DADo Online – DADo Film Society

Welcome to DADo Online.

What is DADo Online?

During this unprecedented time of isolation, DADo will be providing you with films that you can watch from home, for free. It’s not the same as watching films at the beautiful Walsh Street, but we hope it will be a good way to share films with you until we can get back to doing what we do best: screening great films and listening to great speakers in a beautiful setting.

How It Works

Every fortnight we aim to share with you 3 films on architecture, urbanism, and design, that you can watch from the comfort of your own home. With each release we will update our social media and add to the list below, with direct links provided to the source of the videos.

Donations

Our volunteer work at DADo has been supporting the Robin Boyd Foundation with tickets sold to our events since 2013. While Walsh Street is closed due to COVID-19 we won’t be able to hold the same events nor raise funds through our ticketing, and so we would encourage you to visit the donations page at the Robin Boyd Foundation website if you enjoy this content. We’d love to continue showing our support for the Foundation and hope you will too with a tax-deductible donation here.

Featured Films:

Norman Foster Interview:
Striving for Simplicity

Year: 2015
Run Time: 40m
Interviewed By: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Presented By: Louisiana Channel

“Quality is an attitude of mind.”

Norman Foster here reflects on a long and prosperous career – and life – with prominent buildings and more than 1,000 employees all over the world.

Louisiana Channel is a non-profit website based at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark. The Louisiana team produces videos about art and culture, including dozens of insightful interviews with prominent architects and artists from around the world, including Renzo Piano, Alejandro Aravena, Balkrishna Doshi, and many more.

Diébédo Francis Kéré Interview: Architecture is a Wake-Up Call

Year: 2014
Run Time: 5m
Interviewed By: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Presented By: Louisiana Channel

“Architecture is much more than art. And it is by far more than just building buildings”.

Meet award-winning architect Diébédo Francis Kéré from Burkina Faso in this interview about his architectural philosophy.

Jan Gehl Interview:
How to Build a Good City

Year: 2017
Run Time: 38m
Interviewed By: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Presented By: Louisiana Channel

“Architecture is the interplay between form and life. And only if life and form interact in a successful way, this will be good architecture.”

A wonderful interview with Danish architect Jan Gehl, who for more than fifty years has focused on improving the quality of urban life by helping people “re-conquer the city.”

Powers of Ten

Year: 1977
Run Time: 9m
Directed By: Charles and Ray Eames

Powers of Ten is one of the Eameses’ best-known films. Since it was produced in 1977, it has been seen by millions of people both nationally and internationally. In this film, Charles and Ray employed the system of exponential powers to visualize the importance of scale.

In 1998, Powers of Ten was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Solar Do-Nothing Machine

Year: 1957, 1995
Run Time: 2m
Filmed By: Charles and Ray Eames

In 1957, Charles and Ray designed the Solar Do-Nothing Machine for Alcoa, the Aluminum Company of America.

The machine was one of the first uses of solar power to produce electricity. When published in Life Magazine in March 24, 1958, the machine was described as a “forerunner of future solar-power machine” and was subsequently touted by the Aluminum Company of America as “an enchanting harbinger of more useful sun machines for the future.”

In the 1990s, Eames Demetrios discovered unedited footage of the wonderful machine. He cut it together to produce a new film that shares a bit of its flavor for future generations to enjoy.

Toccota for Toy Trains

Year: 1957
Run Time: 14m
Directed By: Charles and Ray Eames

This film delves into the world of toy trains, which Charles loved long after boyhood.

Charles wrote and narrated the opening to the film. He explains that, “In a good old toy there is apt to be nothing self-conscious about the use of materials. What is wood is wood; what is tin is tin; and what is cast is beautifully cast . . . It is possible that somewhere in all this is a clue to what sets the creative climate of any time, including our own.”

The concepts in the narration are more complex than they might seem at first glance. Charles is referencing the importance of “the honest use of materials,” an idea that he and Ray considered in ever one of their works.

Eames: The Architect and the Painter

Year: 2011
Run Time: 1h26
Directed By: Jason Cohn, Bill Jersey

“The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames were America’s most influential and important industrial designers. Admired for their creations and fascinating as individuals, they have risen to iconic status in American culture.

‘The Architect and the Painter’ draws from a treasure trove of archival material, as well as new interviews with friends, colleague, and experts to capture the personal story of Charles and Ray while placing them firmly in the context of their fascinating times.”

HOW TO WATCH: Kanopy is a service that partners with your local library to provide you free films. Sign up to Kanopy using your existing library card and gain access to a huge number of both educational and entertaining content!

Richard Leplastrier: Framing the View

Year: 2020
Run Time: 1h13
Directed By: Anna Cater

“Filmed over 15 years, this documentary [is] a powerful portrait of a seminal figure in Australian architecture.”

The 81-year-old Melbourne-born architect “… is the architect’s architect, refusing to become a ‘starchitect’. And while he designs beautifully crafted houses for his clients, his own lifestyle is closer to camping,” says the documentary’s creator. “Shunning the limelight, he tucks himself away in his one-room home in a remote estuary north of Sydney, only reached by boat.”

‘Framing the View’ follows Leplastrier from his house in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney to the construction of other homes in the city.

Artbound: Masters of Modern Design

Year: 2019
Run Time: 56m
Directed By: Akira Boch

“From the iconic typeface of “The Godfather” book cover to Herman Miller’s Noguchi table, the influence of Japanese American artists and designers in postwar American art and design is unparalleled. While this second generation of Japanese American artists have been celebrated in various publications and exhibitions with their iconic work, less-discussed are the effects of the WWII incarceration.”

In Residence: Sue Webster

Year: 2019
Run Time: 5m21
Directed By: Emile Rafael
Presented By: NOWNESS

“Step into the DIY punk artist’s ‘mole man house’—the former home of a notorious east London tunneller.”

“When an entire residential road lost power and an eight-foot sinkhole opened up in the street, the north London council of Hackney could no longer turn a blind eye to the rumours surrounding the ‘mole man house’—a property owned by notorious amateur tunneller William Lyttle.”

An amazing house renovated by David Adjaye, full of character with a fascinating story to accompany it. We’re featuring NOWNESS this week as a treasure trove of beautifully shot films about art, culture and design.

In Residence: Ricardo Bofill

Year: 2014
Run Time: 5m48
Directed By: Albert Moya
Presented By: NOWNESS

“How the Spanish architect built an empire out of a disused factory.”

“There are houses, and then there’s Ricardo Bofill’s house: a brutalist former cement factory of epic proportions on the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain. A grandiose monument to industrial architecture in the Catalonian town of Sant Just Desvern, La Fabrica is a poetic and personal space that redefines the notion of the conventional home.”

Atmospheric, bold, and captured beautifully in this film. We’re featuring NOWNESS this week as a treasure trove of beautifully shot films about art, culture and design.

Private View: El Racó

Year: 2007
Run Time: 4m53
Directed By: Marc Puig
Presented By: NOWNESS

“Inside the studio of Catalan ceramicist and Miró collaborator Joan Gardy-Artigas.”

“Throughout his illustrious career, Catalan sculptor Joan Gardy-Artigas has worked alongside some of the leading artists of the twentieth century, from Picasso and Miró to Giacometti and Chagall.”

A fascinating window into the life of an influential ceramicist. We’re featuring NOWNESS this week as a treasure trove of beautifully shot films about art, culture and design.

Urbanized

Year: 2011
Run Time: 1h25
Directed By: Gary Hustwit
Presented By: Oh You Pretty Things

A documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers.

Objectified

Year: 2009
Run Time: 1h15
Directed By: Gary Hustwit
Presented By: Oh You Pretty Things

A feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them.

Helvetica

Year: 2007
Run Time: 1h20
Directed By: Gary Hustwit
Presented By: Oh You Pretty Things

A feature-length documentary about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.

Jorn Utzon: The Man and the Architect

Year: 2018
Run Time: 1h30

This is the deeply personal and moving story about the world-renowned architect and his unique gift. Behind him stood the love of his life through 70 years, Lis. His children, close colleagues, and friends share anecdotes and experiences. It is the untold story about the man behind the famous uncompromising architect.

60 Minutes Interview: I.M. Pei

Year: 1987
Run Time: 11m

“The unnecessary amount of times she mentions his Chinese background is astounding” – a comment on this video.

We completely agree, but this interview from 1987 is an intriguing window in time to when I.M. Pei began construction of the Louvre Pyramid.

Buckminster Fuller: Thinking Out Loud

Year: 1996
Run Time: 1h30

A film that looks at the unconventional life of Buckminster Fuller, his innovations, and his radical view of the contemporary world. Best known as the inventor of the Geodesic Dome, Fuller had many other inventions, such as an air-streamed three-wheeled car, and had innovative ideas of how to ‘benefit mankind.’