Five of the best design documentaries to stream right now
After sharing our edit of immersive books to get lost in, we’re turning our attention to films. Here, our Head of Appraisals, James Klonaris – who moonlights as an aspiring film buff – shares five of the best design documentaries to stream right now, covering everything from typefaces to Japanese architectural theory.
Eames: The Architect and the Painter, 2011
This is a love story, and a tale of two brilliant creative minds made better by their collaboration and mutual respect; the explorer and the aesthete. Charles and Ray Eames had a wonderful child-like enthusiasm for creativity and a liberatingly modern approach to it. It’s a thoroughly interesting portrait of how freedom can depend on success, how success can transition to burden, and how a chair can be a vehicle for so much more. “The best for the most for the least” is a maxim that is as true as it’s ever been.
Just Meet, 2018
Fernanda Romandia’s pensive portrait of Tadao Ando synthesises the architect’s theory and practice in his native Japan with the construction process of Casa Wabi some 7,000 miles away in Oaxaca, Mexico. It’s a piece governed by the measured pace of the workers, interrupted by Ando’s decisive meditations and inspirations. In all, a wonderful insight into the mind of a master, the humility of his aspirations and the limitlessness of his horizons.
Helvetica, 2007
Do the names Miedinger and Hoffman mean anything to you? They certainly didn’t to me prior to watching Gary Hustwit’s fascinating and informative documentary on the most-used typeface of the 20th century. As a design lay person, it’s a revelatory exposition on Helvetica’s integration and ubiquity within modern society and a captivating plunge into what we subconsciously absorb everyday. However, perhaps the most intoxicating aspect of this film is its characters, whose language of font is a whole other world of similes and metaphors; it’s enlightening to hear type personified and to be described as holding space or akin to perfume.
Jørn Utzon: The Man and the Architect, 2018
This excellent 2018 documentary tells the story of Jørn Utzon, the architect best known for his design of the Sydney Opera House. It too is a love story, and an indefatigable testament to a character of the highest humility and decency, as heart-warming as it is tragic, told with love and admiration by his family and those who worked with him. Utzon said ‘the beginning of all architecture is an act of love’, and from a man who always appeared to be smiling, it’s a believable declaration. Above all, it was for me a lesson in how to be a better human being.
My Architect: A Son’s Journey, 2003
A tragic sense of loneliness pervades this exploration into the life and work of the architect Louis Kahn. It’s less an anthology of his brilliance and more an illegitimate son’s quest to understand his father, who died alone and penniless on the floor of New York’s Pennsylvania Station. If that doesn’t sound like a riveting two hours, fear not, there is an abundance of hope in between the human cost and emotional collateral of Kahn’s single-mindedness.
Kochuu, 2003
Kochuu translates as ‘in-the-jar’ and refers to a Japanese tradition of creating physically small spaces that can serve as a separate universe; a place for introspection and thought beyond the confines of everyday life. This visually arresting film studies the Japanese traditions and philosophies that have guided its architecture and observes some of the principles that have made it so adaptable to modern demands. It’s a Swedish-made film and the symbiosis of Japanese and Nordic architecture is a theme throughout.
