James Macgillivray Presents Ecstatic Interiors: The Idea of Structural Film at the 2023 Film and Architecture Symposium

LAMAS’ paper Ecstatic Interiors: The Idea of Structural Film by James Macgillivray was presented at the Film and Architecture Symposium and published in the 2023 proceedings. The symposium, held at Toronto Metropolitan University, brings together researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of film, architecture, and spatial theory.

The Architecture & Film Symposium is a biennial academic event that explores the relationship between cinematic representation and spatial experience, examining how film constructs, filters, and critiques architectural and interior environments. The 2023 edition focused on “Intense Interiors,” a theme concerned with how interior space is shaped by technological, atmospheric, and perceptual conditions, and how these are represented through cinematic and theoretical frameworks.

The paper situates a subset of structural film practices from the 1960s and 1970s within architectural discourse, using works such as Michael Snow’s Wavelength and Ernie Gehr’s Serene Velocity as case studies. It examines how cinematic time, framing, and repetition construct spatial conditions that parallel architectural interior logics, and traces how these approaches influenced later filmmakers working with interiority, sequence, and spatial perception.

Read Ecstatic Interiors: The Idea of Structural Film online.