Coming soon: A movie you can't watch on Netflix
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
A live-narrated documentary brings Yo La Tengo and director Sam Green to Philly.
Ed Dittenhoefer/Ithaca Times
Oscar-nominated director Sam Green (The Weather Underground) is bringing his "live documentary," The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller, to Philly on April 4. If you don't watch it then, you might not ever see it.
Inspired by old travelogues, TED talks and the Benshi Japanese tradition, Green will narrate his film about the futurist in-person as he selects images to project from his laptop; Yo La Tengo will accompany him with a live score.
Like his second live documentary, Utopia in Four Movements, Green's latest is concerned with a big thinker committed to improving the world. Expelled twice from Harvard, R. Buckminster Fuller went on to become a leading architect/inventor who became famous for popularizing geodesic domes.
If Green's approach seems unconventional, he has a good reason for it.
"The idea of people watching a movie about utopia at home alone — there's something heartbreaking about that," Green said in an interview with The New York Times. "I'm a big believer in the form coming out of the material."
So, catch Love Song while you can. There will be two screenings on April 4: one at 7 p.m., the other at 9 p.m. Tickets ($29) go on sale March 1 at fringearts.com.
Utopia in Four Movements from UM Stamps School of Art & Design on Vimeo.
