71st Cork International Film Festival

The History of Concrete

Available in 35d 12h 37m 02s
Available November 21, 2026 12:01 AM UTC
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What do you get when a comedian sets out to make a film about the world’s dullest building material? A gloriously absurd, unexpectedly perceptive exploration of the strange urban animal spieces that is the human.


Following the finale of his acclaimed series “How To with John Wilson”, comedic documentary filmmaker Wilson looks to the bedrock of his beloved New York City for inspiration and structure. Concrete, the world's most widely used building material, appears as an ubiquitous life force, and John sets out to make the definitive documentary on the matter.


After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, he decides to use the industry-approved Hallmark formula to tell this seemingly drab story and increase his movie’s appeal. But his foundation soon begins to crumble - literally and figuratively - as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry.


As one might expect, concrete serves mostly as a loose motif for John Wilson, whose observational humour, free-associative tangents and existential curiosity conspire to making his debut feature a hilarious, absurd, sneakily profound and surprisingly poignant experience.



The screening on Tuesday 17 November will be accompanied by Subtitles for Deaf and Hard of Hearing audiences.

  • Year
    2025
  • Runtime
    100 minutes
  • Language
    English
  • Director
    John Wilson
  • Producer
    Clark Filio, Shirel Kozak, Allie Viti, John Wilson
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