Out of the Picture
An.Ash Smolar
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The film Out of the Picture tells us about the invisible status of several women in the history of architecture. Some of them have even been exploited in one way or another, or their role as creative and skilled architects has been almost completely erased in one way or another.
This has happened, for example, with Eileen Gray, who is also known as an exceptionally skilled designer and architect. The famous and undoubtedly talented but also opportunistic Le Corbusier did not correct the matter at all when the villa called E.1027 on the French Riviera was considered to have been designed by "Corbu" himself. The matter was officially corrected only when the villa with its real authorship information was published in 1968 in the prestigious magazine called Domus. The author of the article was Joseph Rykwert.
The profession of architecture and the publicity of architecture have been dominated by men for many reasons. Yet there is another often hidden story. Director Smolar brings women back to the big screen and the bigger picture. The film’s title is even explained in an interview with an important architect.
In Finland, women were allowed to study architecture alongside men since the late 19th century. Signe Hornborg is known as one of the first female architects in the world to obtain an official degree.
Even so, it was not until 1971 that women formed most of the annual class of students selected for university-level education at the Department of Architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. Their selection was based on demanding qualifying courses, and not simply on the results and grades of matriculation exams.
Out of the Picture continues to highlight several important perspectives that should not be forgotten in Finland either. The audience will also learn how the exceptionally demanding construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, a world-famous masterpiece of 19th-century engineering, was supervised and completed by a woman, the self-taught engineer Emily Warren Roebling. After the death of her husband John A. Roebling and the severe illness of her son Washington Roebling it was Emily who was in charge. The completion took more than a dozen years of her life.
The film even contains stories of a few female architects who received recognition and awards only post mortem, i.e. after their death. Some were only awarded recognition in the last years of their lives, even though earlier awards would have been a much-needed boost to their careers, offices and the visibility of their work.
The most incredible story is that although Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi had for years worked together as architects, they were not awarded together. In 1991, only Venturi was awarded the world’s most prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. This was, of course, due to the rules at the time, which did not consider architects working as partners, for example. The practice, in all its blatantness, showed quite an injustice; for a long time, the majority of the so-called Pritzker Prize winners were also men. The same has been true of the Finnish Alvar Aalto Medal, which is highly regarded worldwide, as it was not until 2024 that the recipient of the medal was a woman, the Belgian Marie-José van Hee, who had run her own office for a long time, and very successfully.
The film also features a French architect who changed gender. After the change, she was suddenly addressed on the construction site and in meetings in a completely different way than before. The famous and personable Odile Decq also heard all sorts of strange things after her husband and work partner Benoît Cornette died in a car accident, even though she had been responsible for the projects of the award-winning firm for a long time. She was even advised to join an architectural firm run by a man, as if running her own firm had not been successful for her.
Despite its slight fragmentation, the film is a great reminder that one should be careful when dealing with matters and people. In Finland, even the leading Finnish newspaper can still completely omit mentioning the woman architect who is also the main partner of the office responsible for the new building, when introducing even an exceptionally demanding project, or simply present her as an interior designer.
One of the interviewed experts in the film wants to remind us that architecture and construction have been, in a way, also very openly products of capitalism. Commissioners and their architects have always known how to construct publicity dictated by the capitalism of their time. Often the editors-in-chief of architecture magazines have also been men.
The director of the film also considers whether the world might be different if urban planning and construction had been even a little bit more in the hands and under the control of women. Examples include New York’s magnificent The High Line, the construction of which started in 2006 and was mostly based on the ideas of Elizabeth Diller and her partner Ricardo Scofidio, who passed away in 2025, and the Maladrerie residential area designed by Renée Gailhoustet, which was incredibly ahead of its time. These projects, among others, offer the audience a new perspective on people, nature and the world.
The film is punctuated by fun and playful animations. The narrators and interviewed persons guide us in French and English. The film has English subtitles.
This has happened, for example, with Eileen Gray, who is also known as an exceptionally skilled designer and architect. The famous and undoubtedly talented but also opportunistic Le Corbusier did not correct the matter at all when the villa called E.1027 on the French Riviera was considered to have been designed by "Corbu" himself. The matter was officially corrected only when the villa with its real authorship information was published in 1968 in the prestigious magazine called Domus. The author of the article was Joseph Rykwert.
The profession of architecture and the publicity of architecture have been dominated by men for many reasons. Yet there is another often hidden story. Director Smolar brings women back to the big screen and the bigger picture. The film’s title is even explained in an interview with an important architect.
In Finland, women were allowed to study architecture alongside men since the late 19th century. Signe Hornborg is known as one of the first female architects in the world to obtain an official degree.
Even so, it was not until 1971 that women formed most of the annual class of students selected for university-level education at the Department of Architecture at the Helsinki University of Technology. Their selection was based on demanding qualifying courses, and not simply on the results and grades of matriculation exams.
Out of the Picture continues to highlight several important perspectives that should not be forgotten in Finland either. The audience will also learn how the exceptionally demanding construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, a world-famous masterpiece of 19th-century engineering, was supervised and completed by a woman, the self-taught engineer Emily Warren Roebling. After the death of her husband John A. Roebling and the severe illness of her son Washington Roebling it was Emily who was in charge. The completion took more than a dozen years of her life.
The film even contains stories of a few female architects who received recognition and awards only post mortem, i.e. after their death. Some were only awarded recognition in the last years of their lives, even though earlier awards would have been a much-needed boost to their careers, offices and the visibility of their work.
The most incredible story is that although Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi had for years worked together as architects, they were not awarded together. In 1991, only Venturi was awarded the world’s most prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize. This was, of course, due to the rules at the time, which did not consider architects working as partners, for example. The practice, in all its blatantness, showed quite an injustice; for a long time, the majority of the so-called Pritzker Prize winners were also men. The same has been true of the Finnish Alvar Aalto Medal, which is highly regarded worldwide, as it was not until 2024 that the recipient of the medal was a woman, the Belgian Marie-José van Hee, who had run her own office for a long time, and very successfully.
The film also features a French architect who changed gender. After the change, she was suddenly addressed on the construction site and in meetings in a completely different way than before. The famous and personable Odile Decq also heard all sorts of strange things after her husband and work partner Benoît Cornette died in a car accident, even though she had been responsible for the projects of the award-winning firm for a long time. She was even advised to join an architectural firm run by a man, as if running her own firm had not been successful for her.
Despite its slight fragmentation, the film is a great reminder that one should be careful when dealing with matters and people. In Finland, even the leading Finnish newspaper can still completely omit mentioning the woman architect who is also the main partner of the office responsible for the new building, when introducing even an exceptionally demanding project, or simply present her as an interior designer.
One of the interviewed experts in the film wants to remind us that architecture and construction have been, in a way, also very openly products of capitalism. Commissioners and their architects have always known how to construct publicity dictated by the capitalism of their time. Often the editors-in-chief of architecture magazines have also been men.
The director of the film also considers whether the world might be different if urban planning and construction had been even a little bit more in the hands and under the control of women. Examples include New York’s magnificent The High Line, the construction of which started in 2006 and was mostly based on the ideas of Elizabeth Diller and her partner Ricardo Scofidio, who passed away in 2025, and the Maladrerie residential area designed by Renée Gailhoustet, which was incredibly ahead of its time. These projects, among others, offer the audience a new perspective on people, nature and the world.
The film is punctuated by fun and playful animations. The narrators and interviewed persons guide us in French and English. The film has English subtitles.
Out of the Picture, 2025. An.Ash Smolar. 90 min.
An.Ash Smolar
Born in Brussels, An.Ash Smolar studied at ERG (Ecole de Recherche Graphique), La Cambre (Visual Arts and animation cinema) and obtained a Master in Experimental Cinema at the San Francisco Art Institute. An.Ash Smolar is a multimedia artist and has directed experimental films, documentaries and animated films.
Smolar teaches animation at ERG and focuses on narrative structures, the representation of gender and minorities, the politics of space, and the transmission of memory. Smolar’s work has been shown in Brussels, Paris, Montreal, San Francisco, New York, Vienna and Taiwan. Smolar´s career is divided between two passions: film and architecture.
Smolar teaches animation at ERG and focuses on narrative structures, the representation of gender and minorities, the politics of space, and the transmission of memory. Smolar’s work has been shown in Brussels, Paris, Montreal, San Francisco, New York, Vienna and Taiwan. Smolar´s career is divided between two passions: film and architecture.
