USA Projects

I am seeking support for the post-production costs related to Architecture in Crisis-- a feature-length observational documentary film about student designers learning in the social context of the affordable housing crisis in Austin, TX.  Specifically, the project captures a relationship between a University of Texas architecture studio and two affordable housing providers: the Guadalupe Neighborhood Corporation (GNDC), and the Clarksville Neighborhood Development Corporation(CNDC). Under the “Alley Flat Initiative,” a program whose purpose is to combat gentrification, students are tasked with designing an environmentally sustainable, economical and contextually relevant residential dwellings for the back of existing homes owned by GNDC and CNDC. The students have real clients, a real site and the possibility that one of their designs will be built.

Austin is experiencing an epic affordable housing deficit, resulting in an unprecedented flight of persons with generational ties to culturally significant neighborhoods. Guadalupe, for example, is historically working class Mexican American community segregated by I-35, a freeway that marks the city’s east-west divide. Clarksville, another neighborhood defined by cultural specificity, was founded as a freed slave community. Today, home prices exceed $500,000, and very few African Americans remain. The loss of the core community in Clarksville sets a haunting precedent for Guadalupe residents and the city as a whole harkening a similar demographic—and therefore cultural—shift.

As a visual artist and graduate student in Sustainable Design, I recorded footage using the rules of observational filmmaking. Such an approach takes its mandate from the subjects. The documentary seeks to be a window to the real, a critique of the staged documentary, “reality TV” and corporate agendas. For me, this process is about seeking moments of revelation—connections and shared relationships in which the real is able to unfold and affect the viewer’s capacity to learn. Therefore, this film is not an infomercial for the Alley Flat Initiative. It is the unfolding of an intricate and vital social process.

At this time, I am fundraising for the editing and post-production costs. The shooting process is complete, and the footage has been catalogued and organized for editing to be begin. I am seeking funds to hire producer/director/editor  Sam Wainwright Douglas http://bigbeardfilms.com to oversee editing and co-produce. Sam’s most recent film Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of the Rural Studio was broadcast nationwide on PBS in 2010. Sam brings over fifteen years of filmmaking experience. His knowledge is essential to structuring the footage and most importantly to helping distribute the film to an international network of architects, designers, urban planners, community organizers and general audiences he built through the distribution of Citizen Architect.

Also of significant cost will be the specialist needed for sound mixing, color correction, music and titles. Dave Johannes http://johannesdesign.com/ is a designer whose expertise will be tapped to create the website, titles, animations and packaging for the film.  Dave specializes in user experience and visual/graphic design, he has a background studying urban environments and architecture.  He will also oversee production of the project website as a digital platform for distributing the film. The website will also be leveraged to arrange community screenings and to promote face-to-face interaction between activists, artists, and residents in socio-economically threatened communities.

I believe with supporters, donors, lots of elbow grease and the expertise of Sam Douglas and David Johannes, we can create not just a film, but an idea bank—an open framework in which we can witness, ponder, learn and continue to advocate for socially responsible design.

Thank you so much for conscidering this project and to all the people who helped us get this far ESPECIALLY the  ALLEY FLAT STUDIO and its partners!

Patrick Bresnan