Hamptons Doc Fest, in partnership with the Southampton Arts Center, celebrates Mother’s Day on Saturday, May 10.
Ada Karmi Melamede is one of the most accomplished and prolific female architects in the world. Yet, she is little known outside architectural circles or in her home country of Israel.
Her daughter Yael Melamede, a filmmaker and former architect, has sought to correct that with her moving documentary “Ada – My Mother the Architect” (2024, 81 min.), which is now playing at film festivals around the world and in Southampton.
Ada lived for nearly two decades in the United States, raising her three children, teaching at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, working on major New York City projects like a master plan for Con Edison, a study of mixed-use development along the proposed Second Avenue Subway, and a 1978 housing competition on Roosevelt Island.
After being denied tenure, she made the difficult decision to leave her family and move to Israel when asked to design the new Supreme Court building in Jerusalem. She later shaped other major landmarks such as The Open University, Ben Gurion Airport, and the Israel Institute for Democracy.
After the screening, both director Yael Melamede and her mother, Ada Melamede, will appear live at the Southampton Arts Center for the Q&A.
“I’m incredibly pleased that we were able to invite Yael and her mother to attend the screening in person and speak afterwards about their lives,” said Jacqui Lofaro, founder and executive director of Hamptons Doc Fest. “Ada’s impact on Israeli architecture is profound. But the sacrifice of leaving her life and family behind is at the heart of this film. Every mother and daughter needs to experience this story. And every architect needs to experience it as if it were a master class.”
Tickets are $20, $15 for SAC members, and are available at hamptonsdocfest.com and southamptonartscenter.org.