Didi Contractor - Marrying the Earth to the Building

For the past two decades Didi Contractor has been passionately implementing her architectural visions in North West of India, at the foot hills of the Himalaya, combining rural traditions with modern requirements. This documentary introduces us to her creations – houses built from clay, bamboo, slate and river stone, constructed in tribute to their natural surroundings.
At the age of 86, Didi Contractor pursues her vision working day and night – dreaming her designs then designing her dreams. She sketches roughly, then proportions with pinpoint accuracy – the blueprints for economically and ecologically sustainable, bright and well-ventilated buildings.
We meet people who live in the visions realized by Didi Contractor and share in their enthusiasm to carry forward her fascinating ideas. Students from all over the world come to learn traditional building practices and find out how architecture can become a part of the ecosystem.

2016
Dharamshala International Film Festival, India
2017
11th International Film Festival on Art & Artists / Focus: Architecture, Bhubaneswar
10. LICHTER Filmfest Frankfurt International
SILVER AWARD in the category „Health and living environment„ – Deauville Green Awards
CayFilm – Cayman Islands International Film Festival
Fünf Seen Festival
AFFR – Architecture Film Festival – „film • city • architecture„
BIFED – Bozcaada International Festival of Ecological Documentary
Kasseler Dokumentarfilm- und Videofest
ALIIF – All Lights India International Film Festival
36e Festival International du Film sur l’Art / International Festival of Films on Art
NaturVision, Ludwigsburg
2018
CINETEKTON! – Festival Internacional de Cine y Arquitectur
Film and Architecture – Festival filmů o architektuře a urbanismu, Prague
CineEco Seia – Festival Internacional de Cinema Ambiental da Serra da Estrela

For the past 20 years, Didi Contractor has been building in adobe, addressing herself to such complex challenges, as climate and cultural change, the energy crisis and pollution, while opposing conventional roles, persistent paradigms of colonial history and modernization along Western lines.
I am thrilled by her architectural vision, admire her ideals, her bravery and strength of character, and want to explore her creative ideas, which differ from everything that I had assumed in my life so far.
Her houses are convincing evidence of a possible alternative way of life. In order to understand how daily decisions can influence our environment,
For the length of a film, in the darkness of a movie theater, I would like to take the audience through the fascinating world of Didi Contractor and with this film I would like to inspire people to explore and to support their own unusual imaginative ideas. – Steffi Giaracuni