Watchlist — Design Documentaries
Text by Laura Azzalini
Spending more time at home brings an opportunity to watch and rewatch some of my favourite design-adjacent films and documentaries. Here is a list of some visually inspiring classics and recent fun discoveries.
BBC GENIUS OF DESIGN (2010)
An in-depth, well produced, doc-series, which is basically a western design history 101. The series covers everything from Arts and Crafts, Modernism’s “machines for living”, by-products of war, the emergence of plastics, and the aestheticization of design.
4 Better Living Through Chemistry
RICHARD MEIER (2005)
kanopy.com/video/richard-meier
A Michael Blackwood production follows American architect Richard Meier, mid-career just prior to the building of the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The film is a guided tour by Meier himself, discussing a number of his white, skylit, modernist buildings and inside his New York City apartment. There is also a bit of him talking about his furniture designs which he was very fond of.
ISAMU NOGUCHI: A JAPANESE AMERICAN ARTIST AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT (1972)
kanopy.com/video/isamu-noguchi
Another Michael Blackwood documentary film covering the life and works of artist Isamu Noguchi featuring some really great early footage of Noguchi speaking about his time working for sculptor Constantin Brancusi and meetings with poet Ezra Pound and architect Bunkminster Fuller.
GARY HUSTWIT — OBJECTIFIED / HELVETICA / URBANIZED / RAMS
Gary Hustwit has been producing niche focused design documentaries on a typeface, objects, urban cities and Dieter Rams for some time now. During this time staying-home, he’s offering free streaming of his films each week.
LIVING ARCHITECTURES — KOOLHAAS HOUSELIFE (2013)
vimeo.com/ondemand/koolhaashouselife
This film is apart of a series by architectural documentarians Ila Bêka and Louise Lemoine, titled Living Architectures. The films are really special and cheeky as it “pulls back the curtain” on a number of contemporary architectural homes and buildings and how they function in real life with real people. Koolhaas Houselife follows the housekeepers of Maison à Bordeaux a private residence designed by Rem Koolhaas, OMA, as they spend their days working and interacting with the various architectural interventions of the home, such as the hydraulic elevator platform.
A few other favourites from the series —
BUTOHOUSE, Keisuke Oka
vimeo.com/363771770
Had the opportunity to see this house in person in Tokyo in 2017 and so happy to see there is a film about it. Quite the spectacular story of Keisuke Oka’s improvisational, self-build architecture.
Photo by Laura Azzalini
Moriyama-San, Ryue Nishizawa, SANAA
Pomerol, Herzog & de Meuron
vimeo.com/ondemand/pomerolherzogdemeuron
GARLIC AS GOOD AS 10 MOTHERS (1980)
criterionchannel.com/garlic-is-as-good-as-ten-mothers
A break from design and into the magic of garlic. This documentary is by notable documentarian Les Blank. The film features vintage footage of Alice Waters in the height of Chez Panisse days, talking about how much she loves garlic while wearing a garlic crown, during their yearly Garlic festival. Appearances also by a number of other garlic-aficionados and worshipers.
THE ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCHE (2018)
Like Planet Earth documentaries but the eye-opening reality of the human destruction of the earth. Beautifully shot, aesthetically captured scenes of neon-green lithium pools in Atacama Desert in Chile to the Carrara Marble Mines in Italy. A timely film to watch especially at a moment when we are seeing realtime effects of humans “staying home”. New York Times also wrote a review of the film.
GRAY MATTERS: ARCHITECT & DESIGNER EILEEN GRAY (2014)
kanopy.com/video/gray-matters-architect-designer-eileen-gray
An overview of the designer and architect Eileen Gray’s life and career which touches upon furniture, objects, interiors and architecture. Beginning with her early Japanese lacquer furniture works, to her Paris Galerie/Shop Jean Desasrt, selling her furniture and rugs alongside exhibitions of modern art, making Gray one of the first female gallerists in Paris in 1922. Also working on interior design projects, Gray moved into architectural commissions for public and private buildings, including her own homes in France, E1027, Tempe a Pailla, and Villa Lou Perou. Pin-up Magazine also wrote about the film, and there is currently a retrospective of Gray’s work currently on at the Bard Center which includes some works never exhibited before.
ALEXANDER CALDER: INVENTOR OF THE MOBILE (1998)
vimeo.com/ondemand/alexandercalderfilm
This film is such a visual treat and inspiring portrait of artist, Alex Calder’s expansive multidisciplinary career. Full of archival footage from early Calder’s toys and inspirations from the circus, to his iconic mobiles - a term coined by Duchamp meaning both motion and motive. Also covers his larger public sculptures “stabiles” which can be found all over the world. Footage of his first commission, Mercury Fountain for the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris World Fair is a highlight.