Name: Googie
Start: 2026-04-18T19:00:00-05:00
Location: Dave Barber Cinematheque

Googie
Director: Jake Gorst
2026, USA, 59 minutes
A definitive feature-length documentary on a pivotal chapter of Modern architecture, this Design Onscreen production directed by award-winning filmmaker Jake Gorst explores the bold, exuberant world of Googie design. Emerging in mid-20th-century Los Angeles, Googie transformed coffee shops, bowling alleys, banks, churches and car washes into futuristic icons, influenced by visionary architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner and propelled into the commercial mainstream by firms like Armet & Davis. With its sweeping rooflines, dramatic angles and optimistic embrace of modern materials, Googie reshaped streetscapes across America and captured the spirit of a car-centred, postwar culture. Though many landmarks have been lost, a growing preservation movement now recognizes Googie as a vital and distinctly American expression of Modern design, a legacy this film celebrates through the voices of leading historians and cultural commentators.
Jake Gorst is an award–winning documentary filmmaker and writer. Since 2002, Jake and his producing partner Tracey Rennie Gorst have created a body of work that explores architecture, art, design and cultural history for theatrical, streaming and public television audiences. He is the author of Andrew Geller: Deconstructed (2015, Glitterati, Inc) and has contributed writing to The Architect’s Newspaper, VOX Hamptons, HOME Miami, Modern and Modernism magazines.

Sponsor: 1X1 architecture
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1161539973
Screened as part of the Architecture+Design fIlm Festival adff.ca