This event is part of MODERNISM AS CHARACTER, a three-part series of screenings, conversations, and discussions, featuring Modernist design, buildings, landscapes, allied arts, and ideas organized by Docomomo Chicago and the Gene Siskel Film Center. 

NEUTRA: Survival Through Design is a comprehensive documentary into the 125 year life, work, and times of Austrian/American Architect Richard Neutra (1892-1970) – the legacy which continues to this day through the work of son Dion Neutra.
 
We begin in 1892 Vienna when Richard Neutra was born- and take you ‘inside’ to his most important works- the Luckenwalde Forest Cemetery, his first built ‘house’ design in Berlin, working with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin, Rudolph Schindler’s Kings Road House, the family home VDL House in Los Angeles, and the Palm Springs Kaufmann House. Our illustrious cast of  ‘storytellers’ include the family- sons Dion and Raymond Neutra, Barbara Lamprecht, Thomas Hines, Alan Hess, Volker M. Welter, Harriet Roth, and ‘Starchitects’ Norman Foster, and Moshe Safdie. Join us on this eye opening journey into the life, work and times of Richard Neutra.

About the Director

PJ LetofskyPJ Letofsky is a Director, Producer specializing in International Art and Culture documentaries. Including ‘Neutra- Survival Through Design’' on Austrian American architect Richard Neutra (2019). ‘Tarkovsky: Time Within Time’, on the Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky (2015). and ‘Polly’s GlobalWalk’, on his sisters’ 5 year walk around the world for Breast Cancer, (broadcast on PBS (2010). PJ was born and raised in Minneapolis and studied piano and photography from age 6. He started Directing/ Producing with his Minneapolis cable show TV Party (43 episodes) covering the local arts scene. A seasoned pianist singer songwriter, PJ had his rock bands on the road for 12 years before moving into film, studying at UCLA.

We require proof of full vaccination or a negative result on a COVID PCR test for all screenings and events at the Film Center. See our full COVID-19 policy and details below. 

COVID-19 SAFETY PROTOCOLS