It may not have the crossover appeal of Fahrenheit 9/11 or Capturing The Friedmans, but this is another of 2004's impressive documentary offerings.
My Architect sees director Nathaniel Kahn spend five years trying to make sense of the life and work of his late father Louis Kahn, one of 20th-century America's most influential architects. Interviewing his dad's mistresses, children, colleagues, rivals and employees, Kahn assembles a complex personal portrait. Louis, it emerges, was a nomadic eccentric who secretly juggled three families (they didn't meet until his funeral in 1974), leaving massive debts despite his professional success.
Kahn tours the monumental buildings that this hard-working Estonian Jewish immigrant created, including the startling Capital Complex in Bangladesh, while also piecing together the puzzle with recollections and newsreel footage. Yet Louis remains an intriguing, enigmatic figure, his questing son never quite able to pin down the man or the parent.
NO VERDICT
