Eliot Noyes was a trailblazing industrial designer, architect, and lifelong innovator who spent four decades introducing the design principles of modernism to American life. Noyes’ artistic legacy was overshadowed by his corporate legacy, as the film documents his increasing level of influence at IBM via his lifelong ambition to demystify design, stripping away unnecessary and superfluous flourishes in favour of simple, organic design. Director Jason Cohn (Eames: The Architect and Painter) interweaves Noyes’ family life with his professional achievements and larger cultural shifts in general, exploring how aesthetic principles of design and modernism were integrated into daily life and society while anchoring the film in Eliot Noyes’ fascinating biography.
From illuminating interviews with surviving friends and family to unearthed archival footage and expert analysis, the film explores how Noyes’ Bauhaus-inspired ideals about social-centred design revolutionized the corporate world until the counterculture movement challenged its results. Eliot Noyes’s story opens up a window into the heart and soul of modernism and industrial design in postwar America.
Presented by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Sebastian Roché
USA
2023
English
At The Cinematheque
At Fifth Avenue
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Producer
Camille Servan-Schreiber
Screenwriter
Jason Cohn
Cinematography
Hans Bouma, Richard Chisolm, Eric Coughlin, Mario Furloni, Jason Longo, Petr Stepanek, Thorsten Thielow
Editor
Jason Cohn, Kevin Jones
Original Music
Steven Emerson
Jason Cohn
Jason Cohn is a writer, producer and director who has worked in print, radio, television, and film. He is the Peabody Award-winning director of Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011) and The First Angry Man (2019), which traces the roots of the American Tax Revolt to a California ballot initiative. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Rolling Stone Magazine. He is a two-time finalist for the Library of Congress-Levine-Ken Burns Prize for Documentary Film.
Filmography: Eames: The Architect and the Painter (2011); The First Angry Man (2019)
Portraits
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