About this Event
$15 AIA Member // $25 General // Student, $5
Directed by P.J. Letofsky, Neutra: Survival Through Design is a comprehensive documentary encompassing the 125 year life, work and times of Viennese-American architect, Richard J. Neutra, FAIA (1892-1970) — the legacy which continues today through his youngest son, Raymond Neutra. From Richard's upbringing in ‘Imperial’ Vienna in 1892, his 1920’s Berlin/Bauhaus days, to Los Angeles in 1925 via Chicago working with Frank Lloyd Wright, Rudolph Schindler, and his road to become the preeminent Modernist Architect of our day, this film is a personal, passionate, cross cultural, colorful story. Join this rare conversation with Filmmaker P.J. Letofsky and Architectural Historian Dr. Barbara Lamprecht as we take a journey down an eye-opening journey into the life, work and times of Richard Neutra.
Image: Kauffman House
Presenters
P.J. Letofsky is a Director, Producer specializing in International Art and Culture documentaries. Neutra- Survival Through Design on Austrian American Architect Richard Neutra, debuted in Berlin, and Palm Springs Modernism Week in 2019. It won the Newport Beach FF Audience Award, and screened at Toronto Hot Docs, Rotterdam ADFF, Sao Paulo Mostra FF, Milan Design FF, Vancouver Intl, Tallinn Estonia’s Kumu Museum, and more (before covid kicked in). Tarkovsky: Time Within Time, based on the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky’s Diary, was filmed in Moscow, Rome, and Paris, premiering in Sao Paulo 2015. His first film, Polly’s GlobalWalk, on his sisters’ 5 year walk around the world for Breast Cancer, premiered for the Mayo Clinic, and was broadcast on PBS (2010).
PJ was born and raised in Minneapolis and studied piano and photography from age 6. He started Directing/ Producing with his Minneapolis cable show TV Party (43 episodes) covering the local arts scene. A seasoned pianist singer songwriter, PJ had his rock bands on the road for 12 years before moving into film, studying at UCLA.
Dr. Barbara Lamprecht is a Pasadena-based “qualified architectural historian” specializing in the rehabilitation of Modern buildings and preparing national and local designations and Mills Act contracts. Lamprecht is the author of Neutra: Complete Works (Taschen, 2000), Neutra: Selected Projects (Taschen 2004), Richard Neutra: Furniture: the Body and the Senses (Wasmuth, 2015), and the introduction to a new edition of Neutra’s prescient Survival Through Design. She has taught all periods of architectural history and lectures widely at venues including the National Building Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute. Lamprecht earned an M.Arch. at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and her Ph.D. in architecture at the University of Liverpool. Her dissertation explored Richard Neutra’s late nineteenth and early twentieth century roots in neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and landscape, especially explicating his philosophy of biorealism. As a rehabilitation project manager, she has overseen or consulted on many Neutra houses; the rehabilitation of the former Garden Grove Community Church (Rev. Robert Schuller’s “drive-in church” and now part of Christ Cathedral); and cowrote the Historic Structure Report for the Jardinette Apartments (Hollywood), a four-story reinforced concrete International Style designed by Neutra with Rudolf Schindler in 1929.
Written, Directed, and Produced by P.J. Letofsky
Executive Producer Christopher Ball
European Producer Peter Rabitz
Camera by Andrew Parke; Music by Kubilay Uner
Produced by Newcastle Productions, USA (2019)
English Language (no subtitles); Run Time: 104 min Filmed on location in Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Vienna, Berlin, Locarno, Wuppertal, London, Chicago
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Center for Architecture + Design, 140 Sutter Street, San Francisco, United States
USD 0.00 to USD 21.71