Colonnade Park

With COLONNADE PARK, the last part of a documentary trilogy about modernist residential buildings, Heidrun Holzfeind, after turning toward Rome (Corviale, Il Serpentone, 2001); and Warsaw (Behind the Iron Gate, 2009); for the first time turns to the New World with the high-rise Colonnade as well as two pavilion buildings by Mies van der Rohe in Newark, New Jersey. Built in the 1950s to appeal to a middle-class elite and make living in the center of Newark attractive again, the building has a moving story behind it, which tells, over and above urban developments, of social shifts. Holzfeind immediately produces an impressive result. Even more so than in previous films, here it is the house that provides the structure – like a figure display case filled with portraits of current residents of the house. (Dominik Kamalzadeh)