How does an architect create? What inspires and drives the process? Learn about contemporary and historic architects in these twelve films—and don't forget the popcorn.
Note: Movies come in a variety of digital formats, including disc (e.g., DVD), download (e.g., iTune), subscription streaming (e.g., Hulu, Netflix), and cable on-demand.
1. First Person Singular: I.M. Pei
Chinese-American architect I.M. Pei by Paul Hawthorne ©2004 Getty Images
Director: Peter Rosen
Year: 1997
Running Time: 85 minutes
Awards: Muestra Internacional de Programas Audiovisual, Spain
Have you been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio? The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.? If you have, you've stood in a building designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Ieoh Ming Pei.
2. How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?
Architect Norman Foster from the movie © Valentin Alvarez.
Directors: Norberto López Amado and Carlos Carcas
Year: 2011
Running Time: 74 minutes
Festival Awards: San Sebastian Film Festival 2010; Berlin Film Festival 2010; Docville Film Festival 2010
The life of British architect Norman Foster began in 1935 Manchester, England. From humble beginnings, Foster became Sir Norman Foster, being knighted in 1990 Queen Elizabeth II. This film examines the rise and development of Foster's worldwide reputation through his architecture.
"I expect this documentary could be seen in 50 years," said director Amado, "and the audience could be able to recognize the person who is behind all these buildings."
Read the NY Times review by A. O. Scott, January 24, 2012 >>>
Architecture Photos: Buildings by Sir Norman Foster >>>
Source: Official movie press pages at www.mrfostermovie.com; Dogwoof Press Assets. Photo © Valentin Alvarez. Websites accessed October 1, 2012.
3. EAMES: The Architect and the Painter
The Eames press photo courtesy First Run Features ©2011 Eames Office, LLC.
Directors: Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey
Year: 2011
Running Time: 84 minutes
Narrated by actor James Franco, EAMES documents the love story and professional successes of a partnership that began with the 1941 marriage of Charles and Ray Eames. This film, the first since their deaths, has been a feature favorite at many film festivals.
Read the NY Times review by A. O. Scott, November 17, 2011 >>>
Sources: firstrunfeatures.com/eames, accessed October 1, 2012
4. Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision
American architect Maya Lin in 2003 by Stephen Chernin ©2003 Getty Images
Director: Freida Lee Mock
Year: 1995
Running Time: 83 minutes
Awards: Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
The film traces the journey of Maya Lin, architect and sculptor, in her formative years -- in the decade following her winning design for the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
5. Sir John Soane: An English Architect, An American Legacy
English architect Sir John Soane by Hulton Archive/Getty Images.
Director: Murray Grigor
Year: 2005
Running Time: 62 minutes
Creativity rarely exhists in a vacuum. Architects pass ideas to the next generation. The influences of Englishman John Soane, 1753–1837, are brought to light by a new era of American architects, including Philip Johnson, Robert A. M. Stern, Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, Richard Meier, Henry Cobb, and Michael Graves.
Checkerboard Films has created another intelligent film about architecture.
6. Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect
Architect Rem Koolhaas by Ben Pruchnie ©2012 Getty Images for Garage Center in Moscow
Directors: Markus Heidingsfelder and Min Tesch
Year: 2008
Running Time: 97 minutes
Dutch-born Rem Koolhaas, 2000 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner, has always worked "in areas beyond the realm of architecture such as media, politics, renewable energy and fashion." This film captures him as a thinker, visionary, and "a kind of architect."
Source: OMA Website, accessed October 1, 2012.
7. Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect
Architect Philip Johnson photo by Pictorial Parade ©2005 Getty Images
Director: Barbara Wolf
Year: 1996
Running Time: 56 minutes>
A 47-acre campus estate in New Canaan, Connecticut is the home of Philip Johnson's eccentricity. Born in Cleveland, Ohio in July 8, 1906, Johnson was a 90-year-old man when this film was made. He had completed his skyscrapers -- the Seagram Building and the AT&T Building -- and it was the simplicity of a Connecticut Glass House that gave him the most joy.
Source: Checkerboard Film Foundation, accessed October 1, 2012
8. Sketches of Frank Gehry
Director: Sydney Pollack
Year: 2005
Running Time: 83 minutes
It's been widely reported that Frank O. Gehry asked his Hollywood director friend Sydney Pollack to make this movie. Can a filmmaker fairly document a friend's life? Probably not. But friendship can reveal other characteristics, as does this, the last work filmed by Pollack.
Read a Review at About.com >>
Read the NY Times review by A. O. Scott, May 12, 2006 >>>
9. Antonio Gaudi
Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi by Apic ©Getty Images
Director: Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Teshigahara
Year: 1984
Running Time: 72 minutes
The life of Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí spanned two centuries of incredible growth and innovation in building design. From his birth in 1852, before the height of the industrial revoltuion, until his death in 1926, with La Sagrada Familia cathedral in Barcelona still unfinished, Gaudi's influence on Gothic modernism is felt even today.
The two-disc DVD set Criterion Collection includes additional background information, including Antoni Gaudi: God's Architect, a one-hour BBC Visions of Space documentary by director Ken Russell.
10. My Architect
Kahn and Nate circa 1970 by Harriet Pattison ©20003 Louis Kahn Project, Inc., press photo
Director: Nathaniel Kahn
Year: 2003
Running Time: 116 minutes
Do you know what your Dad did when he went to work? Director Nathaniel Kahn took five years to figure out his father's life. Nate is the only son of American architect Louis Kahn, but he is not the son of Louis Kahn's wife. Nate's mother, landscape architect Harriet Pattison, worked in Kahn's office. Subtitled A Son's Journey, Nate's film explores his father's personal and professional legacy with love and heartbreak.
Read a Review on About.com >>>
Official website at www.myarchitectfilm.com/ >>>
11. The World of Buckminster Fuller
American engineer Buckminster Fuller by Nancy R. Schiff/Getty Images ©2011 Nancy R. Schiff
Director: Robert Snyder
Year: 1971
Running Time: 80 minutes
The visionary Richard Buckminster Fuller has been called a philosopher, poet, engineer, inventor, and architect of the future. Academy Award winning director Robert Snyder examines the influential life of the master of the geodesic dome.
12. Frank Lloyd Wright
Wright smoking and drawing in 1950 by Jun Fujita ©Chicago History Museum, Getty Images
Directors: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
Year: 2004
Running Time: 178 minutes
Some would argue that filmmaker Ken Burns is as famous as architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In this PBS Home Video, the masterful Burns explores Wright's life and works.
