Two New Films About Architecture

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Overview

Two New Films About Architecture
Apr 22 & 29 • Screening room
Admission per film: $8 Regular/ $6 YBCA member

This series showcases two outstanding new films, excellent examples of the growing body of work documenting architecture and architects.

Events

How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?

Apr 22, 2012 2:00pm
Apr 22, 2012 4:00pm

Screening Room

By Norberto López Amado and Carlos Carcas
A portrait of one of the world’s premier architects, this elegant film follows Norman Foster’s unending quest to improve the quality of life through design. The film details Foster’s origins, and explores what inspired him to design some of today’s most stunning and innovative architectural structures, such as the Beijing Airport, the Reichstag, and the world’s tallest bridge, in Millau, France. Foster offers some striking solutions to humanity’s increasing demand on urban centers. (2011, 78 min, digital)

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The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

Apr 29, 2012 2:00pm
Apr 29, 2012 4:00pm

Screening Room

By Chad Freidrichs
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the devastating story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home. It began as a housing marvel: Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, "the poor man's penthouse." Two decades later, it ended in rubble, its razing an iconic event that the architectural theorist Charles Jencks famously called the death of Modernism. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs, and stigmatize public housing residents. The film seeks to set the historical record straight. (2011, 83 min, digital)

“Superb. An uncommonly artful example of cinematic journalism.” — Variety

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