presented by Denver Film Society and Design Onscreen

The 2010 Architecture + Design Film Series, presented by Design Onscreen and the Denver Film Society, will include two films from Design Onscreen: William Krisel, Architect and Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day. Following is the complete schedule for the Film Series, which will feature five screening events from September 15–October 7, 2010. Each screening will include appearances by and receptions with filmmakers, architects and design experts.Tickets for all screenings may be purchased from the Denver Film Society website.

• Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio
  • Wednesday, September 15 at the Starz Denver Film Center, 7:00 pm
  • Appearance by Director Sam Wainwright Douglas

• Oscar Niemeyer, A Vida E Um Sopro
  • Wednesday, September 22 at the Starz Denver Film Center, 7:00 pm
  • Appearance by and Q&A with Alan Hess, Architectural Critic for the San Jose Mercury News, author of Oscar Niemeyer Houses, Oscar Niemeyer Buildings and Casa Modernista: A History of the Brazil Modern Homes

• Double Feature: Studio Gang Architects: Aqua Tower and Philip Johnson: Diary of an Eccentric Architect
  • Wednesday, September 29 at the Denver Art Museum, 7pm
  • Appearance by and Q&A with Jeanne Gang of Studio Gang Architects

• William Krisel, Architect
  • Wednesday, October 6 at Starz Denver Film Center, 7pm
  • Appearance by and Q&A with Architect William Krisel

• Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day
  • Thursday, October 7 at the Denver Art Museum, 7:30pm
  • Post-screening Q&A with Michael Paglia, Westword Arts Critic, and Denver Collectors Jill Wiltse and H Kirk Brown III
  • Exclusive post-screening VIP dinner at the Brown/Wiltse Museum condominium

download the Denver Architecture Film Series Flyer

About the Film

Robin and Lucienne Day

Robin and Lucienne Day transformed British design after World War II with striking furniture and textiles that signaled a new era of modernist sensibilities for everyday living. Robin’s revolutionary furniture designs introduced materials such as plastic, steel and plywood to homes, offices and schools. His stacking polypropylene chair endures as an icon and now graces a Royal Mail postage stamp. Lucienne’s abstract textile designs brought accessible elegance into the homes of postwar British consumers. The Days’ fresh design approaches, including their contributions to the Royal Festival Hall in 1951, helped fuel the artistic and commercial awakening that led Britain out of the devastation of World War II. The film traces the Days’ personal and professional progression over the course of their careers, spanning more than seventy years—from their days at the Royal College of the Arts in the 1930s, through their long heyday at the forefront of British design, to their recent rediscovery by new generations of design aficionados.

About the Filmmakers

Commemorative British stamp with Robin's chair design

Director Murray Grigor is a Scottish filmmaker, writer and curator renowned for his films on architecture and design. His first film, on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, won five international awards, and he has since co-authored The Architects’ Architect on Mackintosh’s international influence. Grigor’s other award-winning films include groundbreaking documentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Adam and John Soane, and the landmark PBS series Pride of Place with Robert Stern. His most recent film, Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, has been a festival favorite since its premiere in 2008 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.

Cinematographer/Producer Hamid Shams has served as director, cinematographer and/or producer for numerous television commercials, music videos and short and feature documentary/narrative films, including Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, Tie-Died: Rock ’n Roll’s Most Dedicated Fans, and Painting the Town—all of which received highly favorable reviews for cinematography in major newspapers and festivals around the US and Europe.

About Design Onscreen

Design Onscreen is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to producing, promoting and preserving high-quality films on architecture and design. Founded in 2007 by Denver documentary enthusiasts Jill A. Wiltse and H Kirk Brown III, Design Onscreen’s documentaries on architecture include: William Krisel, Architect (screened at LA’s Getty Center in April 2010), Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler (2009; Audience Award Winner at the 2010 Newport Beach Film Festival) and Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs (2009). Another Design Onscreen film, Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes (2009), premiered in May 2009 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Art and Design. Please visit www.designonscreen.org/about for more information.

About The Victoria & Albert Museum

The V&A is the world’s greatest museum of art and design, with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity, and with 3000 years’ worth of amazing artefacts from many of the world’s richest cultures including ceramics, furniture, fashion, glass, jewellery, metalwork, photographs, sculpture, textiles and paintings. Victoria and Albert Museum is located at Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL.

Robin and Lucienne Day

Design Onscreen – The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film announces the world premiere screening of its latest documentary, Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK. The ninety-minute film premieres at 7:30pm on May 15, 2010 at the National Geographic Museum’s Grosvenor Auditorium in Washington, DC. A question and answer session with Director Murray Grigor and Cinematographer Hamid Shams will follow the screening. Tickets must be purchased in advance via the Design Onscreen website.

The May 15th premiere event has been scheduled to coincide with the opening of Art by the Yard: Women Design Mid-century Britain, an exhibition featuring Robin and Lucienne Day’s work, among other influential British designers, at Washington DC’s Textile Museum. The Art by the Yard exhibition will be on display at the Textile Museum from May 15 through September 12, 2010. An excerpt from the film is featured in the exhibition. For more information on the exhibition, please visit www.textilemuseum.org.

About the Film

Commemorative British stamp with Robin's chair design

Robin and Lucienne Day transformed British design after World War II with striking furniture and textiles that signaled a new era of modernist sensibilities for everyday living. Robin’s revolutionary furniture designs introduced materials such as plastic, steel and plywood to homes, offices and schools. His stacking polypropylene chair endures as an icon and now graces a Royal Mail postage stamp. Lucienne’s abstract textile designs brought accessible elegance into the homes of postwar British consumers. The Days’ fresh design approaches, including their contributions to the Royal Festival Hall in 1951, helped fuel the artistic and commercial awakening that led Britain out of the devastation of World War II. The film traces the Days’ personal and professional progression over the course of their careers, spanning more than seventy years—from their days at the Royal College of the Arts in the 1930s, through their long heyday at the forefront of British design, to their recent rediscovery by new generations of design aficionados.

World Premiere Screening

Contemporary Days: Robin and Lucienne Day Design the UK
A new documentary film presented by Design Onscreen-The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film.
Saturday, May 15th, 2010
Washington, DC
7:30pm film start time
(run time: 90 mins)

Gilbert H. Grosvenor Auditorium
National Geographic Museum
1145 17th Street NW
Washington, D.C., US
20036
Telephone: 202 857 7588

Get Tickets for Contemporary Days

Tickets: $15, available only in advance. No ticket sales at the door.

About the Filmmakers

Director Murray Grigor is a Scottish filmmaker, writer and curator renowned for his films on architecture and design. His first film, on Charles Rennie Mackintosh, won five international awards, and he has since co-authored The Architects’ Architect on Mackintosh’s international influence. Grigor’s other award-winning films include groundbreaking documentaries on Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Adam and John Soane, and the landmark PBS series Pride of Place with Robert Stern. His most recent film, Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, has been a festival favorite since its premiere in 2008 at UCLA’s Hammer Museum.

Cinematographer/Producer Hamid Shams has served as director, cinematographer and/or producer for numerous television commercials, music videos and short and feature documentary/narrative films, including Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, Tie-Died: Rock ’n Roll’s Most Dedicated Fans, and Painting the Town—all of which received highly favorable reviews for cinematography in major newspapers and festivals around the US and Europe.

About Design Onscreen

Design Onscreen is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit foundation dedicated to producing, promoting and preserving high-quality films on architecture and design. Founded in 2007 by Denver documentary enthusiasts Jill A. Wiltse and H Kirk Brown III, Design Onscreen’s other architectural documentaries include:William Krisel, Architect (screening at LA’s Getty Center in April 2010), Journeyman Architect: The Life and Work of Donald Wexler (2009) and Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs (2009). Another Design Onscreen film, Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes (2009), premiered in May 2009 at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Art and Design.

Join Design Onscreen for a special screening of William Krisel, Architect on Tuesday, Apr. 13, 2010 at The Getty Center. This visually stunning film explores the prolific career of Architect William Krisel.

Over the course of his sixty-year career, Architect William Krisel has brought “modernism to the masses,” designing more than 40,000 individual housing units across the U.S. Krisel’s influential work has come to epitomize mid-century Southern Californian design.

William Krisel, Architect (2010), directed by Jake Gorst, explores his life and work, including his roots in 1930s China, his ground-breaking designs for modern living, and interviews with scholars, his contemporaries and family. “I’m a firm believer that good modern design can make your life happier, more productive and more enjoyable,” says Krisel.

During the 1950s, Krisel built thousands of mass-produced tract homes in Palm Springs—and throughout Southern California—and thus played a key role in establishing the desert modernism of the area. His major achievement was to elevate the expectations of the average buyer of prefabricated housing in the 1950s. By devising airy dwellings with massive windows opening onto the bright expanse of the surrounding landscape, Krisel proved that modest midcentury homes did not have to be “cracker boxes” of unimaginative and claustrophobic design.

William Krisel, Architect is presented by Design Onscreen, a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to producing, preserving and promoting high-quality films on architecture and design. Krisel’s archive now resides at the Getty Research Institute (GRI). This screening will be followed by a conversation between Krisel and Wim de Wit, head of the Department of Architecture and Contemporary Art at the GRI.

Admission to this event is free, but a reservation is required. To make a reservation, please visit www.getty.edu/research or call (310) 440-7300. Note, late arrivals cannot be guaranteed seating. Parking is $15.00; free after 5:00 p.m.

The Getty Research Institute is a program of the J. Paul Getty Trust. Other programs of the Trust include the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation.

TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 2010 7:00–9:00 P.M.
HAROLD M. WILLIAMS AUDITORIUM, THE GETTY CENTER
for tickets click: www.getty.edu/research
or call (310) 440-7300

Join Design Onscreen for the world premiere of William Krisel, Architect on Sunday, Feb. 14, 2010 at the Camelot Theater in Palm Springs, CA, as part of Palm Springs Modernism Week. This visually stunning film explores the prolific career of Architect William Krisel.

Over the course of his sixty-year career, Architect William Krisel has brought modernism to the masses, designing more than 40,000 individual housing units across the U.S. Krisel’s influential work has become synonymous with mid-20th century Southern Californian design. The documentary explores his life and work, including his roots in 1930s China, his ground-breaking designs for modern living, and interviews with scholars, his contemporaries and family. “I’m a firm believer that good modern design can make your life happier, more productive and more enjoyable,” says Krisel. William Krisel, Architect is presented by Design Onscreen, a Denver-based nonprofit dedicated to producing, preserving and promoting high-quality films on architecture and design.

Please join Design Onscreen – The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film for the Architecture and Design Film Series during Palm Springs Modernism Week, February 14-19 at the Camelot Theatre.

Modernism Week, is an exciting 10-day homage to the ideals of mid-century modern design, architecture and culture in Palm Springs, California. This design aesthetic, originated in the early 1950s and 60s, features the clean, simple lines and celebrated elegant informality which came to define “desert modernism.

The Architecture and Design Film Series is co-sponsored by Modernism Week and Design Onscreen, and features six films covering some of the most compelling architecture and design of the 20th century.

Palm Springs Modernism Week
Design and Architecture Film Festival, co-sponsored by Design Onscreen
February 14–19, 2010

tickets available at:
Camelot Theatres
2300 East Baristo Road
Palm Springs, California 92262
Tel (760) 325-6565