Bantam Cinema & Arts Center is holding a special event in its Storyteller Series on September 25, featuring a screening of the film New England Modernism at 7 p.m., followed by a Q&A with the film’s Emmy Award-winning producer Jake Gorst
Get tickets on the Bantam Cinema website.
Between the 1930s and 1970s, American Modernism established an exciting and provocative footing in New England. By the 1940s the work of American master Frank Lloyd Wright and European newcomers such as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius influenced generations of young architects and inspired a surprisingly large catalog of important buildings throughout the region. Architects Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes and many others led the charge. Dive deeply into this rich pool of talent whose buildings still hold international influence, despite the constant threat of redevelopment. These works tell the story of New England Modernism, a story rich with beauty, imagination, creativity and industriousness.
Litchfield is an unexpected hub for Midcentury Modern architecture, a contrast to the town’s well-known colonial and historical homes. This architectural legacy is largely due to the influence of Marcel Breuer, a prominent Bauhaus architect, and his contemporaries who built several homes in the area.
Notable examples include Stillman House I & II. Designed by Marcel Breuer and John M. Johansen, respectively, these adjacent homes were built for the Stillman and Huvelle families, who were friends of the architects. Stillman House I is particularly famous for its commissioned mural by artist Alexander Calder, a friend of the Stillmans.The legacy extends beyond residential structures. Breuer designed Litchfield High School, for example, and Harvard Five architect Eliot Noyes designed the 1965/66 modern addition to the Oliver Wolcott Library, which also incorporates the 1799 Oliver Wolcott Jr. House.
Jake Gorst is an Emmy® award winning documentary filmmaker and President of Mainspring Narrative Films. Over the last two decades, he has produced and directed 11 feature-length documentaries, including Frey: The Architectural Interpreter (2020), Modern Tide: Midcentury Architecture on Long Island (2012), and Desert Utopia: Midcentury Architecture in Palm Springs (2006). His films Farmboy and Leisurama have both been in national PBS broadcast distribution. The author of Andrew Geller: Deconstructed (2015, Glitterati, Inc.), Jake has also been a contributing writer to The Architect’s Newspaper, VOX Hamptons, HOME Miami, Modern, and Modernism magazines.