Leading documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit welcomed to campus

Gary Hustwit has recently released a book of transcripts from the hundreds of hours of interviews which didn't make it into the Design Trilogy called Helvetica / Objectified / Urbanized: The Complete Interviews.

Wed, 04 Mar 2015 11:13:00 GMT

Filmmaker and photographer talks about his Design Trilogy and his latest project, The Olympic City

Gary Hustwit's guest lecture STUDENTS from the School of Art. Design and Architecture met the renowned independent filmmaker and photographer Gary Hustwit (pictured left) when he paid a special visit to the University recently to give a lecture about his illustrious and varied career.

A former independent book publisher Gary founded the film production company Plexi along with business partner Sean Anderson in 2001.

A year after the launch of Plexi, Gary produced his first award-winning film called I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, a documentary about the band Wilco with director Sam Jones. Since then he has produced a further eight documentaries.

After making his directorial debut in 2007 with Helvetica, a documentary about graphic design and typography, he received a nomination for the Truer Than Fiction award at the Independent Spirit Awards. It was this film which then marked the beginning of a design film trilogy, with Objectified, about industrial design and product design following in 2009, and Urbanized, about the design of cities, in 2011. Gary has recently released a book of transcripts from the hundreds of hours of interviews which didn't make it into the Design Trilogy called Helvetica / Objectified / Urbanized: The Complete Interviews (as seen above).

He is quoted as saying in an interview with Dwell magazine: “I like the idea of taking a closer look at the things we take for granted and changing the way people think about them, whether it’s type or objects or whatever.”

Gary’s documentaries have been broadcast on American television channels OBS and HBO and on the BBC as well as other television channels throughout 20 countries and have been seen worldwide in 300 cities.

Projects at the moment include an on-going photography documentary called The Olympic City with fellow photographer Jon Pack. This project looks at the legacy of the Olympic Games in former host cities around the world to see what has happened to the amazing pieces of architecture, like the famous Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, once the events are over, the medals have been handed out and the Olympic flame extinguished (see the two photos below).

Gary’s accolades are aplenty. His films have premiered at several film festivals and he was named on the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. His film and photography has been included in many exhibitions including in New York the Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York as well as The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, the Design Museum in London and the Colette Gallery in Paris.

The Olympic City photo documentary