The Noguchi Museum’s “First Fridays” program of evening hours, free admission, art, and, beginning this year, film, begins on June 1. Every Friday at 6 pm, visitors may participate in “Center of Attention,” a guided discussion of a single work of art on view at the Museum. The film program, presented in collaboration with the Architecture and Design Film Festival, begins at 7 pm.
The 2012 schedule of films is as follows:
June 1
Minka
Directed by Davina Pardo (2011)
16 min; English
Directed by Davina Pardo, Minka is a 16-minute documentary about a remarkable Japanese farmhouse and the memories it contains. It tells the story of how in 1967 an American journalist and a Japanese student rescued the ancient house from the snow country of Japan, changing their lives forever.
True to Form: Vladimir Ossipoff Architect
Directed by Bill Kubota (2009)
30 min; English
A historical documentary commissioned by the Honolulu Academy of Art for its traveling exhibition of twentieth-century modernist architect Vladimir Ossipoff. Born in Russia, raised in Tokyo, and trained as an architect in California, Ossipoff exerted an influence on modernist architecture that looms large over Honolulu, the Hawaiian islands, and far beyond.
July 6
Public Farm 1: The Making of an Urban Farm
Directed by Lilibet Foster (2010)
18 min; English
Entering MoMA PS1’s prestigious Young Architects Program competition enabled WORK Architecture Company and the firm’s founders, Dan Wood and Amale Andraos, to build their refreshing, ambitious—and winning—design for a giant, elevated, solar powered, self-irrigated, self-sufficient farm, sited in PS1’s large entrance-courtyard. This would provide the required outdoor party space for visitors to the museum, while bringing produce to the nearby community. The camera follows them as they tackle technical difficulties, clashing opinions, bad weather, and a tight deadline in order to succeed, all while becoming farmers.
Ghost
Directed by Marcus Ricci and Soo Kim (2010)
20 min; English
Ghost is a two week design/build architecture program based in Kingsburg, Nova Scotia. For more than a decade, architect Brian Mackay-Lyons has led this workshop, bringing together architecture students, practicing architects, contractors, and a team of instructors from around the world to design and construct a building. Fueled by Mackay-Lyons’s unique perspective on design, education, and execution, the group combines their collective knowledge and creativity in erecting their structure. The result is a truly meaningful and lasting experience.
August 3
Louis Le Roy—Endless Work in Time and Space
Directed by Beate Lendt (2009)
14 min; Dutch with English subtitles
A portrait of the Dutch artist Louis Le Roy and his work the ecokathedraal (eco-cathedral) in a meadow in Mildam, in the north of Holland. Le Roy has been working on this project for more than three decades, creating structures by stacking paving bricks, stones, and other detritus as nature follows its own course around them. Le Roy discusses the philosophy behind this work and his idea of cities, nature, and the endlessness—and need for integration of—time and space.
Monument to the Dream
Directed by Charles Guggenheim (1967)
28 min; English
The Gateway Arch, designed by Eero Saarinen, is a beautiful, historic monument dedicated to the early pioneers who developed the West and the citizens who have contributed to the greatness of this country. Monument to the Dream traces the construction of the Arch from early concept on the draftsman’s drawing board to the fabrication of the stainless-steel sections in Pittsburgh and their subsequent cross-country journey to St. Louis, where foundations were being laid deep in bedrock. Feel the excitement of the onlookers on October 28, 1965, as the last section was put into place.
September 7
My Playground
Directed by Kasper Astrup Schröder (2010)
59 min; Danish with English subtitles
My Playground explores the way Parkour and Freerunning are changing the perception of urban space and buildings. Set mainly in Copenhagen, the film follows Team JiYo as its members explore the city and encounter the obstacles it presents. Award winning architect Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG Architects, is fascinated by the way Team JiYo interacts with architecture and takes the team to his buildings, to explore the structures and spaces and develop their skills. The film also travels from Denmark to Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, and China to explore where urban mobility is heading. Team JiYo has a dream of making the biggest dedicated parkour park in the world, but aren’t parkour and freerunning supposed to be in the city and not in a fixed environment?
General Information
The Noguchi Museum is located at 9-01 33rd Road (at Vernon Boulevard), Long Island City, New York. It is open from Wednesday through Friday, 10–5 (open until 8 on first Fridays of June–September); Saturday and Sunday, 11–6; closed Monday and Tuesday. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, free for children twelve and under and for all New York City public-school students. 718-204-7088; www.noguchi.org