SKIN OF GLASS/PELE DE VIDRO (Denise Zmekhol 2023) - MILL VALLEY FILM FESTIVAL

A daughter's journey seeking her architect father

Remember Nathaniel Kahn's 2003 film My Architect: A Son's Journey? If not seek it out: it's one of the most thrilling documentaries of of self-discovery of the past quarter century. This new film by Denise Zmekhol is a little like that. In My Architect, the illegitimate son of the great but wayward architect, Louis Kahn, goes on a lengthy cinematic, documentary search for his late father, who died of a heart attack in a railway station. It's a wonderful journey of discovery and a moving revelation of his father and tribute to his greatness as an architect second to none.

Denise Zmekhol comes to Brazil, to São Paulo, where many years ago her father, Roger Zmekhol an architect, a Syrian immigrant to the country, created up a storm, completing 250 designs before dying of a heart attack when Denise was only fourteen.

His most notable and visible building, right in the center, created when Roger Zmekhol was only 32, was called the "Pele de Vidro," the Skin of Glass: 24 storeys, all of glass, imported, tinted, luminous and full of promise and hope. It was a brilliant building, a masterpiece of midcentury modern, with a bold, sinuous stairway rising in the middle of the ground floor. This building takes Denise or her journey. But first there is a portrait of her father and her family when she was growing up, and a separation, and then another one. The need for a cinematic reunion is painfully clear - but also the importance of documenting the artistic legacy of her father. The many examples of his work, in drawings and in photographs show him to be a little-known master of the period.

The Skin of Glass was a particular gem, but, like some other architectural masterpieces - including some of Louis Kahn's - though in the center of São Paulo, it was never quite able to live up to its full potential. It developed financial problems early on, and wound up as a result in the possession of the government; later on occupied by the police, later abandoned, then occupied by homeless people, one of many such buildings, but perhaps the most ill-maintained and dangerous one in the city. Five years ago, while Denise was still waiting to receive permission to be arranged by leaders of the homeless organization to come and meet the inhabitants of the building, the Pele de Vidro caught fire and was destroyed: seven people died and many were missing.

The film now becomes a study of homelessness, of economics, of Brazilian politics: but it never ceases to be intimate, warm, personal, and more and more involved. Like a lot of the best documentaries, it takes the filmmaker to unexpected places.

This film, like the building it celebrates, also is a gem, and I found it very moving just how personal and intimate it remains right to the end. Particularly recommended for anyone interested in architecture, in midcentury modern, or in contemporary Brazil.

Skin of Glass/Pele de Vidro, 89 mins., was screened as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival, where it won the audience award.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.