everyone who likes architecture to join us for the HTA noon-hour film series, which will take place on one Friday of each month during the academic year. They’ll be very casual events – we’ll gather at noon, Michael Windover will make popcorn (with butter), we’ll watch the film, chat about it, then get on with the rest of our day. And yes, you can bring your lunch if you like.

Our theme for the fall term films is “Architecture, Ideology, and Empire”. Our first film, which will be at noon on Friday, September 19 in SP 412, is called Nero’s Golden House.

Just how mighty, rich, opulent and magnificent was the Roman Empire? If one building complex had to be chosen to answer that question, it would be Nero’s Golden House, or Domus Aurea. Built in less than four years, it covered two hundred acres in the middle of the imperial capital. It was a work of art, a home for the arts, an engineering marvel, the centre of political intrigue and a grand piece of political propaganda all at once. This documentary looks at all theses aspects of the house and its larger-than-life patron, the Emperor Nero.

I’ll say more about the other films we’ve chosen for this term closer to their screening dates, but here’s a list of them:

October 17

The Architecture of Doom: The Nazi Philosophy of Beauty through Violence

November 21

Unfinished Spaces: Cuba’s Architecture of Revolution

The theme for the winter term will be “Architects’ Biographies”. As Roger Ebert used to say, ‘see you at the movies’!