Screening-debate as part of the Close-Up Festival: Cities, architecture & landscape in cinema

jeudi 20 novembre 2025
à 13:00
festival
cinéma
documentaire

In the midst of a devastating housing crisis, Europe has gone beyond the logic of demolition to seek alternatives to its modernist heritage. The Great Together follows a series of large housing estates and explores, through transformation, maintenance, privatization and demolition, how utopia has collided with local politics, market pressures and the habits of the inhabitants.
The Great Together is a free translation of the French term Grand Ensemble, a typology of collective housing that became widespread in post-war Europe. Monumental and utopian, these structures offered a universal response to the housing crisis of their time. They experimented with new ways of living, integrating sophisticated design with precise governance strategies. Over time, however, they were also subject to stigmatization, degradation and, in some cases, demolition.
Through a European journey, the film traces the history of complexes in Vienna, Rome, Belgrade and Toulouse: four stories that, beyond their local specificities, reflect a wider struggle and a continental response.

Docar is a documentary film collective that tells urban stories.
Created in 2023, it aims to provide a platform for addressing political issues by exploring their intersections with the architectural discipline. The collective was founded by Jasper Meurer, a German-British political scientist specializing in migration issues and social movements, and Rocio Calzado, a Spanish architect specializing in housing policy and ecological transition. After meeting at Sciences Po's École de la recherche, Jasper Meurer turned to visual research, documentary film and photography, while Rocio Calzado works with various urban planning studios in France and Spain, teaches at Ensa Paris-Est, and is preparing a doctorate in urban planning at the École des Ponts et Chaussées on the transformation of social housing. Docar brings together multidisciplinary experience in urban planning, architecture and politics. Since 2024, Docar has been a local partner of HouseEurope! and winner of the Lina Community Fellowship. With the support of FAIRE, a project gas pedal launched by the Pavillon de l'Arsenal and the City of Paris, Docar has embarked on the production and creation of its first film, De porte à porte, currently in production. In partnership with the MAXXI Museum in Rome and LIFT Sarajevo, Docar has produced a short film on the housing crisis in Europe entitled The Great Together. In 2025, Docar will curate an exhibition on urban (de)growth at the Belgrade International Architecture Week (BINA).

Project debates
As part of the Close Up festival, the School of Architecture is teaming up with Sciences Po's Urban School to organize two screenings on Wednesday November 19 and Thursday November 20, followed by discussions between directors Jasper Meurer and Rocio Calzado, and teachers.

At Paris-Est, the screening will take place on Thursday November 20, with the participation of Ido Avissar and Patricia Pelloux.

Patricia Pelloux is deputy director of Apur (Atelier parisien d'urbanisme). Trained as an urban planning engineer, she was previously director of metropolitan studies at Apur, then joined the bid committee of the French public interest group Paris 2024, as head of sites and infrastructures. As deputy director, she is currently responsible for drawing up the annual partnership work program and coordinating teams in project mode. She is co-director of Atelier's research publications. She works in particular on adapting cities to climate change, urban transformations and the evolution of public spaces. Patricia has been involved for over twenty years with the Ecole Urbaine de Sciences Po, where she teaches courses in urban analysis and urban projects.

Ido Avissar is an architect and urban planner with a doctorate in architecture. In 2012, he founded the LIST agency, where he develops an approach that reconciles professional practice and research, and aims to position himself between disciplines - architecture, urbanism, landscape and planning - rather than within a fixed disciplinary framework. At the same time, he teaches urban planning at Sciences-Po and heads the "Fragments" Master's program at Ensa Paris-Est.