The Calgary Underground Film Festival
HISTORY OF CONCRETE
United States, 2026: 100 minutes: Canadian Premiere
description
A filmmaker applies lessons from a Hallmark movie writing workshop to pitch a documentary about concrete.
Documentarian, humourist, and the star of HBO's HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON, John Wilson makes his feature directorial debut with a film that is is both incredibly funny and difficult to describe. As the title suggests, in the documentary Wilson chronicles the history of concrete in his typical comedic style; but by the end, the building material becomes a jumping off point for a meditation on life and death.
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Sundance Film Festival 2026
CPH:DOX 2026
DIRECTOR'S BIO
John Wilson is a New York City–based documentary filmmaker. He was born in Queens and started his career editing surveillance footage for a private investigator. He is best known for his series HOW TO WITH JOHN WILSON, which ran for three seasons on HBO to international critical acclaim.
press for History Of Concrete
"[Director John] Wilson’s debut feature THE HISTORY OF CONCRETE shows the expert essayist as sneakily profound as ever, contemplating life and art and piecing together meaning from the fragments."- Sight & Sound
"The question was always: Could he sustain something like that in a longer format? The answer is a resounding [in John Wilson voice], “Um, well… yes.”"- Rolling Stone
details
Comedy / Documentary / First Feature
English100 minutes
credits
Director
John Wilson
Executive Producers
Josh Safdie
Eli Bush
Ronald Bronstein
Conor Hannon
Richie Doyle
Producers
John Wilson
Clark Filio
Shirel Kozak
Allie Viti
Editor
Cori Wapnowska
Music
Suzanne Ciani