FILM / VIDEO
Community
Builder: The Life and Legacy J.C. Nichols
A production of A P L / Anderson Productions Ltd.
Steven C. F. Anderson, Executive Producer
Kansas City’s most famous land developer, Jesse Clyde Nichols,
built a grand local community… and changed America forever.
This hour-long documentary chronicles J. C. Nichol’s life and
work, including Kansas City’s own Country Club District, in
which Nichols constructed the largest planned community in the United
States. Now more than 100 year old, its crown jewel, the Country
Club Plaza, has resisted encroachment by strip malls and fast food
chains, and lived up to its founder’s motto: “planning
for permanence.”
The methods and philosophies Nichols championed were largely ignored
after his death in 1950, but are now being revived by architects,
planners, and developers looking for ways to combat sprawl and build
walkable, sustainable towns. These so-called “New Urbanists” have
found a godfather in J. C. Nichols.
The film features interviews with the Nichols family members and
other prominent Kansas Citians: as well as nationally known figures
like art historian Vincent Scully, architecture critic Paul Goldberger,
New Urbanist planners Andres Duany and Peter Calthorpe, and Rick
Rosan, president of the Urban Land Institute.
Thursday,
September 14, at 5:30 p.m.
Nashville Civic Design Center
138 Second Avenue North Suite 106
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PREVIOUS FILMS:
Koyaanisqatsi
(1983 / 87
minutes)
Produced and Directed by Godfrey Reggio
Filmed by Ron Fricke and edited by Alton Walpole & Ron Fricke
Music by Philip Glass with Music director & additional music by Michael Hoenig
KOYAANISQATSI was
Geoffrey Reggio’s debut as a film director and producer. KOYAANISQATSI is
the first film of the Qatsi trilogy, and was released in 1983. KOYAANISQATSI was
the first full-length commercial nonverbal film (since silents). KOYAANISQATSI cinematographer
and editor Ron Fricke captures 90 minutes of stunning visual images
of North America, set to a moving score composed by Philip Glass.
Koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi Indian word meaning ‘life out of balance.’ Created
between 1975 and 1982, KOYAANISQATSI is an apocalyptic vision of two different
worlds--urban life, and technology versus the environment. KOYANISQATSI is
a sort of documentary. There are no actors, there is no plot and
there is no script.
All of the images in KOYAANISQATSI are of real life. The subject of the images
varies greatly. They are presented in such a way to show the contrast between
humans and nature. The images provoke a thousand thoughts.
Ron Fricke was the principal cinematographer in KOYAANISQATSI. Ron Fricke later
went on to create Baraka, as well a Chronos. Many of the techniques that work
so well in KOYAANISQATSI, such as slow motion, time-lapse, and moving vehicle
shots, are found in many later films such as Baraka and Dogora.
Images include: Cave paintings, desert landscapes, waves, cloud formations, mines,
traffic formations commercial passenger aircraft, demolition, desolate urban
landscapes, rocket explosions, crashing waves, sausage factory, rush hour workers,
escalators, cityscapes, integrated circuits, canyons, fields, earthmovers, dams,
explosions, aircraft, slums, machinery, and people.
Bernd
and Hilla Becher: Four Decades
58 minutes
/ color
Michael Blackwood Productions
Bernd and Hilla Becher
have been working together as photographers since 1957 documenting
and classifying endangered architecture-- mainly industrial structures,
that are now vanishing from the landscape. By the end of
1960’s they became part of the conceptual art movement in view
of their minimalist approach. As a result their work can be found
in the collections of most major art museums. For others familiar
with the beginnings of industrial structures their photographic typologies
represent a brilliant study of the early forms of industry.
In this video they discuss their beginnings as documentarians of 19th century
industrial architecture while showing us their retrospective exhibition at Berlin’s
Hamburger Bahnhof Museum.
Thursday,
July 20, 5:30 p.m.
at the Nashville Civic Design Center
138 2nd Avenue North Suite 106
London
Tuesday, June 20
A film written, directed, and photographed by Patrick Keiller released in 1994
Color / 82 minutes / in English
Architect-turned-director Patrick Keiller returns with an eccentric documentary
that brings out a side of this city that few tourists will ever visit.
Also returning is Academy-Award-winning actor Paul Scofield as the mysterious
narrator, who is back in London after a seven-year absence to tour the city
with his former lover Robinson. The pair visit historical sites associated
with such famous authors as Poe and Baudelaire, only to discover pollution,
urban blight, and IRA bomb scares have changed the flavor of their beloved
London forever.
Wry, deadpan humor, ironic commentary on social politics, and immaculately
composed images make this ideological guided tour of England’s capital
city as indispensable companion to the unforgettable ROBINSON
IN SPACE.
“The
team that brought you ROBINSON IN SPACE returns with ‘a new riff
on an old town.’”
--Variety
“ a sly combination of fact and fantasy”
--The New York Times
“… the most innovative and absorbing British film in recent memory…”
--London Financial Times
“… echoes of Chris Marker’s elegant, urbane essay-films…”
--London Independent
Three Short Films by Edmund Bacon
Rome: Impact
of an Idea
John Nash and London
Paris: Living Space
“On 14 October (2005), America lost one of its most significant, colorful,
and controversial 20th century figures: Ed Bacon. From 1949 to 1970, as Executive
Director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Bacon dramatically transformed
the shape of his hometown, becoming one of the most influential big city administrators
of the Post-World War II era. Famous for his visionary ideas and combative demeanor,
Bacon’s face graced the cover of Time magazine in 1964, and he became a
household name in Philadelphia and a recognized national figure.”
-Gregory Heller, President, The Ed Bacon Foundation
Edmund Bacon was perhaps most influential for his oft reprinted book Design
of Cities, which envisions the formation cities as “acts of will” to
create memorable urban spaces. Three short films were produced by Bacon
to illustrate his ideas on the form of cities, and they will be shown as
a medley, followed by discussion.
A Day with Zaha Hadid
52 minutes / color
Zaha Hadid discusses her current work while taking the camera through her retrospective
exhibition “Zaha Hadid has Arrived” at Vienna’s MAK,
a museum for design and contemporary art. The centerpiece is a sculptural
work entitled “Ice Storm” especially created for the exhibition.
“ Zaha Hadid has Arrived” is a brilliant review of her progress through
the last decade and includes her museums of contemporary art in Rome and Cincinnati,
the BMW plant in Leipzig, the Bergisel ski jump in Innsbruck and the Science
Center in Wolfsburg, among others.
Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
A film by William
H. Whyte
Produced by The Municipal Art Society of New York
Silver Apple 1989 National Film & Video Festival
(58 minutes / 1988)
This witty and original film is about the open spaces of cities and why some
of them work for people while others don't. Beginning at New York's Seagram
Plaza, one of the most used open areas in the city, the film proceeds to analyze
why this space is so popular and how other urban oases, both in New York and
elsewhere, measure up. Based on direct observation of what people actually
do, the film presents a remarkably engaging and informative tour of the urban
landscape and looks at how it can be made more hospitable to those who live
in it.
This classic film study, analyzing urban space through aerial surveillance
and time lapsed photography, will be introduced by Design Director TK Davis.
Randy Morgan of the Metro Panning Department will lead a discussion afterwards,
including his ideas on forming a working group to pursue a similar film study
of public outdoor spaces in downtown Nashville.
" A complete delight...flows with humor, verve, insight and pleasure...An
excellent analysis of major factors of urban design."
--AFVA Evaluations
Tadao Ando
Produced by Michael Blackwood and narrated by the architect.
Tadao Ando is arguably
the world’s foremost architect working in concrete.
Japan's introspective architect proposes an international architecture that
he believes can only be conceived by someone Japanese. His architecture mixes
Piranesian drama with contemplative spaces in urban complexes, residences and
chapels. This film presents the formative years of his impressive career before
he embarked on projects in Europe and the United States.
Architect-turned-filmmaker Patrick Keller expands and inventively redefines the documentary format in this unique "travelogue" of England. Using immaculately composed shots, he presents the country's familiar historic landmarks and grand estates, but also the suburban malls, industrial parks, landfills, factories, and phone booths choking the landscape. Centuries old structures share the screen with industrial parts, hotels, malls and shipyards. Signs of decay and decline exist next to sites of busy industrial activity.
"The ingenious juxtapositions and Keiller's oblique, teasing humor hold us entranced." - Film Comment
THE END OF SUBURBIA: OIL DEPLETION AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
“ We’re
literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up.”
– James Howard Kunstler
HANS HOLLEIN: EVERYTHING IS ARCHITECTURE
BLADE RUNNER and the short subject "Give yourself the red light"