SHREVEPORT ARCHITECTURE DOCUMENTARY- There was a press conference in the Remington Suite Hotel lobby in downtown Shreveport yesterday. The purpose was to announce a world premiere screening of a documentary focusing on two local Shreveport men whose work has made a global impact in the world of post-modern architecture. Local filmmaker Gregory Kallenberg announced the film "Unexpected Modernism: The Wiener Brothers Story" will have its first showing at Shreveport's Strand Theater on April 2nd.
Brothers Samuel and William Wiener are local architects credited for bringing post-modern architecture to the United States with Shreveport being one of the first places for it. The film was produced by The Louisiana Architecture Foundation, the North Louisiana Jewish Foundation and Rational Media, a Shreveport production company headed by local resident Gregory Kallenberg.
"These two brothers built incredible buildings right here in Shreveport, Louisiana,"explained Kallenberg."Buildings that are significant on a global scale. They brought post-modern architecture to this city."
Kallenberg also said Shreveport has the largest collection of post-modern architecture still standing in the United States. Shreveport native and local architect Christopher Coe agrees.
"Shreveport is a unique city in the south in that we have a very deep architectural legacy,"Coe said. "And the thing that's remarkable that we perhaps don't think about very often is that the buildings that the Wieners created really impacted our daily lives in every single way that you could possibly imagine."
It took two years to shoot the documentary, which includes interviews with members of the Wiener family and architecture experts. “Unexpected Modernism: The Story of the Wiener Brothers” world premiere will be Thursday, April 2nd at the Historic Strand Theatre, in downtown Shreveport. Tickets may be purchased online at The Strand Theatre's box office, thestrandtheater.com
Louisiana Architecture Foundation / Unexpected Modernism Film trailer
