Design documentaries

A documentary on the safety of nuclear storage.

A look beyond blueprints and computers into the art and science of design, showcasing great designers from every discipline whose work shapes our world.

The relationship between Charles Eames and his wife Ray ignited a burst of design ingenuity whose impact on the world can still be felt over half a century later.

The life of a fictional actress and the paintings of Edward Hopper illustrate 30 years of American history.

Monsieur Hulot curiously wanders around a high-tech Paris, paralleling a trip with a group of American tourists. Meanwhile, a nightclub/restaurant prepares its opening night, but it's still under construction.

A documentary about typography, graphic design, and global visual culture.

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

Traces the development of the Bauhaus movement (1919-1933) from its formation in Weimar by Walter Gropius to the establishment of the Bauhaus School in Dessau to its last stand in a derelict factory in Berlin.

This is the story of companies who engineered their products to fail.

It is a documentary portrait of Dieter Rams, one of the most influential designers alive, and a rumination on consumerism, sustainability, and the future of design.

This captivating exploration of Alvar Aalto, the defining figure in Scandic design and one of Europe's greatest modern architects, focuses on his remarkable and loving partnership with wife, Aino. Theirs was a profoundly humanist vision that put people at the centre of design, and ranged from work in furniture design through to huge architectural projects. They mixed with, and influenced, major figures of modernist art and design including Le Corbusier, Gropius, Moholy-Nagy, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Come on a cinematic tour of their iconic buildings all over the world, from a library in Russia, a student dormitory at MIT, an art collector's private house near Paris, to a pavilion in Venice. Narrated by experts in the field and featuring never before seen archive footage, Aalto tells the love story of an extraordinary couple with a great passion for human scale architecture.

An in-depth look into the exploding subculture of sneaker collecting and the widespread influence it has had on popular culture around the world.

A documentary on two of the world's most influential designers -- Lella and Massimo Vignelli.

Mixing animation with live-action, Saul Bass' "Why Man Creates" is an eight-part meditation on the nature and struggle of creativity.

Profiles Milton Glaser (1929- ), America's foremost graphic designer: designer of the iconic "I [heart] N.Y." logo, teacher, and humanitarian. Interviews with Glaser are arranged to take him through a rough chronology of his life: study at New York High School of Music and Art and at Cooper Union, a seminal stay in Italy, his marriage, and his various partnerships - founding Push Pin Studios and "New York" magazine, designing Grand Union supermarkets, and working with "The Nation." Interspersed are examples of his work. Glaser is, throughout, charming in manner, memorable in his observations, and generous of spirit.

A documentary that explores how the digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent of people in an unprecedented way.

A portrait of New York artist Keith Haring.

At a time when most American cityscapes are dominated by computer created signage, Sign Painters takes a close look at the past, present, and hopeful future of the hand paint sign industry in the USA.

How LA Learned to Love Modern Art. A lesson in how a few renegade artists built an art scene from scratch.

This documentary follows the lives and careers of a collective group of Do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world.

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.

ART & COPY is a powerful new film about advertising and inspiration. Directed by Doug Pray (SURFWISE, SCRATCH, HYPE!), it reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time -- people who've profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry. Exploding forth from advertising's "creative revolution" of the 1960s, these artists and writers all brought a surprisingly rebellious spirit to their work in a business more often associated with mediocrity or manipulation: George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, Hal Riney and others featured in ART & COPY were responsible for "Just Do It," "I Love NY," "Where's the Beef?," "Got Milk," "Think Different," and brilliant campaigns for everything from cars to presidents. They managed to grab the attention of millions and truly move them. Visually interwoven with their stories, TV satellites are launched, billboards are erected, and the social and cultural impact of their ads are brought to light in this dynamic exploration of art, commerce, and human emotion.

In rural Alabama, architecture students cross the threshold of poverty to build communities, not just structures, and leave snakebit to make a better world.

A documentary that chronicles artist and activist Ai Weiwei as he prepares for a series of exhibitions and gets into an increasing number of clashes with the Chinese government.