Documentary, History
Southern California’s Coachella Valley, including the communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Desert Hot Springs, boasts hundreds of extraordinary midcentury modern homes, public buildings and commercial structures. Modern designers such as William F. Cody, Albert Frey, William Krisel, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, R.M. Schindler, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams left their collective mark on this desert paradise. Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs traces the history of modern architecture in Palm Springs from the first bold forays into modernist design to the preservation challenges facing the region today. Director Jake Gorst’s film features rare archival images and footage as well as interviews with historians, homeowners and the architects who helped create this mecca of modernism.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
Dalya's Other Country
Slums: Cities of Tomorrow
Matthew Stafford: Locked In
The Go-Go's
Rebuilding Paradise
Angkor et Les Mystères de L'Empire Khmer
The Center Of The Universe
Helvetica
Paname: The Ghost of the Great Frenchman
Folkhemmets Estetik
I will make up a song and sing it in a theatre with the night air above my head
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
The American Sector
Wiener Barock - Der Architekt dreier Kaiser
Heat Wave
Out of Print
Towards the South, A journey around earthen architecture and André Ravéreau
Tadao Ando
Sunnyside
Behind the Walls of the Forbidden City
SIMILAR MOVIES
Dalya's Other Country
IMDB 0 | Jun , 2017
In 2012 Dalya and her mother Rudayna fled Aleppo for Los Angeles as war took over. Months before, Rudayna learns a secret that destroys her marriage, leaving her single at midlife. Arriving in LA, Dalya enrolls as the only Muslim at Holy Family Catholic High School. Can mother and daughter remake themselves while holding on to their Islamic traditions?Slums: Cities of Tomorrow
IMDB 6 | Apr , 2014
One billion people on our planet—one in six—live in shantytowns, slums or squats. Slums: Cities of Tomorrow challenges conventional thinking to propose that slums are in fact the solution, not the problem, to urban overcrowding caused by the massive migration of people to cities. (Lynne Fernie, HotDocs)Matthew Stafford: Locked In
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2024
Centers around the second half of the Rams' 2023 season, when they come back from Bye Week with a 3-6 record, requiring them to win almost every remaining game.The Go-Go's
IMDB 7.2 | Mar , 2021
As the first all-female band to play their instruments, write their songs and have a No. 1 album, The Go-Go’s made history. Underpinned by candid testimonies, this film chronicles the meteoric rise to fame of a band born in the LA punk scene who became a pop phenomenon.Rebuilding Paradise
IMDB 6.1 | Jan , 2020
On November 8, 2018, a spark flew in the Sierra Nevada foothills, igniting the most destructive wildfire in California history and decimating the town of Paradise. Unfolding during the year after the fire, this is the story of the Paradise community as they begin to rebuild their lives.Angkor et Les Mystères de L'Empire Khmer
IMDB 7 | Nov , 2022
The Center Of The Universe
IMDB 10 | Jan , 2004
The Center Of The Universe chronicles four days in the life of German climber Alexander Huber in Yosemite Valley, California. Living the typical Yosemite vagabond lifestyle, Alex reflects on his goal of successfully free-climbing "El Corazon" (35 pitches, 8a) on the famous El Capitan face, which is a combination of the historic routes "Salathé," "Albatross," "Son of Heart," and "Heart Route," connected by newly laid out sections. 35 challenging pitches, combining technicality, stamina, and commitment, with difficulty levels up to 8a. The film showcases the unique style of climbing in Yosemite, as well as a piece of history of the famous valley, narrated by Heinz Zak, Jim Bridwell, Lynn Hill, Alexander Huber, and Chongo Chuck themselves.Helvetica
IMDB 7.2 | Sep , 2007
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type.Paname: The Ghost of the Great Frenchman
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2018
Ferdinand de Lesseps, known as “The Great Frenchman”, will embark in the greatest adventure of his life: To unite the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through a Canal in the Isthmus of Panama – without knowing that this will cost him his reputation, thousands of innocent lives and the biggest financial scandal of all time, up to that point: the famous “Scandal of Panama”. Today, the French capital is known as “Paname”.Folkhemmets Estetik
IMDB 0 | Oct , 2020
Documentary about the architecture of the Swedish housing boom in the 1960s and how it's viewed today.I will make up a song and sing it in a theatre with the night air above my head
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2019
Egypt's only modernist architect Hassan Fathy (1900-1989) was committed to ecology and sustainability in his architecture. This film takes us with slow steps, in still images, to two villages he created. Fathy's historically grounded, forward-looking designs prompt us to reflect on the past as well as contemplate new solutions for the future.Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
IMDB 7.3 | Oct , 2016
56-year-old artist Mindy Alper has suffered severe depression and anxiety for most of her life. For a time she even lost the power of speech, and it was during this period that her drawings became extraordinarily articulate.The American Sector
IMDB 0 | Feb , 2020
A documentary about the concrete sections of the Berlin Wall that have been acquired by institutions or individuals since 1989 and are now scattered across the USA. Cherished or abandoned, they have become silent witnesses to recent history.Wiener Barock - Der Architekt dreier Kaiser
IMDB 9 | Mar , 2024
Heat Wave
IMDB 6.2 | Aug , 1990
A rookie black journalist investigates the tensions of the Watts section of Los Angeles in the bloody summer of 1965.Out of Print
IMDB 5.7 | Aug , 2014
A documentary exploring the importance of revival cinema and 35mm exhibition - seen through the lens of the patrons of the New Beverly Cinema - a unique and independent revival cinema in Los Angeles.Towards the South, A journey around earthen architecture and André Ravéreau
IMDB 10 | Jul , 2020
Across two countries, France and Algeria, and five cities, Mohamed Gholam takes us south to tell us about the earthen and vernacular-inspired architecture of André Ravéreau. Passing through Lyon, Marseille, Algiers, and Djelfa, this adventure will take us to Ghardaïa, in the Algerian desert. The documentary presents the following buildings: L'Orangerie in Lyon, the Village Terre de l'Isle-d'Abeau in Villefontaine, the Unité d'Habitat or Cité Radieuse in Marseille, L'Aérohabitat in Algiers, the Palais des Raïs or Bastion 23 in Algiers, the Hôtel des Postes in Ghardaïa, and the low-cost housing of Sidi Abbaz de Bounoura.Tadao Ando
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1988
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.Sunnyside
IMDB 0 | Feb , 2026
Ninety-year-old sound artist and comedian Henry “Sandy” Jacobs lives a quirky existence at the end of Sunnyside Drive, a steep and winding dirt road washed by fog from the Pacific Ocean. Sixty feet down the hill lives his eccentric 84-year-old friend and neighbor, architect and former Frank Lloyd Wright collaborator Daniel Liebermann. These extraordinary old men, influential artists in the 1950s and ’60s, continue, each in their own way, to search the world for perfection. Sunnyside takes us to an extraordinary place, a microcosm with its own distinctive rhythm and remarkable inhabitants. It is a film about creativity, the capacity to dream and, ultimately, the transience of life.Behind the Walls of the Forbidden City
IMDB 8 | Mar , 2024
Secluded from view by nine-meter-high walls and composed of 980 buildings, the Forbidden City in Beijing is the largest imperial palace ever built in the world. Three majestic structures form its center and host the city's ceremonies, each of which is considered an architectural masterpiece. In 1406, construction of the Forbidden City was launched at the initiative of one of China's most powerful sovereigns and founder of the Ming dynasty: Yongle. Endowed with divine power, the construction has already resisted more than 200 earthquakes.