My Architect

A beautiful reflection of a life, through the lens of a son is endearing and the intercepting old-people moments are priceless and adorable. Kahn's buildings herald monumentality in the twentieth century landscape of architecture, with several touting him as the most important architect of the latter part of the 20th century. 

Kahn was uncompromising in his work ethic vowing to achieve clarity and truth in his design, but his personal life was wrought with chaos and a life filled with secrets. He died penniless in the mens room of Penn Station in New York, leaving only three families and three children from three seperate women to his name. His youngest son, an illigitimte child Nathaniel embarks on a journey to discover his fathers buildings as well as the man behind them, through is friends, his encounters and his collegues. In the end, it is made clear that it wasn't only his buildings that touched all those who encounter them and will conitue to, but his person, was the greatest design of all. Nathaniel's journey leads him to Philly (Louis' hometown), New Jersey, New York, California, Jerulesum and Bangladesh, where he would eventally finish his joureny. His encounters include the likes of Kahn's former lovers, legitmate and illigitamte children alike, and other cameos peppered throughout the film from the likes of Frank Gehry, I.M Pei and the late Philip Johnson, in what I must say, is an untimely encounter. A jewish immigrant from Estonia, whose face and hands were permanently scared from an accident early on in life. You learn about the price of genius and how that effects the people that ar around everyday My Architect (2004) slowly peels back the layers of this mysterious life from an enigma of a man. An enigma so puzzling even his own son finds it perplexing to piece it all together. 

It is a poetic portryal of a great men with iconic buildings, but most of all its a son's journey to discover who his father really was, in what was essentially the messiest legacy any son could have potentially inherited and uncovering home truths that haunt both parents and children alike. In a documentary with the emotional impact of a dramatic feature film (including an original orchestral score), Nathaniel’s personal journey becomes a universal investigation of identity, a celebration of art and ultimately, of life itself.