The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America’s most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products, from splints for wounded military during World War II, to photography, interiors, multi-media exhibits, graphics, games, films and toys. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age – has been less widely understood. Narrated by James Franco, Eames: The Architect and the Painter is the first film since their death dedicated to these creative geniuses and their work.

 

In collaboration with the Camden International Film Festival, the Farnsworth Art Museum co-presents the documentary film Unfinished Spaces. The film tells the story of three young, visionary architects who were commissioned by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to create Cuba's National Art Schools in 1961. Dancers, musicians and artists from all over the country reveled in the beauty of the schools, but as the dream of the Revolution gave way to reality, construction was abruptly halted. Forty years later the schools are in use, but remain unfinished and decaying. Castro has invited the exiled architects back to finish their unrealized dream. Director of Education, Roger Dell, will lead a post-film conversation with directors Alysa Nahmias and Ben Murray.