2003
10 out of 10
My Architect: A Son's Journey is a documentary film about the American architect Louis Kahn (1901-1974), by his son Nathaniel Kahn, detailing the architect's extraordinary career and his familial legacy after his death in 1974.
In the film, Louis Kahn is quoted as saying “When I went to high school I had a teacher, in the arts, who was head of the department of Central High, William Grey, and he gave a course in Architecture, the only course in any high school I am sure, in Greek, Roman, Renaissance, Egyptian, and Gothic Architecture, and at that point two of my colleagues and myself realized that only Architecture was to be my life. How accidental are our existences are really, and how full of influence by circumstance.”
The film features interviews with renowned architects, including Frank Gehry, Shamsul Wares, I.M. Pei, Anne Tyng and Philip Johnson. Throughout the film, Kahn visits all of his father's buildings including The Yale Center for British Art, The Salk Institute, Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad.
Thoughts
I am probably a bit biased on this one but this is a fantastic film (I am an architect and Louis Kahn is my favorite architect). It is an interesting journey through the eyes of his son, who never really knew him and how he gets to know his father through his architecture and the people he affected through the spaces he create.
Plot
Does a documentary have a plot? A son's journey to understand the father he barely knew.
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