A short documentary, showcasing Buffalo’s architecture, is now playing for hundreds of thousands of people in Venice, Italy.

The movie was filmed by John Paget, and directed by a UB architecture professor, Gregory Delaney. It shows how the architecture school at UB is shaped by the city it resides in. 

It’s being showcased for six months at a major art exhibition in Venice: The Biennale Architettura 2018. Delaney says the exhibition is one of the largest architect events in the world. 

The movies is 15 minutes long, and is called, ‘See it Through Buffalo.’ The name is a reference to a slogan during World War I: ‘Buffalo Will See it Through.’

The film shows a very honest image of Buffalo. You’ll see well-known buildings, like the Guaranty Building and Darwin Martin House, but you’ll also notice some challenging and abandoned sites. 

“I think what makes Buffalo even so much more interesting is the fact that the second half of the 20th century meant so much loss for the city, and of course we’re turning the tide on that now, but it’s that real complexity of all of those parts that makes Buffalo sort of unlike anywhere else for a school of architecture and planning,” Delaney said. 

And hundreds of thousands of people are viewing this film. 

“What we’re doing is taking Buffalo to Venice, and inviting people to experience the city, and begin to understand a bit of the complexity of Buffalo,” Delaney said. “One woman I recall, she actually stayed in the room 45 minutes, watched it three times all the way through, and knew nothing about Buffalo and was really just taken with the images of the city and had an interest in the sites captured. It’s been a really rewarding experience.”

There’s no narration in the film, so the viewer is focused really on the power of the images of Buffalo itself. The documentary is mainly time lapse videos pieced together. Some of the shots took up to 8 hours to film. 

Delaney went to Venice when the exhibition was installed, and he’s going back this weekend with 15 students. UB does plan to show the film here in Western New York after the exhibition is over. We will keep you posted on that date.