The Architecture and Design Film Festival runs Thursday through Monday, May 5 through 9, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State, and the Wit Hotel, 201 N. State. Tickets are $10, $7 for students, and $5 for Film Center members. Reviews of selected films follow; for a complete schedule see siskelfilmcenter.org.

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Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day Married for more than 50 years, British designers Robin and Lucienne Day combined practical insight with the imagination of great artists: Robin’s sleek and sturdy furniture, made from sparse materials, drew inspiration from his experience living on rations during World War II, and Lucienne’s textiles found a popular function for the innovations of modernist painting. For this 2010 documentary, director Murray Grigor dutifully relays the facts of their careers but conveys neither their passion nor the suggestiveness of their work; the movie is dry and deadly dull, pitched somewhere between Ken Burns and a PowerPoint presentation. Grigor’s sole stylistic contribution is to light Robin’s famous polypropylene stacking chairs as though they were centerfold models. —Ben Sachs 78 min. Sat 5/7, 3 PM, Gene Siskel Film Center, and Sun 5/8, 3:15 PM, the Wit Hotel