Sketches of Frank Gehry

Mongrel Media Presents

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 Bobby Fisher, Sense and Sensibility, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain. In 2000, Anthony Minghella became a partner in Mirage Productions.

Pollack is a founding member of The Sundance Institute, The Chairman Emeritus of The American Cinematheque, a sustaining founder of The Film Foundation of the Director’s Guild of America, and on the Board of Directors for The Motion Picture and Television Fund Foundation.

Filmography

Director:  2005 - The Interpreter  1999 - Random Hearts  1995 - Sabrina  1993 - The Firm  1990 - Havana  1985 - Out of Africa  1982 - Tootsie  1981 - Absence of Malice  1979 - The Electric Horseman  1977 - Bobby Deerfield  1975 - Three Days of the Condor  1974 - The Yakuza  1973 - The Way We Were  1972 - Jeremiah Johnson  1969 - Castle Keep  1969 - They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?  1968 - The Scalphunters  1966 - This Property Is Condemned

Producer:  2003 - Cold Mountain  1999 - Random Hearts  1997 - Sliding Doors  1995 - Sabrina  1993 - The Firm  1990 - Havana  1990 - Presumed Innocent  1988 - Bright Lights, Big City  1985 - Out of Africa  1984 - Songwriter  1982 - Tootsie  1981 - Absence of Malice  1977 - Bobby Deerfield  1974 - The Yakuza  1973 - The Way We Were

Cast:  2002 - Changing Lanes  2000 - Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures  1999 - Eyes Wide Shut  1999 - Random Hearts  1992 - The Player  1982 - Tootsie  1961 - War Hunt

Participants Buildings Filmed

Philip Johnson The Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain Sir Bob Geldof The Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles Barry Diller DG Bank, Berlin, Germany Michael Eisner Der Neue Zollhof, Dusseldorf, Germany Dennis Hopper Fred & Ginger, Prague, Czech Republic Michael Ovitz Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany Milton Wexler Experience Music Project, Seattle Esa-Pekka Salonen The Fish, Barcelona, Spain Ed Ruscha The Spiller Residence, Venice Chuck Arnoldi Frederick R Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis Julian Schnabel Loyola University Law School, Los Angeles Peter Lewis The Gehry Residence, Santa Monica Mildred Friedman Davis House, Malibu Herbert Muschamp Winton Guest House, Wayzata, Minnesota Hal Foster O’Neill Hay Barn, San Juan Capistrano Charles Jencks Sirmai-Peterson Residence, Thousand Oaks Norman Rosenthal Thomas Krens Rolf Fehlbaum

A Frank Gehry project in Toronto

Art Gallery of Ontario Transformation AGO 317 Dundas Street West

Architect Gehry Partners, LLP

Project Cost $254 million

Size 583,000 square feet total; nearly 200,000 square feet new and renovated space

Timeline 2005-2008

Project Summary Because art matters, Transformation AGO is creating innovative art experiences while contributing to the cultural vitality of Toronto, Ontario and Canada. The Art Gallery of Ontario is building on the strengths of our collection and venturing into bold new areas. In 2008 the Gallery’s permanent collection will increase to 50,000 works of art, among them Kenneth Thomson’s gift of more than 2,000 extraordinary Canadian and European works.

In Transformation AGO art will meet architecture with a design by Toronto-born, internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry, featuring elegant, light-filled galleries. The project will provide 47 percent more exhibition space within more than 100 galleries.

The new face of the AGO will stretch a full city block along Dundas Street West in a dramatic sweep of glass and Douglas fir, enclosing a grand sculpture promenade with views to and from the city. Gehry’s most significant design initiative is to realign the main entrance with the historic, centrally located Walker Court, where a new, spiralling staircase will take visitors to the new Centre for Contemporary Art. A new street-side meeting place will feature a contemporary art space, a fine restaurant, a casual café and bar, a two-level gift shop and bookstore, Jackman Hall lecture theatre and the new Members’ Lounge.

In a transparent museum, inside and out, visitors will see art displayed, studied, stored, conserved and created. With breathtaking new art, a spectacular new building and exciting new ideas about display and interpretation, the transformed AGO will be a preeminent art museum and an international cultural destination.

Support for Transformation AGO has been provided by the Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario through the Canada-Ontario Infrastructure Program, combined with generous contributions from individuals and corporations. This special public/private sector partnership creates the necessary momentum to make Transformation AGO a reality.