Arizona’s Indie Architectural Film Showcase returns this week

Architecture doesn’t usually get top billing at the movies, let alone an entire festival devoted to the craft. This week in Phoenix, it does.

Phoenix’s No Festival Required independent film series is set to bring its Arizona Architectural Film Showcase back to Valley screens from Thursday, April 16 to Tuesday, April 21.

The annual showcase features three independently produced documentaries that dig into how architecture builds and shapes culture, community and identity.

Each film was handpicked by No Festival Required founder Steve Weiss, who says the subject matter might seem niche, but it impacts everyone.

“My goal is for people who are interested in architecture, whether it’s the story of architecture, how it affects our lives (and it affects all of us),” Weiss says. “I feel as though in many ways anyone should be able to relate to architecture simply because we’re so well surrounded by it.”

That’s especially true in the Valley, where architecture is part of the landscape and the identity.

“When you think about the Valley in general and Phoenix, there is so much architecture here and so many different types of it,” Weiss says. “We’re really surrounded by a lot of world famous architecture with lengthy history behind it.”

The series closes Tuesday, April 21 with “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace” at Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix.

Weiss says each venue was chosen because they accentuate the issues touched upon in each film.

At Phoenix Center for the Arts, a former Baptist church dating back to 1921, “Ancestral Artistry: The Influence of Africans and Creoles of Color on Louisiana Architecture” spotlights the overlooked craftsmen and cultural influences behind Louisiana’s architectural identity.

The film traces generations of skill and history, from enslaved builders to Creole artisans. It’s less about buildings and more about the people who made them.

“But ultimately, it’s really about these craftsmen plasterers, let’s see, woodworkers, brick layers, all of the people who make what we see, and also where it came from,” Weiss says.

The showcase closes with “Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace” at Orpheum Theatre, a 1929 downtown landmark that began as a vaudeville house before evolving into a cinema.

The Orpheum isn’t featured in the film, but Weiss says it’s a natural fit for a documentary celebrating the rise and legacy of ornate movie palaces.

“That’s how I kind of approached them (to screen the movie), was that this is the film that celebrates who they are from one theater to another,” he says.

For Weiss, landing the Orpheum was a big get.

“It’s something I’ve been trying to work on for the last couple of years actually, finally was able to pull it together,” he says.

Weiss has been showing architectural films for decades, dating back to screening the 2009 documentary “Malls R Us” at Roosevelt Row art gallery Modified Arts.

Even with a niche concept like an architecture film showcase, the audience is there. Weiss says it’s one of the most consistent crowds he programs for.

“It’s an audience that’s actually perhaps even more consistent than any other audience I’ve found,” he says. “Which is why I’ve been showing architectural films for so long and so consistently.”

Arizona Architectural Film Showcase. Thursday, April 16 through Tuesday, April 21. Times, locations and ticket prices vary. See nofestivalrequired.com.