Mongrel Media Presents SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY DIRECTED BY SYDNEY POLLACK “I prefer the sketch quality, the tentativeness, the messiness, the appearance of in-progress rather than the assumption of total resolution and finality..” Running time: 82 mins Distribution 1028 Queen Street West Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6J 1H6 Tel: 416-516-9775 Fax: 416-516-0651 E-mail: [email protected] www.mongrelmedia.com Publicity Bonne Smith Star PR Tel: 416-488-4436 Fax: 416-488-8438 E-mail: [email protected] High res stills may be downloaded from http://www.mongrelmedia.com/press.html Synopsis “Sketches of Frank Gehry" is director Sydney Pollack's first feature length documentary on the acclaimed architect, Frank O. Gehry. The two men have been friends for many years, and Pollack completed the film over a period of five years, starting in 2000. Frank Gehry loves to sketch; it is the beginning of his architectural process. And it is his love of the sketch that gave Pollack his first clues to the style of this documentary film. Beginning with Gehry’s own original sketches for each major project, the film explores Gehry’s process of turning these abstract drawings, first into tangible, three-dimensional models, often made simply of cardboard and scotch tape, then into finished buildings of titanium and glass, concrete and steel, wood and stone. To capture the sketch quality in the documentary, Pollack uses a combination of film and Mini DV (digital video) as his media. Spending countless hours in Gehry’s studio, on building sites, and in his home, this unobtrusive and quiet shooting style has captured, for the first time, the essence of Gehry’s unique architectural process, and his shy and elusive personality. As a counterpoint to the deliberate informality – the sketch quality – of Pollack’s work with the video camera, he painstakingly captures on film, the grandeur of Gehry’s architecture, from his earliest building, a hay barn in California, to what are now recognized to be some of the great buildings of the modern era, including the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The dialogue between Pollack and Gehry, as intimate as that of any two friends of long standing, courses like a continuous melodic line through the film. At the heart of the film is the low-key, informal quality that Pollack brings to his conversations with Gehry, and the many other participants in the film. This is not a film about rarified architectural theory. On the contrary, Pollack’s ability to pierce the skin of architectural theory allows him to draw deep insights into the life of this extraordinary architect and his singular architectural process. Sydney Pollack and Frank Gehry, Bilbao, Spain Frank Gehry Frank Gehry is that rare kind of architect who has garnered both critical acclaim and popular fame. His designs dramatically blur the line between art and architecture, yet the strong appeal of his sculptural designs does not obscure the role of function. Gehry’s is a painstaking process of subtle vision and revision, both in his famous sketches and in his models. Born February 28, 1929, in Toronto, Frank Owen Gehry is one of the most inventive and pioneering architects working today. Based in Los Angeles—where he relocated with his family in 1947—he has developed a unique vocabulary that reflects both the urban vernacular and his long association with contemporary artists. In 1954, he received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Southern California and in the years immediately following, worked in a number of firms including Victor Gruen Associates and Pereira and Luckman Associates. After brief studies in urban planning at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design and a year in Paris working for André Rémondet, Gehry returned to California and opened a small office in Santa Monica in 1962. His earliest work evolved from a Modernist idiom suggesting the varied influences of such pioneers as Harwell Hamilton Harris, Richard Neutra, and Frank Lloyd Wright. His distinctive formal vocabulary developed in early residential commissions in which he explored the expressive potential of humble materials and infused the architectural envelope with a sense of movement. As his practice expanded, the scope of his commissions grew to include exhibition design, furniture, libraries, office buildings, restaurants, schools, and visual and performing arts venues. In 1989 Gehry was awarded the Pritzker Prize, the pre-eminent award in architecture, as well as the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, its highest honor. In 2001, Gehry was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Institute of British Architects. The award of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989 brought increased recognition, and the years following have been among the most productive and rewarding of Gehry's career. The introduction of sophisticated computer software in the early 1990s has facilitated the construction and engineering of complex building systems and successfully translated the gestural quality of his work from model to built form. Frank O. Gehry & Associates has grown to over 140 employees, and the geographic terrain covered by the firm's work includes the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States. Works Completed Exhibit Center, Merriweather Post Pavilion, and Rouse Company Headquarters, Columbia, Maryland, USA (1974) Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California, USA (various buildings, 1978-2002) Santa Monica Place, Santa Monica, California, USA (1980) Edgemar Retail Complex, Santa Monica, California, USA (1984) Chiat/Day Building, Venice, California, USA (1985-1991) Vitra Design Museum. Weil am Rhein, Germany (1989) Frederick Weisman Museum of Art, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA (1990) Iowa Advanced Technology Laboratories, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA (1987-1992) Center for the Visual Arts, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA (1993) American Center, Paris, France (1994) The Dancing House ("Fred and Ginger"), Prague, Czech Republic (1995) Anaheim ICE (formerly Disney ICE), Anaheim, California (1995) Team Disney Anaheim, Anaheim, California (1995) Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (1997) Der Neue Zollhof, Düsseldorf, Germany (1999) Vontz Center for Molecular Studies, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (1999) DG Bank building, Pariser Platz 3, Berlin, Germany (2000) Experience Music Project, Seattle, Washington, USA (2000) Gehry Tower, Hanover, Germany (2001) Issey Miyake, Flagship Store, New York, New York, USA (2001) Peter B. Lewis Building, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA (2002) Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, USA (2003) Maggie's centre, Dundee, Scotland (2003) Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California, USA (2003) Ray and Maria Stata Center, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (2004) Pritzker Pavilion, Millennium Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA (2004) MARTa, Herford, Germany (2005) IAC/InterActiveCorp West Coast Headquarters, Sunset Strip, West Hollywood, California, USA (2005) In progress Art Gallery of Ontario renovation, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (2004) Museum of Tolerance, Jerusalem, Israel (expected completion in 2008) Science library, Princeton University Ohr-O'Keefe Museum, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA (open 2005; all buildings expected to be complete by 2007) Panama: Bridge of Life Museum of Biodiversity, Panama City, Panama Inter-Active Corp. Headquarters, New York City SYDNEY POLLACK Acting as Director, Producer, and Executive Producer, Sydney Pollack’s films have received 46 Academy Award® nominations including three for Pollack for Best Director, and two for Best Picture. Out of Africa won seven Oscars®, including Best Picture and Best Director for Pollack. Sketches of Frank Gehry is Pollack’s first feature documentary. His films include The Interpreter, Random Hearts, Sabrina, The Firm, Out of Africa, Tootsie, Absence of Malice, The Electric Horseman, Three Days of the Condor The Way We Were, Jeremiah Johnson, and They Shoot Horses, Don’t They. Pollack won the New York Film Critics’ Award for his 1982 film Tootsie, and the David di Donatello Award for Three Days of the Condor. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Director twice, the National Society of Film Critics’ Award, the NATO Director of the Year Award and prizes from the Brussels, Belgrade, San Sebastian, Moscow, and Taormina Film Festivals. He served as President of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and was honored by the French Government with the Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. The American Film Institute voted Tootsie the #2 Comedy of all time and The Way We Were and Out of Africa were both included in the AFI’s top 100 Romantic Films of all time. In 2000 he was awarded the Directors Guild of America John Huston Award by the Artists Rights Foundation. As an actor, Pollack has appeared in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives, Robert Altman’s The Player, Robert Zemeckis’ Death Becomes Her, Steve Zaillian’s A Civil Action, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Roger Michell’s Changing Lanes. On television he has appeared on Mad About You and Will & Grace. In 1985, Pollack formed Mirage Productions. Under that banner he has produced the films Presumed Innocent, The Fabulous Baker Boys, White Palace, Major League, Dead Again, Searching for