Friday, February 20, 6:30 p.m. | What does a country’s design aesthetic reveal about its identity? That’s the animating question behind IDENTITY: A CZECH GRAPHIC DESIGN LOVE STORY, a documentary that pairs cultural inquiry with personal narrative. At its center is Nicholas Lowry, a Czech-American auctioneer and obsessive collector who returns to his ancestral homeland to investigate a design tradition, a national identity, and himself.
Dressed in his tartan suit and armed with a healthy dose of humor, Lowry travels across the Czech Republic—from Zlín to Brno, Litomyšl to Pilsen—encountering the visual language of design legends like Alfons Mucha, Ladislav Sutnar, and Josef Váchal. The film weaves through local traditions, historic design landmarks, and conversations with contemporary artists, resulting in a vibrant tribute to the power of visual language. (ADFF)
ADFF:CHICAGO 2026 | February 20–22, 2026
The Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) and Chicago Architecture Center (CAC), in collaboration with the Gene Siskel Film Center, present ADFF:CHICAGO 2026—an international festival highlighting the best films dedicated to the creative spirit of architecture and design. The program showcases films with both a design focus and a human story for a broad audience of industry professionals, design-conscious consumers, and fans of nonfiction storytelling, with many screenings including filmmaker Q&As.
The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu