My Architect - A Personal Documentary

        Well, we watched parts of this film in class, but I don't think the clips we watched really do Louis Kahn's life or architecture justice. You've got to check this film out for yourself. Louis' son, Nathaniel, who directs the film, adopts an amazingly personal style of directing as he hunts down his father's oldest friends and colleagues in an attempt to better understand the man who gave him life but had so little to do with him once he was born.

        Apart from fantastic interviews and a strong connection between the director/narrator, his subject, and the architectural sites he visits, the film offers some amazing cinematography, and Nathaniel manages to use light and space in a way to truly capture his father's structures, their weight, magnitude, beauty, and timelessness. Still, the personality and humanity of Louis Kahn's troubled life and immense talent are only visible through the eyes and lens of his son, whose journey is what truly makes this film remarkable. I would have to agree with Robert Kolker of New York Magazine who is quoted on the DVD box of My Architect as calling the film "a Citizen Kane-like meditation." This is true to the extent that the film delves so deep into the life of one, single character who, to the outside world, may have only been a talented artist, but who, to many who were closest to him, meant so much more than that. The juxtaposition between Kahn's beautiful structures and the heartbreak and bitter journey Nathaniel seeks to overcome is very powerful on film, and the film's climax is only satisfying once you've seen his entire quest. Check it out - My Architect.