Texas Premiere of Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island
Presented by Houston Mod, Houston Modern Market, and Design Onscreen February 23, 2012, 7 p.m., $25
River Oaks Landmark Theater
2009 West Gray
Houston, TX 77019
This is a fundraiser for Houston Mod and Design Onscreen. Design Onscreen will use its donations to fund production of a film on Houston modern architecture by Sam Wainwright Douglas, called Lone Star Mod: Midcentury Houston Architecture.
In person: Sam Wainwright Douglas and Heather Purcell Leja, Executive Director of Design Onscreen and Producer of Modern Tide and Lone Star Mod.
Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island explores the work of the region’s best postwar architects and designers, including Albert Frey, Wallace Harrison, Herbert Beckhard, Frank Lloyd Wright, Horace Gifford, Edward Durrell Stone, Marcel Breuer, Andrew Geller, Philip Johnson, Charles Gwathmey, Barbara and Julian Neski, and others. The film features interviews with architects and historians, as well as friends, families and clients of these influential designers. Both rare archival material and gorgeous current-day high-definition cinematography highlight Long Island’s often underappreciated modernist architectural treasures. “Long Island has a rich heritage of midcentury modern architecture,” says Director Jake Gorst. “Sadly, much of it has disappeared because of redevelopment and natural disaster. We believe the film will foster renewed awareness and appreciation for Long Island’s remaining modernist structures and its unique architectural history.
All proceeds will benefit both local nonprofit Houston Mod (www.HoustonMod.org) and Design Onscreen‘s production of a new film by Houston Filmmaker Sam Wainwright Douglas on Houston’s modernist architectural legacy entitled Lone Star Mod: Midcentury Houston Architecture. “We are proud to produce a film similar to Modern Tide on Houston’s often underappreciated modern architecture,” says Heather Purcell Leja, Executive Director of Design Onscreen and producer of Modern Tide.
Lone Star Mod: Midcentury Houston Architecture will showcase Houston’s modernist architecture, profile several premiere Houston modernist architects, and explore the effects of Houston’s controversial lack of zoning on the preservation of these midcentury landmarks. As a post-World War II boomtown Houston has an abundance of beautiful modernist architecture, yet the city is not celebrated outside the region for its stunning homes, sleek office buildings, churches, schools, banks, museums, hotels, and the Astrodome. Over the years, countless homes have been honored with Architectural Record magazine’s Record Houses distinction, and many national and regional American Institute of Architects awards have been bestowed on local buildings. The city has hosted a number of talented, inventive architects whose work is critically acclaimed albeit not well known by the general public. This film intends to remind audiences of Houston’s great modernist tradition.
Filmmaker Sam Wainwright Douglas is a native Houstonian who grew up in the city’s architecture culture. Having a father who is an architect, Sam gained an early appreciation for Houston modernism that stays with him to this day. Sam will give a talk on his upcoming film, Lone Star Mod: Midcentury Houston Architecture, after the screening of Modern Tide. Sam’s previous films include Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio.
This screening will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 23, 2012 at the Landmark River Oaks Theater, 2009 West Gray Street, Houston, Texas 77019. Tickets are available online at www.landmarktheatres.com and at the door for $25.00. The theater’s bar and snack bar will be open for this screening.
In Person: Sam Wainwright Douglas, director of the upcoming film Lone Star Mod: Midcentury Houston Architecture and Heather Purcell Leja, Executive Director of Design Onscreen and Producer of Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island.
Celebrate the best in films on architecture and design at Palm Springs Modernism Week.
Sponsorship opportunities for the Series and individual screenings are still available. For more information contact or Heather Purcell Leja at hpleja@designonscreen.org or Mark Davis at mrkhdvs@aol.com.
Celebrate the best in films on architecture and design at nine special screening events, including stimulating discussions with dynamic filmmakers, architects and design experts, plus receptions hosted by Denver’s favorite eateries. Films will screen on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons during the Series, with a special closing night screening and reception on the evening of Saturday, Oct. 1.
All evening films in the Series are Colorado premieres!
Sponsor line-up includes AIA’s Denver Chapter and Colorado Chapter; ModDenHomes.com; Department of Architecture, University of Colorado Denver; Modern in Denver Magazine; Vega Architecture; the Design Council at the Denver Art Museum; and KUNC. Sponsorship opportunities for the Series and individual screening are still available. For more information contact: Ann Collier at ann@denverfilm.org or Heather Purcell Leja at hpleja@designonscreen.org.
For tickets and more information, please visit www.denverfilm.org. Series Passes are also available.
ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN FILM SERIES SCHEDULE
How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?
(2010, Directors Norberto Lopez Amado and Carlos Carcas, 73 minutes) Thursday September 8, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex) Post-screening Q&A with China-based architect and CU Visiting Professor Scott Findley
Reception to follow at Chlóe Mezze Lounge | 1445 Market Street | Denver, CO 80202
In partnership with Architecture for Humanity
The film traces the rise of one of the world’s premier architects, Norman Foster and his unending quest to improve the quality of life through design. Portrayed are Foster’s origins and how his dreams and influences inspired the design of emblematic projects such as the largest building in the world Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, the Hearst Building in New York and works such as the tallest bridge ever in Millau France. In the very near future, the majority of mankind will abandon the countryside and live entirely in cities. Foster offers some striking solutions to the problems that this historic event will create.
Antwerp Central Station
(2010, Director Peter Krüger, 90 minutes) Saturday September 10, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex) Grand Prize Winner at 2011 International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) in Montreal
Post-screening discussion and architectural tour of the Lowenstein CulturePlex with Architect Chris Wineman of Semple Brown.
Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Between past and present, between dream and reality, a mildly ironic and contemplative look at Antwerp’s central station, considered one of the finest examples of railway architecture in Belgium. The Antwerp station embodies the spirit of the Industrial Revolution, which saw railway stations and railroads flourish across Europe, with its architecture that combines glass and metal. In the late nineteenth century, engineer Clément Van Bogaert created the 43-metre high glass dome designed by architect Louis de la Censerie to keep the smoke from the steam locomotives away from travellers. The film presents a kaleidoscopic impression of the station, with an ongoing interplay of its historical, realistic and poetic dimensions.
Bauhaus: Model and Myth
(1998-2009, Directors Niels Bolbrinker and Kerstin Stutterheim, 103 minutes) Thursday September 15, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex) With CU Architecture Professor Taisto Makela in person
Reception to follow at Linger | 2030 W 30th Ave | Denver, CO 80211
and at Lola | 1575 Boulder St | Denver, CO 80211
Founded in Weimar in 1919, the Bauhaus school, which sought to reconcile the arts and crafts and create a new aesthetic that would serve industry, was undeniably the twentieth century’s most important school of art, design and architecture. Considered today as a reference, the Bauhaus is more than just cubic buildings and steel tube chairs. The faculty included leading artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer, and architects such as Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. The film looks at the post-World War I origins of the Bauhaus and its revolutionary influence. It reveals the real story behind its closing and the political collusion among some of its members under Nazi Germany, based on accounts by alumni and archival excerpts that reveal the visions of some of the school’s former teachers.
Space Land and Time: Underground Adventures with Ant Farm
(2010, Directors Laura Harrison and Elizabeth Federici, 78 minutes) Saturday September 17, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Post-screening discussion to follow with David Grooms of Vega Architects.
Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Sponsored by Vega Architecture
Most recognized for the iconic Texas land-art piece, Cadillac Ranch, the 1970s art/architecture collective Ant Farm questioned the boundaries of architecture and everything else in the process. This is the first film to delve into the work of these renegade explorers in both architecture and performance art. Radical architects, video pioneers, and mordantly funny cultural commentators, the Ant Farmers created a body of deeply subversive work that presaged today’s cultural landscape.
Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs
(2011, Director Jake Gorst, 58 minutes) Thursday September 22, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex) With architectural historian and author Alan Hess in person
Reception to follow at Mod Livin’ | 5327 E. Colfax Ave | Denver, CO 80220
with “Dessert Utopia” provided by Pastel Bakery and El Olvido
Sponsored by Modern in Denver magazine
This documentary traces the origins and growth of midcentury architecture in the modernist mecca of Palm Springs, California. The city boasts many landmark buildings by such modernist pioneers as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, E. Stewart Williams, Donald Wexler, William Cody and William Krisel. Jake Gorst’s film brings these unique structures alive and features never-before-seen archival footage of the architects and construction that made Palm Springs a unique gem of design in the desert.
Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman
(2009, Director Eric Bricker, 83 minutes) Saturday, September 24, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex)
Post-screening discussion to follow with architectural historian Alan Hess.
Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away in 2009, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California’s modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images.
EAMES: The Architect and the Painter - World Premiere Screening!
(2011, Director Jason Cohn & Bill Jersey, 81 minutes)
Thursday September 29, 2011, 7pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex) Post-screening Q&A with Director Jason Cohn
Reception to follow at Encore | 2550 East Colfax Ave | Denver, CO 80206
Sponsored by ModDenHomes.com
In partnership with Women in Design
EAMES: The Architect and the Painter is the first film about Charles and Ray Eames since their deaths and the only film to peer inside their collaboration, their marriage and the “Renaissance studio” they created in a gritty ware- house in Venice, CA. Narrated by James Franco, the film draws from a trove of archival material, primarily the stunning films and photographs produced in mind- boggling volume by Charles, Ray, and their staff during the hyper-creative forty years of the Eames Office. Family mem- bers and design historians help guide the story, but it is in interviews with the junior designers swept into the “24-7” world of “The Eamery,” that a fascinatingly complex picture of this husband and wife creative team really emerges. Slated to screen on PBS’ American Masters on Dec. 19th.
Bird’s Nest: Herzog and de Meuron in China
(2008, Directors Christoph Schaub and Michael Schindhelm, 88 minutes) Saturday October 1, 2011, 2pm at the Denver FilmCenter (2510 East Colfax in the Lowenstein CulturePlex) Post-screening discussion to follow with China-based architect Scott Findley, Design Partner with 10 Design. Continuing Education credit available for AIA members (self-reported credits)
Many events for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games took place in the brand new, 100,000-seat National Stadium. Design plans for this massive structure began in 2003, when Swiss architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were selected by the Chinese government to design the new stadium, which because of its curved steel-net walls was soon dubbed by locals as the “bird’s nest.” BIRD’S NEST chronicles this five-year effort, as well as Herzog and de Meuron’s design for a new city district in Jinhua, involving hotels, office and residential buildings. Both projects involved complex and often difficult negotiations and communications between two cultures, two architectural traditions and two political systems. Herzog and de Meuron, the Basle-based architects, find themselves working with China’s largest state construction company, Chinese artist and architect Ai Wei Wei, lawyers, and countless government bureaucrats.
New Beijing: Reinventing a City
(2009, Director Georgia Wallace-Crabbe, 53 minutes) Saturday October 1, 2011, 7pm at the Denver Art Museum’s Sharp Auditorium
Sponsored by the Department of Architecture, University of Colorado Denver and the Design Council at the Denver Art Museum
With Min Wang, Design Director for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in person
GALA CLOSING NIGHT RECEPTION at RedLine Gallery in Association with the Cumulus International Design
Beijing is at the center of a building boom unprecedented in the history of humanity, with contributions by some of the world’s most celebrated architects. French architect Paul Andreu (the new opera house), Australian John Bilmon (the national aquatics center), Ole Scheeren of the Dutch agency OMA (CCTV’s head office) and Rory McGowan of the engineering firm ARUP take viewers on a tour of their achievements. At the same time, photographer and social activist Zhang Jinqi, accompanied by residents from six other Chinese cities, documents old Beijing neighborhoods before their demolition, raising many questions on the country’s future and the preservation of its cultural heritage.
Join Modernism Week and Design Onscreen for the 3rd Annual Architecture + Design Film Series,
February 19 – 24, 2011
Celebrate the best in films on architecture and design at Palm Springs Modernism Week 2011. Twelve outstanding films grace this year’s expanded roster, with six afternoon screenings (2:30pm) and five evening showings (7:30pm), all at the Riviera Palm Springs, 1600 N. Indian Canyon Drive. All evening screenings will feature post-screening Q&A sessions with directors, producers and design experts. See below for Read the rest of this entry »
Design Onscreen goes to Russia this week, where we’ll co-sponsor the 2nd Annual Moscow Architecture Film Festival December 2-4, 2010, in partnership with our hosts, the Schusev State Museum of Architecture, the Center for Contemporary Architecture and the Moscow Museum of Cinema.
In addition, on December 1 at 7pm, Design Onscreen Board Member and Historian Alan Hess will lecture at the State Museum of Architecture on current issues in U.S. architectural preservation. On the the Festival’s opening night (Dec. 2), Alan Hess and Executive Director Heather Purcell Leja will give a presentation on Design Onscreen’s mission and activities.
Screenings presented by Design Onscreen at the Moscow Architecture Film Festival
Thursday, December 2, 2010 Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs(2009, 58 min, Director Jake Gorst)
Desert Utopia traces the origins and growth of midcentury architecture in the modernist mecca of Palm Springs, California. The city boasts many landmark buildings by such modernist pioneers as Richard Neutra, Albert Frey, E. Stewart Williams, Donald Wexler, William Cody and William Krisel. Director Jake Gorst’s film brings these unique structures alive and features never-before-seen archival footage of the architects and construction that made Palm Springs a unique gem of design in the desert.
Thursday, December 2, 2010 Wiliam Krisel, Architect(2010, 86 min, Director Jake Gorst)
One of the most prolific Southern Californian architects of the 20th century, William Krisel’s influence continues to reverberate today. This documentary explores Krisel’s 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.
Friday, December 3, 2010 Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner(2009, 90 min, Director Murray Grigor)
(screening presented by Design Onscreen)
“The purpose of architecture,” said John Lautner, “is to create timeless,
free, joyous spaces for all activities in life.” Infinite Space traces the lifelong quest of visionary genius John Lautner to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end.” It is the story of brilliance and of a complicated life – and the most sensual architecture of the 20th century. Renowned architectural filmmaker Murray Grigor explores Lautner’s dramatic spaces with choreographed camera moves, as Lautner himself provides the commentary, speaking with insight and wit in recordings culled from archival sources.
Saturday, December 4, 2010 Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day(2010, 77 mins, Director Murray Grigor)
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.
Saturday, December 4, 2010 at 4:45pm Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio(2010, 60 min, Director Sam Wainwright Douglas)
(screening presented by Design Onscreen)
In 1993 the late architect and MacArthur Genius Samuel Mockbee started the Rural Studio, a design/build education program, in which students create striking architecture for impoverished communities in rural Alabama. Guided by frank, passionate interviews with Mockbee, Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio shows how a group of students use their creativity, ingenuity and compassion to craft a home for their charismatic client, Jimmie Lee Matthews, known to locals as Music Man because of his zeal for old R&B and Soul records. The film reveals that the Rural Studio is about more than architecture and building. Mockbee’s program provides students with an experience that forever inspires them to consider how they can use their skills to better their communities. Interviews with Mockbee’s peers and scenes with those he’s influenced infuse the film with a larger discussion of architecture’s role in issues of poverty, class, race, education, social change and citizenship
Please join us for two Design Onscreen films in three different screenings, during National Design Week in New York City.
Wednesday Oct. 13 at 3:30pm – Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes (2010, 30 mins, Director Amie Knox).
The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum will present Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Acrchetypes on Wednesday, October 13 at 3:30pm as part of their Design Week free screenings. This special screening event is free and open to the public. Tickets may be reserved at the Cooper-Hewitt calendar. Walk-ins are welcome, too. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is located on Museum Mile, at the corner of 91st Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City. View map. For more information about the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum click here. You can also view the trailer for Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes.
Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes (2009, 30 min) – Regarded as one of the most innovative and creative designers working today, Dutch designer Hella Jongerius explores new visions for design, craft, art and technology in her products for everyday life. Presented by Design Onscreen – The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film.
Friday Oct. 15 at 6:00pm and Sunday Oct. 17 at 2:15pm – Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day (2010, 77 mins, Director Murray Grigor).
Robin and Lucienne Day
Design Onscreen’s latest film, Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day, will be shown on Friday, October 15th at 6:00pm and Sunday, October 17th at 2:15pm, at the Tribeca Cinemas, as part of the Architecture & Design Film Festival — the largest US film festival devoted to architecture and design. For details about the film and screenings, click here. To purchase tickets to this screening or other films at the Architecture & Design film festival, click here and choose the “2 to Tango” program. You can also view the trailer for Contemporary Days at the Design Onscreen website.
Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day (2010, 77 mins). Robin and Lucienne Day transformed British design after World War II with revolutionary furniture and textiles that signaled a new era of modernist sensibilities for everyday living. Director Murray Grigor’s film traces the Days’ careers over more than eighty years — from their long heyday as Britain’s leading designing couple to their recent rediscovery by new generations of design aficionados.
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
Design Onscreen—The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film announces the UK premiere screening of its latest documentary, Contemporary Days: The Designs of Lucienne and Robin Day. The seventy-five-minute film premieres at 1900 on Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s Hochauser Auditorium. A question and answer session with V&A Design Curator Christopher Wilk and Director Murray Grigor will follow the screening. To purchase tickets, call 020 7942 2211 or visit www.vam.ac.uk/tickets Read the rest of this entry »
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 Read the rest of this entry »
Hella Jongerius: Contemporary Archetypes (2009, 30 min) – Regarded as one of the most innovative and creative designers working today, Dutch designer Hella Jongerius explores new visions for design, craft, art and technology in her products for everyday life. Presented by Design Onscreen – The Initiative for Architecture and Design on Film.
