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Structuring Strategies: Heinz Emigholz: Schindler's Houses 7:00 PM, April 8, 2008 Schindler's Houses For the past 15 years, the idiosyncratic Berlin filmmaker Heinz Emigholz has created a series of films documenting the work of certain 20th-century architects for whom he feels a special affinity. What attracts him particularly is the complex organization of interior spaces and the spatial relations between a building and its immediate surroundings. So this encounter with the "space architecture" of fellow maverick Rudolph Schindler, who practiced in Los Angeles from 1922 to 1953, seems not only natural but almost inevitable, and Schindler's Houses has become the most popular of Emigholz's architecture films, even as his rejection of all the clichés and conventions of architectural photography has sparked controversy. Schindler's Houses is also a witty and incisive portrait of Los Angeles, perhaps the best documentary about the city ever made. In person: Heinz Emigholz "I would happily rank Schindler's Houses on the short list of essential modern movies about our city's physical and social geography." Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly Born in 1948 near Bremen, Heinz Emigholz studied drawing in Hamburg. Since 1973, he has worked as a freelance film maker, artist, cameraman, actor, author, publisher and producer in Germany and the United States. He has published a number of books, given lectures and has had many exhibitions and retrospectives. In 1974 he started working on the encylopedic drawing series The Basis of Make-up. In 1978, he founded his own production company, Pym Films. Since 1993, he has been teaching experimental film directing at the Berlin College of Arts. His most recent film, Loos Ornamental, premiered at the Berlinale in February 2008. A major exhibition of his series The Basis of Make-Up recently appeared at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany, from December 2007 to February 2008. More information: pym.de. For the first time, five different venues in Los Angeles are joining efforts to present a week of events centered around this remarkable filmmaker. Over the week, nine films from his Photography and Beyond series will be screened with Emigholz in attendance. Started in 1984, Photography and Beyond consists of formally rigorous, revelatory films that examine artistic creativity. It is a series of twenty-five films about art and design - "projections" that become visible as writings, drawings, photography, architecture and sculpture. In the films devoted to architecture, Emigholz states, he "look[s] at architectural spaces that I believe have been sorely neglected by 'architectural history'." What attracts him particularly is the complex organization of interior spaces and the spatial relations between a building and its immediate surroundings. The films presented in the Los Angeles film series trace a history of direct influences: Rudolph M. Schindler (1887-1953) studied with Adolf Loos (1870-1933), who was influenced by Louis H. Sullivan (1856-1924). Emigholz's cinematic "archives" of these architects' existing buildings, with minimal commentary, provide a rare opportunity for careful contemplation and study of the space, light, and materials of architecture. "I believe that everyone perceives space differently and that art and structure arise out of the perception of these nuances," Emigholz says. "The world reveals itself to us, and we show each other the world--not just different facets, but our different views. During peacetime, this is an endless process that deserves to be loved." [Notes expanded from a text by Kathy Geritz, Pacific Film Archive]. |