My Father, the Genius

Yes ... I give this a 10/10 ... check my movie list and you'll see I do not give many.

Glenn Small an architect, a father, video-biographied by his daughter, a young woman whose two sisters and mothers were left by Small who seemed to repeat this pattern. Family, friends come and go, but the work is there forever he says. You can tell Small has some talent and passion for architecture, and a certain charisma that allowed him, not much of a success in life, to have many relationships with women, two families, and inspire many architectural students.

This movie has so many contradictions in it, it is sort of maddening, until you realize, it is not just a movie. This is the kind of movie that we should all be seeing more of. This is a first ... a close in examination of spaces in a life ... a bit like the movie "My Architect" whose producer son had a similar experience ... what is it with these architects anyway.

Very good movie, I recommend it, I respect the creator for having the courage, the heart and the wit to make this movie and present it with clarity and objectivity. Wow.

This daughter takes on a huge task: being fair to a father who emotionally neglected his children in a film seen by the public. That she did it well is to her credit. Screened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the movie was commented on by the film-maker Lucia Small who handled our questions. She shows her father with his own words, amidst his beautiful architectural works. She also interviews the siblings and the ex wives, ex-girlfriends, all muses to his work, but secondary. "Relationships come and go, " he says, "but the work is forever." "But what about the children" she asks, "What about them?" "Oh, they come and go as well, and sometimes they give you great pain." That remark is followed up at the end of the movie by a phone message that you hear while looking at a painting of his work: "I was not the father to you that I could have been."

Of course, this shows somewhat of an arrogance, since he is implying that he knew what to do. As a parent who also worshipped at the fake god, 'Career" and emotionally neglected her 5 children, I know that skill with a computer does not easily translate to skill in raising 'small people'....no pun intended. Lucia Small was the film-maker and she told us that her father's only complaint about the movie was, "It doesn't show enough of my work."

See this excellent movie with your children, and start a conversation with them about it. In the midst of daycare, school, tennis lessons, etc., etc. and our own long work-hours, they grow up having separate lives and we don't really know them. This might help you in that very important effort.

Having said that, I must also report that she told us her siblings were creative productive adults. One son, a carpenter is shown implementing the architectural plans of his father. How symbolic: the germ of an idea by the father is brought into being by the carpenter son, as the sperm issued by the father produced the son.

So how about the benefits of 'benign neglect'? And is 'happy' something you want your grown children to be in this world? See the movie....listen to your kids' opinion of it. And reflect.

While it was very interesting to get a bit of the architectural history of Los Angeles in that period and the beginnings of Glenn Small's career, I found myself increasingly frustrated with the fact that no one seemed to recognize that this guy is pathologically incapable of feeling emotions about anyone else, and that his attitudes about women were unconscionable. His attitudes were not just arrogance and self-centerdness, they were pathological--perhaps Asperger's or something similar? But I did think the daughters were tremendously forgiving of him. What a dreamer he was/is--and, of course, the problem with those who think they are uncompromising geniuses is that they end up not being able to produce much actual work to PROVE that they are geniuses. It's all in the actions, in the end. But Lucia Small should be congratulated for confronting such an emotional subject via film. It's a good thing she had that phone message to play at the end--in which he actually says "I love you"! Otherwise I felt he should have been completely ostracized from human society...

From its inception, this documentary was bred from ego. The only reason it was made was because the director's (Lucia Small) father, architect Glen Small requested a biography be written so he will have a documented legacy. When Small requested that she make a documentary instead, he agreed. This agreement paved the way for a work that not only showcases the architect's work, but explores his failed relationships with his families as well. Smalls' two sisters are interviewed, as are the subject's two ex wives and former girlfriend. One thing I would like to have seen was an inclusion of the children from his second marriage, to see if the same issues were prevalent.

There is no denying that Glen Small is a talented architect. He has an intriguing vision and a bold style. We find that while he considers himself a genius and is shocked that his art has not been showcased, (although we see several interviews and magazine/newspaper articles written about him) we are not so much told, but shown in these interviews how egotistical and combative he can be for the sake of his art.

While Glen Small is not in the upper echelon of architects, his work was extremely interesting to view and even more exciting when he is discussing it. His attitude and admitted shortcomings aside, his daughter presents his work and life in a skilled manner and created her own work of art along the way.

--Shelly