Film: ‘A Plea for Modernism’

New Orleans is known for its 18th- and 19th-century Creole cottages and Victorian shotgun houses, but it also has a rich history of modern work. Filmmaker Evan Mather, of A Necessary Ruin, has just finished A Plea For Modernism about 30 Modern public schools built in New Orleans in the postwar years. Only four are left, and three of those are threatened by demolition, including the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School in the Tremé neighborhood, which is scheduled to go down this summer. The 30 original schools were “characterized by innovations in circulation, lighting, and ventilation,” says narrator Wendell Pierce, an actor on HBO’s The Wire and Treme. They were “inventive designs that were of a place, by a place, and for a place.” Phillis Wheatley was designed in 1955 by architect and professor at Tulane University Charles Colbert (1921–2007). It suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but not damage from flooding, because of its elevation above the ground. Last year it was put on a watch list by the World Monuments Fund, and Docomomo Louisiana is currently advocating for its restoration and adaptive reuse. • vimeo.com/23565526