Michael Blackwood

A visit with the principals of seven architectural practices at the sites of their best work in many parts of Germany. The eleven architects, all born after World War II, give insight into the situation of architecture and the architect in Germany today, a country which played a key role in the advance of modernism. The consensus among the architects is hope for a future when architecture can regain the creative dynamism that prevailed in the 1920's,...

In August 1977, the Brooklyn Kings, one of five "Wonder Theaters" in the New York area, closed its doors and became property of the City due to unpaid taxes. There are plans to renovate and restore it to Brooklyn's cultural life as a multi-purpose theater by 2014. When it opened in 1929, in the presence of Hollywood star Dolores de Rio, it offered movie premieres and Vaudeville and its 3676 seats were regularly filled by enthusiastic Brooklynites....

This open-ended series intends to introduce the work of emerging architects building on the principles of Modernism while evolving a new language drawn from politics, film, literature, theory and the state of the world. This film looks at nine American-based innovators and their work for housing projects, commercial architecture, private houses and renovations, across time zones from New York to L.A. to Japan and beyond.

Tadao Ando, a self-taught 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.

Produced at roughly the same time as The New Modernists 9 American Architects, this film examines an equally interesting selection of European architects. Critic Kenneth Frampton sees this group of architects, working from Seville to Finland, understanding and interacting with the ideas and structures of Aalto, Saarinen and Mies to form a confident new European identity

Despite his time-consuming responsibilities as Dean of Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Bernard Tschumi managed to produce an impressive body of work. At his final lecture at Columbia in April, 2003, he presents his views of contemporary architecture and its issues and gives an overview of the outstanding examples of his own work. Tschumi also critically examines the approach to solving the problem of the vacuum left by the destruction...

At work on his Elegies and Windows series, Motherwell examines his place in the Abstract Expressionist movement, which he calls the first original American movement in the "mainstream," and its practitioners "the last romantics." He distinguishes between his large paintings and his intimate papier collé.. Motherwell recollects the state of American art in the 1940s and the impact of European emigré painters on the younger generation of emerging...

No understanding of the modern movement in architecture is possible without knowledge of its master builder, Mies van der Rohe. Together with documentation of his life, this film shows all his major buildings, as well as rare film footage of Mies explaining his philosophy. Phyllis Lambert relates her choice of Mies as the architect for the Seagram building. Mies's achievements and continuing influence are debated by architects Robert A.M. Stern, Robert...

Set in and around East 77th Street, NEW YORKERS follows inhabitants of the neighborhood, documenting their small businesses, daily encounters and commentary on New York in the 1970s. With the neighborhood experiencing changes in culture, cost and character we get to know a wide range of residents, each vastly different from the last.

Art historians and critics talk with Philip Guston about his ideas and new work of the 1970's as he moves away from Abstract Expressionism and shifts his focus to Figuration. With the participation of Roberta Smith, Jan Butterfield and Charles Shere, CONVERSATIONS WITH PHILIP GUSTON becomes an intimate study of the artist's thoughts, theories, and artistic pursuits.