The Bilbao Effect

This film shows how culture can be a radical force for urban change. In the 1980s, the northern Spanish port of Bilbao was a dirty, run-down, old industrial city when the Basque government and regional authorities struck a deal on an ambitious proposal – to build a Guggenheim Foundation museum on a polluted stretch of riverbank. In this documentary, the Arab architect and filmmaker Ebraheem Imam describes how a city on the brink of collapse took a gamble on a cultural project that few believed in and how that led to a much wider transformation. Imam tells the story himself with both architectural insight and emotional intimacy. He also moves it beyond the shiny, titanium-clad Guggenheim Museum itself to ask what really drives urban change and whether the so-called Bilbao effect can be replicated in other cities around the world.