An Evening with Heinz Emigholz

April 27

"Architecture projects space into this world. Cinematography translates that space into pictures projected in time. Cinema then is used in a completely new way: as a space to meditate on buildings."
– Heinz Emigholz

For the past fifteen years German experimental filmmaker Heinz Emigholz (b. 1948) has dedicated himself to an ambitious series of documentaries that focus on the work of visionary 20th century architects – a company that includes Louis Sullivan, Adolf Loos, Rudolf Schindler and Bruce Goff. In these films Emigholz defines a minimalist language that renders cinematographic the unique architectural environments created by these luminary architects. Disavowing traditional voice-over commentary, Emigholz reduces his soundtrack to ambient sounds and the acoustic experience of the spaces he explores. Refusing any single master shot, Emigholz offers a montage of carefully chosen architectural details that lead the viewer through a given building and towards a new appreciation of the light and space crucial to these architects' vision. In Schindler's Houses and Goff in the Desert, Emigholz not only enhances our understanding of a critical junctures in architectural history, discovering common themes in the work of visionary architects often considered to be eccentric exceptions to any historic tradition, but also points towards a deep affinity between film and architecture and the ways in which they deal with issues of time, space and narrative.

Special thanks to Adam Hyman of the Los Angeles Filmforum and the Goethe Institut Boston.

Special Event Tickets $10
Sunday April 27 at 7pm

Schindler's Houses (Schindlers Häuser)

Directed by Heinz Emigholz, Appearing in Person
Germany 2006, 35mm, color, 99 min.
German with English subtitles

Proceeding chronologically through forty of Schindler's still extant Los Angeles houses, Emigholz offers a hypnotically steady montage of images that reveal Schindler's unique approach to domesticity while also obliquely documenting the qualities of the homes' location within the verdant and concrete rhythms of the Los Angeles sprawl.

Goff in the Desert (Goff in der Wüste)

Directed by Heinz Emigholz, Appearing in Person
Germany 2003, 35mm, color, 110 min.

As with Schindler, the highly original and often controversial architecture of Bruce Goff has been steadily reappraised as one of the signature achievements of 20th century American architecture. For Goff in the Desert, Emigholz set out on a forty-day trip across the United States, documenting sixty-two of Goff's major and minor buildings and creating a rich catalogue that showcases Goff's singularly dynamic approach to form and space.